137: TXK (PS Vita), Polybius (PS4)
Description
Ey up Pod-packLast Autumn, we gave Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story a 9/10 review (Episode 76). We couldn't get enough of the stellar gameplay and fascinating yarns provided by Minter via Digital Eclipse. We wanted more... Rather than head back into Minter's older back catalogue, we decided to take a look at some of the more recent video games which weren't covered on the Llamasoft compilation. Hand(held)ily enough, one such game is a PS Vita exclusive... kinda...TXK (2014, PS Vita) is a tube shooter based on Tempest, which had already been reimagined by Minter as Tempest 2000 in the mid 90s. TXK was a little TOO based on Tempest/2000 for Atari's liking and legal pressure ensured it never left the PS Vita. Fazz ignores those wrangles and concentrates on tube tangles instead.Next up, Rich wriggles his way through Minter's VR-enabled action shooter Polybius (2017, PS4) which performed well commercially and critically at the time. Interestingly, after this release, 'The Yak' & Atari decided to kiss and make up to release Tempest 4000 (2018, PS4). Tempest 4000 started life out as a VR version of TXK but Atari asked for the VR aspects to be removed and we were left with effectively an updated console version of TXK after all. What a kerfuffle!Speaking of kerfuffles, we round off proceedings with a conversation about the latest release from Digital Eclipse and why it has had a less than (Llama)soft landing. Enjoy the pod.







