Llamatron: 2112 (Atari ST, 1991)
Minter’s take on the classic arcade shooter, Robotron, stars a heroic llama and camel as they try to rescue their animal friends from hordes of evil humanoid foes. When playing solo, the gamer can choose single-stick or twin-stick mode (the more authentic Robotron experience).
Co-op only works in single-stick mode, unfortunately. In this mode, the character normally fires in the same direction in which it’s moving. Firing while standing still, however, lets the player lock in a direction for strafing. Llamatron is actually pretty enjoyable despite the old-fashioned controls, and with 100 levels, players can get a LOT of llama shooting from it.
Revenge of the Mutant Camels (Atari ST, 1991)
If Llamatron leans towards a conventional game design, its contemporary brother, Revenge of the Mutant Camels, veers towards the experimental. Revenge is a remake of a Commodore 64 game that adds co-op and other enhancements. This one qualifies as a run-and-gun shooter, but a most bizarre one.
One player controls a mutant camel and the other controls a goat-man. The loveable pair will run and jump through 42 strange levels filled with interesting background objects like GameBoys and Atari Lynx consoles. Between levels, the camel fills its hump with water from a spigot, much like real-life camels do. The goat can actually ride on the llama somehow (a cool co-op maneuver), but we couldn’t figure out how to do it. Depending on your tastes, Revenge will either be too strange and clunky or just strange enough for a full playthrough.
Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar, 1994)
The centerpiece of this collection, especially among the co-op titles, is Tempest 2000. The first Tempest originated in arcades in 1981 and used a spinner instead of a joystick. Minter’s sequel retains similar gameplay but vastly improves the graphics and sound and adds several modes, including the “Tempest Plus” co-op mode.
Whether playing solo or co-op, players move their pincer-shaped ships around the edges of various vector-based levels. Enemies descend from the end of the level and advance towards the screen and the players. Should a foe reach the boundary of the level where players are located, they will advance and kill the player. Only the use of a “Superzapper” (bomb-style attack) will save the gamer in that scenario.
Tempest 2000 is stylish and interesting enough to warrant some solo and co-op attention, though this series has never been my cup of tea. It frustrates me that you can’t dodge enemies once they reach the front of the screen. Still, this game was considered a killer app in its day, and many old-timers will still love it. Oddly, Mintner dropped the co-op feature in his sequels, Tempest 3000 and Tempest 4000, neither of which are included in this collection.
Cool But Niche
Video game archiving and preservation is an important thing, and Digital Eclipse has done an excellent job of ensuring that gamers can experience the majority of Jeff Minter’s library of games on modern platforms. The documentary and emulation features are all as finely tuned as anyone could hope for. The only things holding Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story back are the obscurity and design of many of the collection’s games.
Most of the games here would be totally unknown to anyone who didn’t play European computer games in the 1980s and 1990s. Even if you’re open to playing new retro games, some of these titles are just too old-school and unintuitive to get into nowadays. Still, there ARE enough semi-modern and/or approachable games here to get your money’s worth. Heck, some folks might justify the purchase for Tempest 2000 alone, though that one is also available on the more mainstream Atari 50 collection. Bottom line: anyone who appreciates Minter’s works will have fun while learning from Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story costs $29.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam.
An Xbox download code was provided by the publisher for this review.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Laser Zone - The second turret can be controlled by Player 2. Llamatron: 2112 - In Team Mode you are joined by a friend, who happens to be a camel. You work together to get the beasties and trash the opposition. You share a common score and lives. Tempest 2000 allows you to team up with a friend in Tempest Plus-mode. Revenge of the Mutant Camels (only the Atari ST-version) lets a friend join you as a goat. If the camel sits down, the goat will climb ontop of it.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.