Yars Rising

When Atari announced that fan-favorite developer WayForward would be turning the Yars’ Revenge series into a full-on Metroidvania-style adventure game for modern consoles, I was immediately on board. As I loaded up the trailer, I imagined an updated take similar to Yars Recharged, only with more of an emphasis on items collecting and exploration. However, much to my utter shock, that’s not the direction they decided to take the series. This wasn’t the wildly inventive shoot ‘em up I fell in love with all those years ago, but rather it’s a fairly generic action/platformer starring a young hacker trying to save the planet from an alien invasion. This is a radical departure from the 1981 action game, and something that will likely split the fanbase in two. But is this reimagined take any good? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review Yars Rising.

Let me tell you, this is a strange one. Typically, I would start one of these reviews by telling you about the 1981 original and how Atari used the hardware limitations to innovate on the shoot ‘em up genre, creating one of the most beloved home console games from the pre-Great Games Crash era. But I’m honestly not sure any of that matters here, because this is not your typical Yars game. This is a complete reinvention of not only the story and gameplay, but the whole genre. It would be like if Activision decided to reboot the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series as a high fantasy role-playing game.

That’s only a slight exaggeration. If you’re going into this game expecting a shoot ‘em up resembling Yars’ Revenge, then you need to look elsewhere, because Yars Rising is a whole new beast. It tells the story of Emi, a twenty-three-year-old computer programmer at QoTech that goes by her screen name – Yars. After she’s caught trying to hack the server, Emi accidentally stumbles on her employer’s deep, dark secret. This leads to the revelation that alien insects are planning on invading Earth, and it’s up to Yars to augment her body with different types of powers in order to save the human race.

For somebody who just discovered that aliens exist and that she can literally customize her body with super-powers, Emi sure is taking all this in stride. Perhaps that’s because she’s played a Metroidvania-style action game before, where all of these ideas and abilities have been old news for at least a decade. She’ll learn how to jump really high in the air, dash over bottomless pits, walk on water, shoot missiles at doors and wall jump, all the upgrades you expect from this type of game. And, you guessed it, when she unlocks a new ability, it opens up a bunch of new parts of the map for her to explore.

Now, it’s at this point of the review where long-time fans of Yars might be a little confused. Wall jumps? Walking on water? Bottomless pits? What the hell is going on?? Isn’t this a shoot ‘em up franchise?

The good news is that old school Yars is in this game. Unfortunately, the bad news is that it has been reduced to a hacking mini-game. Every time you need to override a computer to open a door or collect a new ability, you’re going to have to play some sort of variation on Yars’ Revenge. But don’t get too excited, because these bits are short and often involve some sort of puzzle element. For example, in one level you might need to grab the different colored balls in order to shoot out the corresponding shield, while in another you’ll be powering up the cannon in order to get a good shot at the Quotile. Some of these are incredibly easy, while others will take some strategy to complete.

At first, I was really into the hacking mode. The goals were challenging without being frustrating and they only took a few seconds to complete. However, you’ll quickly discover that Yars Rising has a lot of computer terminals to hack. Way more than there should be. So many, in fact, that WayForward starts to run out of good ways to shake up the hacking mini-game. This leads to a lot of repetition and frustration as the same types of missions become harder and longer.

Part of the problem is that all of this feels wholly disconnected from the story, which is trying its hardest to connect to the themes and characters of the original Atari 2600 game. Yars Rising completely reinvents the series in order to fit inside what is a pretty bland action/platformer. And to what end? Would it have changed anything if this was a brand-new IP? Or maybe an adventure that combines a whole bunch of Atari classics into one epic love letter to the company? At least that would give them a greater variety of hacking mini-games to pull from.

And, believe it not, Yars Rising almost gets there. There are times when a hacking game will play like a mash-up with another old school Atari hit. There’s a point where you’ll go head-to-head with a centipede, and there’s both a boss and a hacking mini-game built around the game Missile Commend. Those hinted at what could have been a fun nostalgia trip that pretended all of these classic Atari games as part of the same shared universe. But no, they shoehorn Yars in there for some reason, completely removing everything people loved about the shooter in the process.

That’s not to say that there aren’t fun bits and good ideas sprinkled throughout. I think a lot of the boss battles are handled well, especially the ones that are more outlandish. There’s also a way to customize the character by plugging a bunch of Tetris pieces into a grid. You won’t be able to plug all of the upgrades in at once, so you’ll need to prioritize the powers and then find a way to fit them into the picture. This ends up being surprisingly tricky, and it’s one of the few interesting ideas the game brings to the table.

The frustrating part is that this is not a bad game. It handles well, the graphics are okay and the map is big and full of hidden areas to explore. There’s nothing about this game that is terrible. It won’t leave you angry that you wasted time beating it, yet there’s nothing here that you’re going to remember a month from now. This is a completely forgettable action game that just so happens to be based on one of the most unique and inventive shoot ‘em ups of all time.

And that’s the rub. It could be that this weird Yars reinvention could have worked (and even been amazing) if the action/platforming was as fresh and unique as the original shoot ‘em up. And if there’s any company that can shake up the stale old Metroidvania formula, WayForward is the one. They’ve proven time and time again that they can turn a silly idea into greatness. Just look at The Mummy Demastered. But Yars Rising is not the company at the top of their game. This feels more like WayForward on auto-pilot. It does just enough to be a competent action/platformer and nothing more, leaving us with a game that lacks any real excitement or originality.

Now, it could be that you’ll have a better time if you go into this game with no prior Yars experience. At least then you won’t be confused by the jarring genre shift. Sure, it will leave you with the wrong impression of the series and the hacking mini-game will probably scare you off of Yars in general, but it’s not like the absurd story is going to make any less sense. For outsiders, this game is going to baffle you more than disappoint.

It's a shame, because I would still argue that the original Yars’ Revenge could lend itself well to a Metroidvania-style game. Combine the shoot ‘em up action with a large world to explore and you’re halfway to a great time. But by fundamentally changing so much about Yars to fit into a boring side-scroller, this unnecessary re-imagining is robbed of everything that made the series so much fun in the first place. I’m all for change, but Yars Rising takes the franchise in the wrong direction.