Atari celebrates Pong's 40th anniversary with free Pong World for iOS

Back in 1972, a time when the narrative wasn’t the selling point of a game, Atari released a basic table tennis game named Pong, which went on to become one of the most popular games of all time. Well, it’s been 40 years since its launch and in celebration of the game’s 40th birthday, the company has released Pong World for iOS devices for free. Pong World requires iOS 4.3 or later, and is compatible with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad. The game is also optimised for the iPhone 5.

While the basics of the game, where you’re playing table tennis, are intact, Atari is mixing things up with a new graphical style, along with new mechanics like paddle creatures, upgrades and powers. The game boasts of four different locations, each equipped with unique features like the ability to summon a wall of energy that will block your opponents ball, and hindering your opponent’s vision, among others.

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Don’t worry. Pong World for iOS is a lot more colourful.

Here are some of the key features of the game:

• Personalise and upgrade five animated paddle creatures with unique power boosts and personalities – Shaggy, Chompers, Sir Bouncelot, Razzle and Gnop
• 4 unique levels with special power-ups: Jungle Juice, Fog of Faith, Winds of Change and Moon Beams.
• 3 play modes: Conquest, Survival and Two-Player Battle
• Put crazy spin moves on the ball to catch your opponent off-guard

When it comes to classics being re-released on modern handheld devices, one would be remiss to not mention Crazy Taxi. Crazy Taxi for iOS devices was released by Sega back in October. The port is said to be a ‘perfect’ port of the Dreamcast version of the game, and hence has the same features, game modes, mini-games and soundtrack. An added feature is that the game allows players to create their own soundtracks by using the music stored on their iOS devices. The game is available for purchase on the App Store for $4.99 (roughly Rs 260) and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad running iOS version 4.3 or higher.

Crazy Taxi was originally released in 1999 for arcade machines back when those things were famous. The game was then ported on to Dreamcast in 2000 and PC in 2002. The game focuses on four ’extreme’ cab drivers – Axel, BD Joe, Gena and Gus – each of whome have their own special car and attributes, which gave the game quite some replay value as you try to get the highest scores with all four characters. The main aim of the game is to pick up random pedestrians looking for a taxi ride and find the most exhilarating and insane route to the destination within the time limit. Insane routes mean it doesn’t matter if you go off-road, through a mall, through a picnic or even underwater. All this is done for tips, which add to your high score.