I don’t think I like Akka Ahrr, but I do recommend it.

I came into Llamasoft’s work as very much a twenty-first century American human slightly afraid to get spat upon by the beasties, but also enough of an animal lover and video game fan that I brought a towel. I started extremely intrigued by Christian Donlan’s Eurogamer review that compared Jeff Minter’s creativity style to an oil painting and gave Akka Ahrr five gold stars. Thus christening it Essential, I simply couldn’t ignore the entire Jeff Minter / Llamasoft journey.

So I set out to undo my ignorance and start in 1982 with Digital Eclipses collection, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Boy, has it been an enjoyable education, even if all of the games aren’t my jam. Thus, the journey is very recommended: especially pairing both Akka Ahrr and the Jeff Minter Story as a complete experience.

I should say what works and doesn’t work for Akka Ahrr before I sign off. My favorite thing is when I get perfect clarity: know what I need to do and that execution is the only gap needed to cross. Akka Ahrr constantly divides you between an assortment of priorities where the joy comes from discerning the order of importance correctly. With time, I could develop this skill, have my enemy particles driven before me and hear the lamentations of their fragmented pixels. Unfortunately my motivation just isn’t high enough to do so. For the ones who that perfectly scratches their brain itch, I see how it lights up like rainbow gold.

So again, not for me; but I recommend the ride.

Eu não sei o que joguei, mas tenho quase certeza que estava sóbrio enquanto jogava.

Falando sério, Akka Arrh é um bom (e facilmente viciante) shooter psicodélico.

Não há muito a dizer a não ser: escolha sua melhor forma de jogar e embarque nessa viagem sinestésica.
(PS: Após ter escrito me caiu a ficha que o título da janela do jogo pode fazer uma piada com outro sentido da palavra joint)

The challenge of Akka Arrh, as with most Llamasoft games, is to figure out what you need to pay attention to in each level. Separating signal from noise is a big part of that challenge, but there's almost always a cue. Sometimes it's a new enemy, sometimes it's a new dynamic with the board, sometimes it's a mixture of both. There's real brilliance in the rhythms and arrangements of each level and the way that they progress in sets.

It's a little uneven, however, and there were too many moments of cascading failure for my liking. The last few levels don't quite have the same satisfying balance as most of the rest of the game due to some sponge-y enemies and nasty combinations. It can be a little too easy to get caught with bullets from multiple directions. My irritation was often compounded by detonations that took place outside of my field of view.

Most of the time, though, that happened because of my own imprecision. I think it's probably Llamasoft's way of communicating to the player that they're being too trigger happy or off-rhythm with bombs and chains. It doesn't always work, but luckily, the ability to restart each level with one's best score and pods (read: lives) mitigates the frustration. It also encouraged me to go back to previous levels to outdo my score and accumulate a better restart for levels in which I was struggling. There's an excellent score tracking system in here, too, which seems inspired by watching speedrunners and cooking that together with a classic score chasing sensibility.

Finally, a note about the music and sound effects. As with most recent Llamasoft games, attention to sound cues is essential. Often, it's the only way to get a heads-up amidst the particle explosions and other visual noise. But Llamasoft has changed up the electro rave stylings of their games for a quieter, more emergent approach. It uses the game's sound effects and the rhythms created between their wave designs and timing and the players' actions. The results give Akka Arrh a distinctive soundscape that only adds to a wonderfully unique game.