TxK (PS Vita) Review

When Shahid Kamal at Sony mentioned he brought Jeff Minter to PlayStation, I anticipated something insanely great coming soon. I’ve played Llamatron by Jeff a long time ago and even the mobile remake Minotron 2112. Jeff’s games are instantly recognizable and even though there are a plethora of clones of his work, none come close to the originals. When TxK for PS Vita was announced, I had no idea what Tempest was so I did a bit of Googling and I knew I wanted a form of Tempest on Vita as soon as possible. Fast forward to last week when I got TxK for Vita, I was grinning ear to ear a few minutes into it.

TxK is the reimagining of Minter’s classic, Tempest 2000.  The arcade shooter the Vita deserves is finally here. It oozes class. You control a claw like thing moving along the edge of different shapes based on the level and different kinds of enemies try and find their way up. The visuals are basically a healthy serving of the 80s vectors with some psychedelia thrown in. As the levels progresses, the enemies become harder and more unique. There are power-ups that you must collect by intercepting them as they slide up and these range from extra lives to an AI Droid that becomes your companion for that level. You can even get a jump power-up that helps when enemies have reached the top of the level. What’s an arcade shooter without a universal ‘destroy everything’ power-up right? Raptor had the mega bomb and TxK has the Smart Bomb. It gets you twice the points as well. After each level you are transformed into a single particle travelling across the galaxy in the game and you can use the Vita sensors to tile to center the particle or use the directional pad / analog stick to make sure you stay in the center for a bonus score.

The main mode you will be playing is the Pure mode that lets you start from the beginning and progress through the levels. Once you die, you can resume the game from the same level with a fresh set of lives and continue. You can also try and best your previous high score in the other levels. The other mode, Survival, gives you just one set of 3 lives to play through the complete game.

Lets get back to the presentation now.The game is full of neon coloured vectors and it may get a bit overwhelming for some people. I love it. Even the credits has that retro feel to it without being forced like some of the newer games that try to mime the retro style. The soundtrack is great and the first song you hear when you start playing will get the phrase “space is everything” stuck in your head. Jeff really outdid himself on the presentation and audio in this game. Make sure you use headphones while playing. Also, the official guide is worth checking out.

TxK is not just a great Vita arcade shooter but a great arcade shooter in general. It is everything you would expect from a Jeff Minter game and more. I do however wish the autosave took less time than it does when you launch the game. I can only imagine how good this will look using a Vita TV on a larger screen. Bravo, Llamasoft.