Thanks to Atari for the review code

Title: Quantum: Recharged
System: Steam (PC)
Price: $9.99
Release Date: 08/17/2023

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Prelude

Recently, we covered Atari 50 and Akka Arrh, two titles from Atari that aim to bring back their older IPs. I noted in the Akka Arrh review that another part of Atari’s recent comeback has been the Recharged series, which is a set of remade versions of several classic Atari titles, aiming to modernize those titles with new features while retaining their scorechasing focus.

After going through an initial batch remaking the usual, common Atari classics, a second batch has been gradually coming out over the past year, with more tweaks and features than the initial lineup, focusing more on obscure games like Caverns of Mars, Yars Revenge and Gravitar. Thus, Quantum joins this second wave of the Recharged lineup, and being based off an obscure title from the early 80s, it definitely comes off as an oddball pick. Still, it was a pretty fun trackpad game I enjoyed in Atari 50, so I was more than happy to see how the recharged treatment would apply to this game!

Presentation

All of the Recharged games use a similar artstyle, going for a neon look and feel while using simplistic shapes, not unlike other games by Sneakybox such as Ding Dong XL, and Quantum is no exception. The UI here is very clean, using the revised interface from Gravitar-onward, and looks really slick, offering some toggles for score bonuses and the like. The game itself looks bright and colorful, and really pops out on an HD screen, while also scaling nicely on the Steam Deck, running pretty smoothly as well when using Proton GE.

As with a lot of the Recharged games, the sound design is a bit of a mixed bag, with the soundtrack using a techno beat vibe present in the other entries, and while it sounds fine when playing the game, I wouldn’t call any of the tracks here memorable. Like most early Atari games, the original Quantum had next to nothing in terms of music to begin with, so all the tracks here are fully original.

Gameplay

Quantum Recharged, per the usual Atari Recharged standard, is split into two modes, with the main arcade mode being the endless scorechasing experience where you play for points and climb the leaderboards, with the option to turn on toggles to get bonuses if you increase the difficulty, and the Challenge mode, where twenty five stages await for you to clear in either single player or co-op.

Whichever mode you pick to ease yourself into the game, the controls are demonstrated in a lightning quick tutorial where the objective is simple: encircle the enemies with the left stick to create a vortext, with a dash technique to use in a pinch. And with the power of movement, you’re off! The game field will spawn enemies, and as you move around with the left stick, you can create those aforementioned vortexes to trap them in. These vortexes can be of varying sizes, as long as they’re a closed circle. Since your ship has a trail to it, the circle does have a limit to how big it can be, and using your dash to help close it up is a handy way of making the biggest vortex possible. Thus, you move around the playing field, circling over the enemies while dodging their attacks and movements, while dealing with increasing waves of foes.

This gameplay loop is remarkably simple, but what makes Quantum Recharged really click is just how smooth everything feels. While the original Quantum was a trackpad game, (and you can indeed enable a trackpad in this version, if you so wish) Recharged uses the left analog stick, and your movement is incredibly precise, which is a good thing in a game where circling foes is pretty much all you do. That doesn’t mean you just scribble circles like Pokemon Ranger and call it a day however, since the game also has a huge focus on multipliers and scoring. The more enemies you trap at once and the faster you do so, the higher the combo and the higher the multiplier. You could go small and simple to keep your distance from the increasingly trickier enemies, or you can take big risks to try and trap one more enemy in your vortex to earn more points, and this risk and reward factor really makes the formula of Quantum Recharged shine. Enemies also drop powerups when defeated, which can provide an assortment of benefits for your runs, such as an electric shock holding all the enemies in place, (though it makes trapping some even trickier if they happen to be hugging a wall) an extra shield for your ship, or a brief period of unlimited dashing without a cooldown.

Still, all of this circular fun would be one thing if it was a gradual build up from a slow start like a lot of scorechasers, but the best part about the more recent Recharged titles is you can make the score bonuses even crazier by adding onto the difficulty; in the case of Quantum, that’s going into the game with one health point and more enemies coming at you from the start. (There’s also an option to toggle a mode where you can’t die, but you gain less points and have a finite amount of time to play)

Once I toggled those options on and tried the OHKO challenge, Quantum runs became outright addicting. Super risky moves would lead me to dying again and again until I finally pulled them off, gaining crazy multipliers as I would gradually master the art of trapping enemies for big points. The longer you survive, the crazier the enemies become, from pulsing lasers to bulky obstacles, and all of the chaos you can inflict on yourself really makes this recharged game such an easy “one more game” experience. Having nabbed the third spot on the leaderboard by launch day, I’d like to think I did a really good job, yet I still feel motivated to best my score more and more, since the loop is just that addicting. Think the risk factor of Qix but with faster movement, and you have yourself a damn good scorechaser.

The best part is, that isn’t even all that Quantum has to offer! The challenge mode returns from previous Recharged titles, and consist of a fun variety of stages to play through, each with their own pre-configured waves of enemies for you to clear out, increasing in difficulty over time. While the main goal of these stages is to survive, you can even score chase these individual levels to try and get the best hi-score, and like with the main game, you can tackle these with a co-op partner to get a helping hand on the circular fun. (with revivals taking place if one of you grabs a shield upgrade while your partner is knocked out) While I still had a lot more fun with the main game than these missions, (which felt too short in comparison to the runs I was managing to nail) really every part of this game is just so well-crafted, and no matter how you jump in, you’ll be circling enemies and having fun with multipliers in no time.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Quantum Recharged manages to nail almost every possible aspect of an addictive scorechaser, while also manifesting all the lessons learned over the prior Recharged titles to make one hell of an addicting experience. Not only does it easily surpass the original Arcade game by adding some much needed depth and a risk/reward aspect, but the gameplay loop hooks you in so much that this recharged experience becomes nearly impossible to put down, with many of my plans of a quick game turning into several record-breaking attempts.

Circling enemies and chaining them together, making riskier and riskier moves to attain higher score bonuses all make for fantastic scoring potential, and online leaderboards plus a good amount of specialized challenges to take on lead to a very replayable package, and Quantum easily stands out as the best of the Recharged line to date. Despite being simplistic in concept with just movement and a dash to play with, Quantum Recharged’s scoring loop is just so addicting that you’ll gladly whip it out for a few quick play sessions.

I give Quantum Recharged a 9 out of 10.