Several months ago, like many gamers, I found myself scratching my head over Atari’s announcement trailer for their new game, Yars Rising.
Admittedly, it was a concept a bit out of left field: a metroidvania (I use that word so begrudgingly) action-adventure spinoff of a classic space bug shootemup, starring a cute blue-haired heroine, presented in a colorful anime style? What could any of those things possibly have to do with one another?
Now that I’ve played through it, I am happy to report: it works.
Though the idea initially made me tilt my head like a curious dog, I was — unlike many early reactionary interweb commenters — more intrigued than skeptical. I love metroid-style games, of course; I like developer WayForward; I like anime and cool character design; and more than anything, I am following every move that Atari is currently making as they attempt to navigate their way back into gamers’ hearts. (Spoiler alert: they’re doing pretty well at it.)
And, let’s not forget, this is not the first time Atari — in a previous form, at least — has taken the Yars property into different places. The 2011 Yar’s Revenge (note different placement of the apostrophe versus the 1981 Yars’ Revenge) was an on-rails shooter ala Panzer Dragoon, and was okay at best. 2022’s Yars Recharged — released by the current Atari — fared much better, and is an incredibly addictive arcade-style twin-stick shooter that I don’t have time to get into here, but deserves your attention.
So back to the main question which is, how exactly does Rising relate to Revenge?
Main character Emi Kimura just got fired from her corporate job at QoTech, and, along with her Gen-Z-speaking hacker friends, attempts to uncover the sinister plot that her former employer seems to be hiding. This leads to the discovery that QoTech is in cahoots with the Qotile Empire, who, as we know from being old-ass gamers, are the enemy of the Yars. As Emi gains new, bug-like abilities through exploration and the hacking of QoTech’s internal computer network (performed via dozens of different 2600 Yars’ Revenge-style microgames), her connection to the Yars is revealed, ultimately culminating in her traveling to the planet Razak III and becoming instrumental in their war against the Qotile.
What is not entirely clear is whether this is a prequel to Yars’ Revenge, and that the Yar in the original game is supposed to be Emi, or if this is a later chapter in the story of the Yar-Qotile conflict, or if it’s just an entirely new take on the lore. Maybe it wasn’t specified, maybe I missed it. Either way, it doesn’t really matter, because Yars Rising cleverly utilizes the Yars’ story as a launching point for something creative and appealing.
Of particular interest to the original Atari generation (e.g., me) is that Rising is stacked with Atari references, from the obvious (characters named Black Widow and Missile Commander) to the subtle (the rainbow colors that border the dialog boxes and illuminate Emi’s firepower recall the rainbow stripe decorating the 5200, 2600 Jr, and 7800 consoles and silver-box package designs).
Eagle-eyed players will even notice the HSW-WSH emblem (the Easter egg found in Yars’ Revenge that displays designer and programmer Howard Scott Warshaw’s initials) on buildings in the background of Szyzygy City (itself a reference to the original name of Atari).
Some of the hacking bits are based on Yars’ Return, the fan-hack-turned-officialish-sequel by late Atari historian Curt Vendel, and others feature Centipedes and Missile Command explosives. There’s even a fun and familiar face-off with the game’s main antagonist, Phillip Ong (whose name didn’t even click with me until the end — duh), that takes place right before the final epic boss battle. You better be good at the classics!
So beyond all the fan service, how does the game play? Control is pretty tight and I actually feel a strong Metroid Dread influence in some of the powerups, abilities, enemies, and boss encounters. The map is mostly easy to understand and traverse, with elevators warping to key points throughout. The scenery is great, especially in Szyzygy City, at the top of the QoTech building, and on Razak III itself.
Not everything is perfect, of course, and I’ve got a few nits to pick: There’s an area to the southeast (outside of the main building where the majority of the game takes place) that has no easy elevator access (which does make sense because it’s out in the city) but a lot of upgrades to find, so you have to backtrack quite a ways repeatedly to get them all as your abilities increase. I dunno, maybe they could have had Emi catch an Uber or something? And while I like the idea of the augment system (you fit differently-shaped blocks into a sprite of a Yar to increase firepower, health, movement, and hacking improvements), there are far more upgrades than there is space in the grid, so you have to pick a few and sacrifice most of the others. It’s very frustrating that Emi can never be used at her full potential, and always feels lacking in strength. Had the block shapes been smaller so more could fit in the Yar grid, I think that would have been much more satisfying. (If I went through the trouble to find them all, I should be able to use them.) Some of the hacking micro-games, too, are ridiculously difficult — thank goodness for the option to turn on invincibility after several failed attempts, or I’d still be playing now. But speaking of that, my biggest beef with the hacking sequences is that you are not able to screen-wrap — that is, fly off the screen on one side and reappear on the opposite side — which was a huge part of the strategy in the OG Yars’ Revenge.
The game isn’t terribly long (the in-game time for my first completion was just over 3 hours), but that doesn’t bother me — I think it’s as long as it needs to be. It kept me hooked for a few days as I picked at it, and I’d like to play it again, so despite the above issues, I think it’s a winner.
What I was just as interested in, though, is how a release like this represents today’s Atari. As I mentioned, I’m very invested in their current state and the strategies they’re taking in becoming relevant, and who they are becoming relevant to. I can’t help but feel like I, and dedicated gamers of my generation (presumably many of you who are interested in this blog), am/are the target audience: those of us with reverence for the original Atari, but also can get into a Metroid-style anime game. But it’s also a game that younger fans should enjoy, even if they don’t get all the historical references. Yars Rising strikes the perfect balance between those two gaming scenarios, which, I think, is what it was intended to do.
As of right now, Yars Rising represents another great move by Atari. Modern games with ties to their rich history are exactly the type of games I’ve thought they should be making, and I think they’re doing it right.
Can’t wait to see what’s next.
