Yars Rising review

What is it? A classic shooter for the Atari 2600 reimagined as a contemporary metroidvania.

Release date September 10, 2024

Expect to pay £24.99/$29.99

Developer WayForward

Publisher Atari

Reviewed on Radeon 5700 XT, i5-9600K, 16GB RAM

Steam Deck Verified

Link Official site

Legitimate concerns about the perils of nostalgia aside, the practice of revisiting classics from gaming's early history has yielded impressive results in recent years. But, whereas releases like Pac-Man 256 and Ghosts n' Goblins Resurrection expand on their inspirations' core loops, injecting them with just enough contemporary sensibility to keep these familiar experiences fresh, WayForward has opted for a drastic overhaul. Its homage to Atari 2600 blockbuster Yars' Revenge relegates its unconventional shooter elements to a series of hacking minigames and serves up a modern(-ish) metroidvania as the main course.

For starters, my decidedly human protagonist bears little resemblance to the original's heroic space-bug, and her pedestrian concerns are worlds apart—literally—from the Yars' valiant struggle against the genocidal Qotile. Emi Kimura, a low-ranked programmer at QoTech, has arranged for a side-gig at the expense of her employer: following radio instructions by her buddies, she's supposed to locate and sabotage the company servers at the behest of some mysterious competitor. It does not go to plan.

Once captured by corporate security during Yars Rising's short introduction, Emi must escape a maze of heavily guarded offices revealing, in the process, both QoTech's terrifying plans for humanity and her own repressed connection to the events outlined in the comic that accompanied the 1982 game. Slipping through laser grids, hiding from guards, and blasting away at sentry robots and deadly Roombas, I'm notified of my next destination by my bestie and partner in crime, Malorie. I then promptly climb, leap, and crawl my way there to trigger the next narrative event or the occasional boss