Yars Rising
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: Atari
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $29.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Atari has one of the longest and most storied histories in video games, making some of the biggest and most popular hits at the dawn of gaming. Throughout the years, Atari has gathered these games into collections that celebrate this history and now they are teaming up with WayForward to breathe some new life into a revival of Yars’ Revenge. WayForward has handled revitalizing classic franchises in the past and created a number of great original games, so now with Yars Rising looking to bring the 1982 classic back into the light, have they managed to succeed?
Story
Emi Kimura, known to many by her blackhat hacker codename Yar, has worked undercover at the powerful Qotech corporation after being hired by an unknown client. With her three friends working as part of the team and offering support through comms and providing navigation points, Emi has finally decided to slip out of her office worker disguise and go for the secrets hiding within Qotech’s servers. It doesn’t take long before Emi realizes that there is not only way too much security for a company such as this one but it’s layout is incredibly strange as well. Things only get stranger when she hacks a glowing terminal and obtains the ability to fire energy blasts out of her hands.
With Qotech hiding far darker secrets than any organization in the cyberpunk styled future should have, even in a setting like this one, Emi resolves herself to get to the bottom of this, even if it means hacking her way through numerous consoles, evading unstoppable guards by sneaking around, or simply blasting away robots. Of course, when face to face with a boss that she herself even quips feels right out of an anime and a far more outlandish secret, it quickly becomes clear that Qotech is something far worse than just an exploitive corporation, it is one that might just doom the world.
Yars Rising tells a solid enough storyline for a metroidvania and does help to expand upon what little lore the actual Yars series has had throughout its long life. There are some twists here and there including a large plot point being revealed that switches the narrative in an entirely different direction shortly before the midway point of the game, and while there are no extra bits of lore, the writing isn’t the deepest so players can follow along quite easily even if they aren’t familiar with Yars’ Revenge or other Atari titles. It is interesting to note that there are numerous easter eggs throughout the plot that reference other popular Atari games including the bosses themselves, so longtime fans of the classic arcade games should be pleased with these little cameos, references, and straight up boss fights.
As for the characters themselves, it is rather unfortunate that most of the side characters in the game that support Emi are very superfluous, usually only chiming in to make a reference about a newly acquired skill or shown off during the game’s few comic book style cutscenes. This gives the surrounding cast very little in the way of actual development outside of two of them, one who sees herself attempting to redeem herself and another that is quite a dark twist especially with how bluntly the game deals with the way things play out. As for Emi herself, she feels like a perfect fit for the cyberpunk style setting and has plenty of humorous quips and remarks about the increasingly dangerous situations she gets into as well as things she straight up doesn’t like doing despite players needing her to. These little interjections help breathe a bit of extra life to the metroidvania styled exploration, though it is worth noting that if she does get on the player’s nerves they can turn her exploration dialogue off in the settings, though those do will be missing out on some pretty funny references and stale jokes that are humorous simply because of how bad they are.
Gameplay
WayForward has found a rather unique way to take and make sure that Yars’ Revenge remains a solid mainstay throughout Yars Rising despite the fact that the game is designed as a metroidvania. Emi will navigate through the large Qotech building, outside through the nearby parts of the city, and eventually a far different place and initially her skills are incredibly simple. In fact, starting out Emi is entirely defenseless, capable of only sneaking around, hiding in doorways, crawling through tight spaces, and of course her main talent, hacking. Through hacking not only does Emi gain new abilities but it is also the way that Yars’ Revenge’s legacy lives on in the game.
Anytime that Emi has to hack a console, whether it be to open a locked door or disable some lasers to obtain an entirely new power or eliminate a boss, she will need to partake in a good ol’ stage of Yars’ Revenge. This means she will control a small Yar that, depending on what is required for each mini-game, must use the Zorlon Cannon to destroy the Qotile. Sometimes this is as simple as aiming the deadly cannon and hitting the stationary Qotile but other times it may involve nibbling through a barrier, nibbling at the Qotile to power up the cannon, or even dodging homing missiles while the Qotile also attacks as a whirling insta-kill. Anyone familiar with the classic game will know these terms right away but it doesn’t take much for newcomers to feel right at home with these classic arcade style mini-games. In fact, there are even a number of mini-games that combine Yar with other classic Atari games, even a surprising one right at the end though we’ll leave these spoiler free.
