Lunar Lander Beyond~ Factory Sealed Import

Atari has had a very interesting few years, publishing a critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary collection in the form of a playable documentary, the ‘Recharged’ series of neo-retro revivals, and a handful of unique reinventions of its classic IPs. Lunar Lander Beyond from Cris Tales developer Dreams Uncorporated is the gaming pioneer’s latest and most polished retro overhaul to date.

Lunar Lander Beyond casts itself as a reboot of Atari’s iconic 1979 arcade game in which players navigate a spacecraft toward the surface of the Moon rendered in glorious monochrome vector graphics, using thrusters to slow the ship's descent and ultimately land safely (easier said than done) to score points. It’s a dawn-of-the-arcade-era classic that demands patience and precision.

Atari and Dreams Uncorporated have taken that inspiration and run with it, reinterpreting and modernizing the original’s core premise against a vividly coloured backdrop of distinct galactic locales across its roughly eight-hour campaign. But its formula arguably fumbles with a story-first focus, rather than an arcade-style gameplay focus or additional mode, which feels like a missed opportunity.

Unlike the original, which is playable in Atari 50, Lunar Lander Beyond leans heavily on its plot – perhaps too heavily for some. While all dialogue sequences are skippable, each of the generally short missions is padded with exposition. Though there is not really a narrative connection to the events of the arcade original as some of the game’s trailers had implied, its movement mechanics feel true to its retro inspirations.

While the game’s physics and controls hit the mark, its missions encourage speedy completion and too often ended just as we were getting into the zone, so to speak. Navigating your spacecraft through obstacles to avoid enemy fire or nab supplies is quite meditative, but pacing issues become apparent when you’re repeatedly thrust out of the action into yet another dialogue sequence.