Yars Rising Review – Retroactive Outrage (PS5)

Yars Rising is the 2024 semi-remake of the classic 1982 Atari game Yars’ Revenge. In which players take control of an alien known as the Yars to defeat the invading Qotile. Developers WayForward (Shantae, River City Girls) decided to transform the game into a 2D platformer featuring a cute anime girl. Work with what you know, I guess.

Yars Rising is a fun callback to the old days of Atari gaming. With plenty of little references here and there to the grandaddy console of them all. Furthermore, the game is packed with beautiful art, amazing futuristic backdrops, and a soundtrack with no shortage of headbangers. Though the positives stop shortly thereafter.

No aspect of the gameplay feels complete. Which is surprising coming from such accomplished developers. It feels like an indie game that hasn’t released its final version. With clunky controls out of the PS1 era. And several mechanics that don’t feel fully realized. There’s a lot of potential here for modern reimaginings of retro Atari games, but there have to be much better ways to do it.

Break the walls down

This review contains minor spoilers for Yars Rising.

Yars Rising releases on September 10th, 2024 on Steam, Epic Games, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S for $29.99

Story – Deep Heavy Sixers

Yars Rising follows the hacker Emi Kimura as she hacks the servers of the massive technology company, Qotech. Upon doing so, she finds herself thrust into a dangerous web of secrets that threatens the very world she lives on. So she has to explore the expansive Qotech building and the city it’s in to get to the bottom of every mystery. And find a way to save the world.

Emi Kimura and some of the side characters

The story starts off intriguing enough, but very quickly becomes a massive sci-fi thriller about a war between two different alien races and how the humans tie into it. While it does tie into the story of the original Yars’ Revenge, it was not executed as well as it could have been. Especially since the main character rarely takes it seriously. Instead choosing to talk about how wild and wacky it is every chance she gets.

Emi herself isn’t a terrible protagonist, but her and her friends definitely have some problems. They’re all infected with awful writing that feels like AI was asked to replicate the most brain rotted terminally online tween speak. Emi is not the worst offender of this. She has some genuinely funny lines and gets some good depth to her character. But a lot of the side characters are either actively annoying or entirely forgettable.

Gameplay – Really Grating Virtual Combat

Yars Rising is a 2D Metroidvania platformer. So you’ll be running and jumping your way through the game to unlock new abilities. Which will then allow you to explore more locations and unlock more add-ons. There’s also a stealth mechanic where Emi hides from certain enemies she can’t kill. And hacking minigames that emulate the original Yars’ Revenge.

*Hacker voice* I’m in

Unfortunately, none of it is executed very well. The traversal feels clunky and unsatisfying. There isn’t even a dash or roll move. The stealth is very basic and underutilized. And the hacking minigames are more of an annoyance than anything else. Surprisingly, a game from 1982 doesn’t have the best mechanics. 

There’s nothing here that isn’t done better in other games. This feels like a game that came out 10 years ago. Not a month from now. Some off the boss fights are fun, I guess. But the final boss is a big letdown. They should have focused more on fleshing out the stealth. As well as updating the Yars’ Revenge minigame to be a lot less clunky.

Graphics & Sound – Multi-Cart of Madness

The biggest highlights of Yars Rising is the presentation. The game both looks and sounds great. The graphics themselves may be nothing special, but everything is very colorful. And all of the characters have a distinct style and flair that helps them stand apart. I would not be surprised if Emi ends up being more popular than the game itself.

The soundtrack is absolutely the game’s strongest suit. And even then, it’s only about 50% the time. Half of the songs would not sound out of place in a Persona game. Like one of the early tracks, “Hacking My Brain.” Then the other half sounds like something you would hear while walking through a shopping mall. Which people should do more of. Malls are a dying art. For some reason, there isn’t one standout theme for any of the bosses. They’re either very generic, or play to no music at all.

Yars Rising was reviewed on PS5 with a code from uberstrategist