Atari Announces Berzerk Recharged, A New Game Based On The 1980 Arcade Classic

An enhanced edition of the Atari 2600 game is also coming soon!

by Jack Yarwood Thu 5th Oct 2023

Atari announced earlier today that it has been working with the developers at Sneakybox on a new game based on the 1980 arcade classic Berzerk.

Berzerk Recharged is the latest in Atari's ongoing Recharged series — a series of modern reinventions of classic games from days gone by — and is slated to release later this year on PC, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Atari VCS.

It will see the return of Evil Otto, the infamous smiling face from the original game, who will chase players around a neon-lit maze filled with robots, lasers, and other deadly threats. The ultimate goal is to survive the endless maze of rooms for as long as possible in order to get the best score and try and end up on the online leaderboards.

Atari acquired the license to Berzerk and its sequel Frenzy earlier this year, and it seems from this latest news that they've wasted no time in getting a reboot off the ground.

Here are some of the key features taken from the press release:

-Challenge Accepted: Survive an endless maze of random rooms that get progressively harder the further you get. As intensity ramps up, the increasing difficulty is reflected in the robots’ changing color schemes.

-A-Maze-Ing Levels to Tackle: Shoot through 20 hand-crafted mazes that deliver unique gameplay challenges, each with different layouts to test your mettle

-Pumped Power-Ups: Pick up weapon modifiers, including a spread-shot, big shot, or a series-staple railgun. There are also player modifiers for speeding up, shield, and placeable mines to use against your rude and relentless enemies!

-Co-Op and Leaderboards: Like previous Rechaged iterations, players can recruit a trusty player two to double the firepower and aid in the onslaught if things get too dicey. Then, track your progress on the public leaderboard!

In addition to Berzerk Recharged, Atari also made another Berzerk-themed announcement within the same press release, revealing that it would be publishing an enhanced version of the Atari 2600 port of the game. This will include new additions such as robot voices, diagonal shooting, new explosion animations, and minor bug fixes. It will cost $29.99 and will launch on November 17, 2023, alongside the Atari 2600+.

1
Soupbones
Thu 5th Oct 2023

this looks awful. Berserk deserves better.

2
KGRAMR
Thu 5th Oct 2023

Compared to other entries in the Atari Recharged series, it doesn't look too Bad, although i like that we are getting an enhanced edition for the 2600.

It really makes you wonder if we'll see a new edition of, say, Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar, featuring the tracks that were featured in the OST CD that were cut from the final release due to memory constrains.

3
Daggot
Thu 5th Oct 2023

I'm torn on this. I get their desire to stick to the concept of simpler mechanics like the early games, but with some modern twists. I don't think it always translates well. I could see a game like Warlords would do better similar to how Yar's worked well. Looking at the video; this isn't it.

4
Azathoth
Fri 6th Oct 2023

I think they should have left the player and enemy sprites the exact same and just changed up the background and wall visuals. You can update visuals without looking like a circa 2008 flash game.

Not sure exactly how this is gonna play either. Changing this to a dual stick shooter makes a huge difference, making it play vastly different from the original.

5
Scollurio
Wed 11th Oct 2023

Takes me back to C64 games and playing Wizard of Wor!
Music creeped me out though. I was 7.

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