Publisher Atari and developer Dreams Uncorporated have revealed a brand-new narrative trailer for the upcoming Lunar Lander Beyond, a revival of the classic 1979 arcade title.
It's all very dramatic stuff, with distress calls, rescue missions, and mass evacuations, but at its core, the gameplay itself looks to retain the classic mechanics from the original. Let's just hope our heroic pilots don't stumble across some mysterious alien pods, hm?
There's no solid release date beyond a somewhat vague 'Spring 2024' window right now, but if you're a fan of the Atari classic, then it might be one to keep an eye on. For now, let's check out the key features:
Cosmic Artistry: Immerse yourself in Dreams Uncorporated's opulent sci-fi vistas, meticulously crafted in their signature hand-drawn style.
Celestial Quests: Embark on an interstellar odyssey, conquering 30 daring missions spanning five celestial bodies: Nueva Luna, Mars, Venus, Ganymede, and the enigmatic realm of Etimus.
Fully Personalized: Forge your own destiny with a myriad of pilot options, featuring procedurally generated characters and unique attributes. Choose from four one-of-a-kind ships, and customize them with a selection of a dozen enhancements.
Perilous Trials Await: Choose your destiny with four distinct difficulty tiers, where the highest, 'Insane', pushes the boundaries with the risk of permadeath — only the boldest dare tread this treacherous path.
What do you make of this one so far? Will you be checking out Atari's Lunar Lander revival? Let us know with a comment.
Comments 18
That's one of the teams that developed Cris Tales, isn't it?
Seems a bit over engineered for Lunar Lander, but I'm down for it. Between SEGA and Atari, I feel like a more nuanced and smart wave of remake/reimaginings of my childhood games is coming.
The Atari 50th Anniversary had a very nice combination of Vector games, Vctr Sctr, for instance (including a segment like Lunar Lander that my teenage son really enjoyed), and the Yar's Revenge thing with the hot-swappable graphics really hit me just right.
The new SEGA announcement of new entries from the old days looked really good.
Many of these games have been remade and copied again and again, but I feel like there are more hits than misses, lately.
Maybe it takes 30 to 40 years to really appreciate what made those game classics, so you can build around the core gameplay rather than slap the theme on something very different.
Maybe companies have seen Indies do a better job of remaking their own games, too, and realized they could get in on it.
Looking forward to more.
Honestly - that's a great trailer and if the reviews are good I'm all in b/c that looks fun (and frustrating I'm sure - it is Lunar Lander after all!)
Looks interesting. I guess it goes "beyond" what they're doing with their Recharged branding, so they called it something else.
This reminded me that a new game came out on the eshop recently, Moon Lander. I'm really curious how good it is. Have to go search for a video on youtube...
This looks nice. I didn't know how much I like lunar Landing until Timespmitters 2 had such an excellent mini game along with racing and the best version of snake I've ever played.
Can't wait to try this new lander in a few months.
Not putting it on VCS sucks but I'll pick it up eventually
With the addition of voice acting, this looks like Atari's first true AA game since the begining of their come-back in 2020. Everything before this was (for lack of a better term) "indie-level," though on about the same level as the Atari games of the 2600, oddly enough. Short, simple arcade stuff that could be pumped out quick. Days of Doom is the only real outlier, but that was a phone game Wade brought with him. This feels like the first true "big release" from Atari (excepting the excellent Atari 50 which is still just a compilation of old stuff. Even if it is the best compilation of old stuff ever) since 2015. Ironically, the last Alone in the Dark before the sold it and Desperadoes to THQ2.
@hippydave The Recharged games are part of the same partnership with Sneakybox. Hence the different branding for this and Orbit's Haunted House.
This is cool. I wish they could get the rights to Paper Boy, Food Fight or Joust…
@rockodoodle They are making a new Food Fight. It's going to be their attempt at a Battle Royale.
Ok this is definitely more up my alley from what I want to see Atari producing or commissioning as it just isn't a simple remake from the other "Recharged" line of titles and wants to try and make a genuine new title using the style of arcade and old titles and reformatting the gameplay to try and take it beyond a simple high-score title. Might check this out
Interesting and one to keep an eye on for me. So an evolved, new Atari game rather than a remastered recharged game (which I have largely enjoyed anyway).
I will defo be picking this up for sure. I have a bunch of “heli” games. Here are some of them. https://www.dekudeals.com/lists/vysh55
While this isn't the kind of "Lunar" game I'm used to (this is a joke about my avatar), I'm curious! I'll look more into this.
@Zeebor15 off topic somewhat, but on PS4 and Vita, there’s a spiritual successor to Defender that’s amazing….Resogun.
I am aware of the time Sony was better than Warner Bros legacy than Warner Bros. Which isn't a high bar to clear, but today i hate them more than Columbia.
@rockodoodle resogun rules
I am loving this Atari renaissance... it just, feels right. I look forward to more details for Lunar Lander Beyond, as well as future Atari productions.
It is nice to see Atari making some smarter moves and not relying totally on reissues of old games. The OG games have their place but the gameplay was not great on all of them. I would love to see Joust available again. I used to play this all of the time on my 5200. I am also looking at the Retrogames mini 800.
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