45 Years Later, A Classic Atari Series Just Got A Bold Reimagining
Back from the grave.
If you really dig into the archives, you might remember Missile Command as the 1980 Atari arcade game inspired by The Cold War — where you use your own set of missiles to intercept incoming ones before they blow up your home. It’s not the most subtle of metaphors, but Missile Command did make for a thrilling arcade game, going down as one of the all-time classics. While we’ve seen updates, rereleases, and clones, Atari never really found a way to capitalize on Missile Command and turn it into something more — until now that is.
Missile Command Delta is a shockingly drastic reimaginging of the arcade game, turning its shoot ‘em up gameplay into turn-based tactics and mixing that with a narrative-heavy escape room style experience. And perhaps what’s most surprising is that it all works.
By far the coolest factor of Delta is how it reimagines Missile Command as both a puzzle mechanic and a narrative device. This two-pronged approach clearly separates the two halves of the game, but intrinsically links them.
In Delta, you play as a high-schooler named Skye who, along with her three best friends, decides to spend the night at the spooky abandoned bunker near their town. It’s a classic high-schooler thriller setup, but it works well for the game’s purposes.
After trying to find a place to pitch their sleeping bags, the four teenagers find the bunker’s main terminal lighting up with a warning of incoming missiles. After figuring out how the missile program works, the teenagers also learn that the warning has locked down the bunker, and a mysterious man named Khan has appeared and decided they must be his new recruits.
What follows from there is a story about isolation, mistrust, and suspicion — a surprisingly gripping mystery tale that goes some wild places. But what’s equally interesting is how the game deliberately plays with the legacy of the Cold War, and the kind of rampant paranoia that entire era caused. The very idea of Missile Command’s creation is at play here, but equally interesting is the structure of the game.
Delta does a great job of setting its tone, playing with the paranoia of the Cold War in its story.
The narrative has you exploring the various rooms of the bunker, oftentimes looking for items that will open up new pathways or solve light puzzles — a bit like the Zero Escape games. But strewn about the bunker are a number of different terminals, each of which features a different Missile Command battle. While there are some exploration puzzling elements, these Missile Command segments are ostensibly the puzzle part of the escape room experience, oftentimes required to open new doorways and advance the story.
And that’s where the redefinition of the arcade’s gameplay comes in, as these Missile Command sections are turn-based tactics. You can see the paths of incoming missiles, and take your turn to launch your own missiles — factoring in things like the number of tiles missiles move, blast radius, and how many turns they take to explode. As you explore the bunker, you can also find cards to unlock extra missiles that have different stats.
It’s honestly astounding how well Delta translates the tension and challenge of Missile Command into a tactical structure. These battles are an absolute blast to play, and can become genuinely challenging in terms of how you have to puzzle together your number of turns, resources, and limited missiles. But equally impressive to the sheer fun of these sections is how gracefully they’re woven into the narrative experience. The thematic structure of being in a missile bunker really works, as the puzzles help heighten the paranoia and sense of urgency.
The tactical reimagining of Missile Command is surprisingly brilliant, and a genuine blast to play.
The two distinct halves of Missile Command Delta weave together so well, even if the game ends up feeling a bit padded out by the end of things. Still, the compelling mystery story and legitimately ingenious reinterpretation of arcade gameplay are more than enough to warrant giving Delta a try.
More than anything, however, this feels like a proof-of-concept way to bring back forgotten arcade games — a brilliant way to revive a property that’s done nothing but gather dust for the last decade. Developers Mighty Yell and 13AM Games might have just struck gold with what they’ve done here.
