As we said, the gameplay in both modes hasn't changed a whole lot with time. You still inhabit the same spaceship and you still circulate around a bunch of panels, fighting off oncoming ships and spikes and other oddly shaped baddies. Let any of them get to the top of the stage or run into their weapon blasts and you're in for some trouble, but luckily you will have your trusty Superzapper at your side to clear the screen for a time. There are a handful of enemies and the shapes of the level do change a bit here and there, but all in all there isn't a whole lot of variety to be found from this ancient relic.
The translation to Xbox 360 hardware seems to have been fairly painless and we actually do get a functioning "evolved" version of Tempest which is more than we can say for other classic Atari releases. The updated visuals don't hamper the gameplay in any way and they do make you feel like you're playing an updated version of the same game rather than some cheap rip off (we're talking about you Asteroids Deluxe).
One negative that we can say for Tempest is that the Xbox 360 controller doesn't feel all that great when you're trying to make precise movements. Trying to hop one panel to the right or left proves to be more of a challenge than it should which then gives the enemy more time to inch their way towards you. It's not game ruining, but it can be frustrating at times.
The Xbox 360 controller does allow for one feature beyond what the trusty mouse or keyboard could offer and that's vibration. The "evolved" version of Tempest throws in a hearty vibration each time you kill an enemy and while it might suck the battery of your controller a bit, it's still a cool effect.
Every Atari release prior to Tempest has had a "throttle monkey" mode for both the "evolved" and classic editions and this release is no different. You can select throttle monkey and you'll instantly have the difficulty settings pumped up to the max. While I don't consider this a true standalone game mode, the option is there if you want it.
