Atari unveils Berzerk: Recharged, the first Berzerk games since the 1980s
Earlier this year, Atari announced that it had acquired Berzerk, its sequel Frenzy, and 10 other classic arcade games. Part of Atari’s Recharged series, Berzerk: Recharged has now been revealed, coming to consoles and PC later this year.
The original Berzerk is a 1980 arcade game in which players controlled a top-down avatar while shooting through hordes of armed robots in an electrified maze. The big bad was the evil Otto, who jumped through the labyrinth as a huge smiley face and hunted down players. Atari says Otto is back in Berzerk: Recharged, “with updated graphics, slick twin-stick controls and a new soundtrack by the acclaimed Megan McDuffee.”
Check out Berzerk: Recharged for yourself in the announcement trailer below:
“Although he wears a menacing grin, Otto is a deadly, invincible, ever-present threat who offers only one real solution to survival: escape,” a press release said. “Paired with Megan McDuffee’s original soundtrack of sci-fi synthesizers, Berzerk: Recharged captures the atmosphere of a harrowing space station shootout – and a very groovy ’80s arcade game.”
Atari says Berzerk: Recharged’s mazes are made up of random rooms, and the intensity and difficulty are reflected in the changing color schemes of enemy robots the further you advance. There are over 20 mazes to play through, each with different gameplay challenges. To survive you will have to use different weapon modifiers like spread-shot, big shot or railgun as well as other modifiers like speed boosts, shields, mines and more.
Like previous iterations of Atari Recharged, Berzer: Recharged also features co-op play and a public leaderboard.
Atari has also unveiled Berzerk: Enhanced Edition, a 2600 cartridge version of the classic Berzerk game. It’s updated with diagonal firing, robotic voice sampling, and more, and will be released on November 17th alongside the new Atari 2600+, a replica of the original Atari 2600.
Berzerk: Recharged will be released later this year for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC.
Have you ever played Berzerk? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