These hacking minigames grow increasingly difficult as players continue through the game with some, especially ones involving bosses or power unlocks, involving players beating multiple stages to properly “hack” the object. Thankfully, not only are these stages varied wildly thanks to the aforementioned content WayForward was capable of pulling from, they feel quite balanced as well, slowly introducing elements that eventually will all be thrown into the mix together to challenge the player. Of course, should players find themselves struggling to complete a hack the game will, after a few failures, give players the chance to turn on invincibility for that terminal only, making the game accessible for those who may be struggling and never appearing at all if they aren’t.
Special glowing terminals throughout the world, and required to progress properly, will unlock new abilities for Emi such as her primary weapon the Zorlon Shot and Trionic Nibble. Both are capable of defeating most enemies she comes across with the latter also being able to disable glowing shields. Oddly enough, Emi cannot actually aim the Zorlon shot up, down, or even at an angle which is unfortunate for combat but this just means players will need to be actively moving to target foes or dodge them as they make their way through each room, making combat feel quite simple throughout the game. A few other abilities that are eventually unlocked include high damaging energy missiles, an actually controllable explosive that is a bit too weak to be utilized properly and leaves Emi open to attack, and even things that allow her to jump off walls or run across the surface of water because just like a usual character from an ‘80s game, she can’t swim. Combine this with a slew of other navigation abilities and players will eventually find themselves capable of exploring every nook and cranny of each area, even if there really isn’t too much actually hidden away.
Despite being a metroidvania, Yars Rising doesn’t really keep too many secrets from players to uncover as the map very clearly outlines where players haven’t gone yet or if they can even reach a location at the moment with their current abilities. Most of the time going slightly off the proper track will take Emi to a small blue terminal that, when hacked, will reward her with a “biohack” that can then be applied in an upgrade block the shape of a Yar. These upgrades are as simple as having more health or dealing more damage to being able to jump even higher or simply highlight the current background song playing in a stage. These upgrades are the only real reason to explore as there are surprisingly no real unlockables or hidden secrets despite being a genre staple.
One thing that is nice to note is that if players ever feel like going back and playing a mini-game with their Yar to destroy the Qotile all of these can be played again from the main menu. This collection will show all mini-games that players have played and beaten so far, with those they haven’t found or finished yet remaining locked until they do.
Audio & Visuals
Yars Rising is a very colorful game with some solid character and enemy designs, though the game could use a little bit more in the way of enemy variety. Along these same lines, while the 3D models for characters aren’t bad, it might have been better to use character portraits similar to how most in-game cutscenes are handled through gorgeous looking comic-book style art. The presentation during the hacking mini-games is a perfect callback to the classic Yars titles with a more modern appearance. It is also worth noting that while there are a few different main locations to explore, some of the background environments can grow to be quite bland, especially in the first half of the game.
The voicework in the game is handled solidly enough with Emi’s voice actress doing a great job presenting her sense of humor at how ridiculous some situations become as well as a few other characters doing a great job as well. Unfortunately some of the cast is just as stiff as how poorly developed they are, mostly regarding two of Emi’s allies. As for the soundtrack, WayForward really hit it out of the park with this one as the background music in Yars Rising is wonderful. As players progress from screen to screen the background music will change and the list of tracks available in the title is quite extensive with a wide range of standard instrumentals and plenty with some great vocals as well.
Overall
Yars Rising is a stylish and colorful spin on the classic Atari 2600 game that no one could have seen coming. Taking the core of Yars’ Revenge and making it into a hacking mini-game within a metroidvania to bring the franchise back to modern day all while trying to present a storyline is a fascinating way to handle a classic property and breathe some new life into it. With a solid story and a charmingly sassy main character in the form of Emi, WayForward has done a great job here even if the gameplay can be a bit too simple at times and most of the supporting cast are very limited.
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