Black Widow: Recharged from Atari, Adamvision Studios, and SneakyBox is a new take on the classic 1980s arcade game. Check our Black Widow: Recharged review!
Black Widow: Recharged from Atari, Adamvision Studios, and SneakyBox is a new take on the classic 1980s arcade game. The original is a multidirectional shooter with vector graphics in which you had to destroy every single bug that put jeopardy the structure of your spiderweb. The game was offered as a conversion kit for Gravitar, an arcade game that was not as successful. It’s now 2021, and we’re getting a new take on the arcade classic through the same neon-tinted glasses as we did for Centipede Recharged, offering an Arcade Mode and a Challenge Mode.
The controls are simple so that you can focus on the neon-infused action on the screen. You’ll move your spider with the left analog stick and aim and attack with the right one. The R2 button can be used to attack if you decide to change the control settings – more on this in a bit. The L2 button is used for your special attack, which casts a giant web in front of your spider, destroying anything in its range.
You can also collect power-ups to increase your odds of surviving the onslaught. Destroy the enemy carrying a power-up, and you could find yourself with one that slows down all the action for you to have a few seconds to destroy as many enemies as possible, one that allows your spider to attack in front of you and sideways, a protective barrier that will destroy any enemy that comes too close for comfort, a burst shot attack that can cover a wide range in front of you, a mighty spread attack, and more.
As mentioned before, in Challenge Mode, there’s a series of, well, challenges you can work on completing, one challenge at a time. You will be asked to defeat 20 grenade bugs, survive for 60 seconds, kill 35 mosquitoes, destroy 40 thunderbugs, reach a score of 1,700 points, defeat 45 hornets, survive for 75 seconds while only using having the side attack power-up at your disposal, surviving hundreds of bugs making their way to the center of your spiderweb at once, and more.
When you go into the settings menu, you can configure your experience. You can play this one as a twin-stick shooter, change the vibration strength, deactivate vibrations, deactivate effects and screen shake, activate the color blind mode options for protanopia, deuteranomaly, or tritanopia, and change the volume balance. That way, more people can enjoy the game since sometimes flashing lights can prove to be bad for some people, and the colorblind mode options are good for those of you that suffer from any of said conditions.
There’s a full trophy list for you to work through as you play Black Widow: Recharged. It’s a short list with one Bronze trophy, three Silver trophies, and ten Gold trophies before you can add a new Platinum trophy to your collection. There are trophies for reaching 2,000, 4,000, and 6,000 points when playing in Arcade Mode for completing all challenges in co-op mode, surviving for 180 seconds, resurrecting an ally in coop mode, killing 20 enemies in quick succession, pushing an egg down the border of the screen, defeating five enemies with a single grenade bug explosion, preventing 100 eggs from hatching, or killing 2,000 bugs.
Black Widow: Recharged is a solid reimagining of the classic arcade game, expanded for a new generation. You can play it on your own or in co-op, either in the Arcade Mode or in the Challenge Mode, as you try to improve your skills and beat not only your own high score but that of players from around the world, offering a lot of replay value. Black Widow: Recharged is out on PlayStation 4 with a $9.99 price.
Disclaimer
This Black Widow: Recharged review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Atari.
