Me, playing this via Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration after having played several garbage Atari 2600, Jaguar, and Lynx games back-to-back, praying for a single good game.

Tempest 2000 rocks.

I'm not the biggest fan of the original 1981 Tempest, while I do respect it especially for the time. It's good arcadey fun, but there's something about it when compared with other games of its time. It just doesn't do much for me.

Tempest 2000 on the other hand feels like a clear definitive version of the game. The graphical effects are aged, but still incredibly cool and engaging. The classic version of Tempest is included with a slight graphical "upgrade" (vector graphics will never die), and the new "2000" version adds fun stuff like power-ups into the mix.

Overall, I love this a lot. It's one of the few games on the Atari 50 collection that fills me with the feeling of "I'd love to play this again sometime."

A core test of visual processing and withstanding information overload that is built not only into Tempest's core framework of tube shooting, but also into its proto-Y2K aesthetic. The aesthetic on its own is an inconvenience for a game such as Tempest; unlike Tetris Effect, which also adds an aesthetic aiming for spectacle, the proto-Y2K aesthetic here does not act as a visual layer underlying the core model to induce a "trance" state, but is instead more explicit and overwhelms the player's visual line with a slurry of neon explosions and score announcement pop-ups. Tempest's original arcade version also dealt with information overload, but was made somewhat manageable by default given the simplistic wireframe textures and lack of non-diagetic visual elements that may have been displayed with the player's achievements. Here, visual overload cannot be avoided and can only be combatted in the moment by the matter of the player's gradually improving visual discrimination. Although the spectacle here perhaps betrays the appeal of the original Tempest's minimalism, it also creates a continual duel between the impulse to give in to spectacle and the need to ignore such "distractions" in order to identify and eliminate targets. Aesthetic, here, acts as the lure and the weapon against the player.

𝙏𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙖 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙚𝙮𝙚

Bought Atari 50 just to own this physically. Tempest 2000 is a more than worthwhile follow-up to the original game with its fluid control, power-up system, greater enemy variety, and superior aesthetic sensibilities.

Basic movement is a joy! Your speed increases depending on how long you hold a given direction on the D-Pad. The sensitivity at the start is perfect for micro-adjustments, and the ramp-up to full speed is natural and thrilling.

Where this game gets nutty is the power-ups. They take the form of green dolphins (awesome!) and upgrade your ship's firepower and movement. Going for them adds a whole new layer to the Tempest formula. Their random nature ensures that the player is always making second-to-second decisions on how to best acquire/avoid them for positioning. Of the upgrades, my favorites are the jump and "Yes! Yes! Yes!". One lets you leap off the board to target enemies in your space, while the other gives you an easy drone if you manage to pick it up during a level transition. Learning each power-up and enemy type is a must if you want to reach Beastly Mode.

Can't recommend this game enough

Played as part of Atarti 50.

First decent game in ages, fuck. It's pretty alright, although the visuals are overcluttered and the control scheme is definitely worse than arcade. Even controlling this game with a mouse I thought was too much of a compromise to even bother trying to rate the original, so it's a shame that we're stuck with a dpad here, but in comparison to all the other dogshit in the past 10 or 20 so games in this collection I heartily welcome a marginally lesser port of a pretty good arcade game.

If this is the best Jaguar game, though, it's really emblematic of the entire experience. The only shit worth playing is worse ports of 15 year old arcade games, wow. What a way to sell a console.