Yar’s Rising is a curious product. After finishing the game, my mind swirled with a million questions, chief among them... Why Yar?

For the uninitiated, Yar’s Revenge is a 1982 Atari game with a whacky plot about a war between space bugs, the Qotile versus the Yars. It wasn’t just about killing all the Qotile on screen, you also had to engineer certain situations to make their bases vulnerable, which helped it stand out from other space shooters like Space Invaders and Defenders. Between 1982 and now, Yar has had one other entry, Yar's Revenge: Recharged, part of a comprehensive Atari remake collection.

I’ve seen many reviews of Yar’s Rising call it soulless, uninspired, or a paint-by-numbers Metroidvania cash grab, and I can’t agree. Not even a little. Two major facts fly in the face of narrative.

First off, there’s far too much evidence of legitimate, good faith effort. The story, writing, character designs, and music all convey a tremendous passion and care. The voice actors are giving this whacky plot their all, the scenery pops with a neon, techno-punk aesthetic, and Emi "Yar" Kimura has a carefully crafted failgirl personality. The perfect ditzy doofus to fumble through an adventure.

And second, if you wanted to try and slap a licensed property on a soulless Metroidvania to make quick money, that licensed property would not be Yar’s Revenge. Yar’s Revenge is so old, the average millennial wouldn’t be the one to buy this out of pure nostalgia, nor their parents — their fucking grandparents would. And if they did, the average grandparent would be confused and annoyed by all the modern lingo a rambunctious team of young adult cyberterrorists use. Only the hacking mini-games would resemble the original title they fondly remember playing on their Atari 2600 consoles, now sitting in a basement caked in a thick cigar smoke, cocaine residue still lingering on the grill.

Based on the sales figures and steam analytics, we will probably never get a Yar’s Rising sequel. Nonetheless, after finishing the game, I have some thoughts on what I’d love to see from a hypothetical sequel we're unlikely to get.

Metroidvania Yar

At first I was mystified by this choice, turning Yar’s Revenge into a Metroidvania. I had to ask, “what does this have to do with the source material? After forty years, Why even call this Yar anything?” In practice, it worked far better than anticipated.

In most Metroidvanias, you unlock a new weapon or mobility option, and then previously inaccessible areas open. Yar’s Rising blocks your progress through two methods. Throughout the game there are consoles everywhere to hack. Every “hack” in Yar’s Rising is a bite-sized Yar’s Revenge level, or sometimes a collection of two or three challenges back to back. Upon success a door opens somewhere, or an elevator becomes operational, or you unlock some new charm or ability. This continues for the entire game.

I kept expecting this schtick to get old, but Yar’s Rising does an excellent job remixing classic Yar’s Revenge stages to keep you guessing. Sometimes you can’t shoot. Sometimes you're stuck autofiring. Sometimes you’re dodging missiles, or raindrops. Other times there’s nothing to shoot at all, and you’re navigating a maze instead. None of these challenges overstay their welcome, and it’s for the best. The authentic Yar’s Revenge experience would not hold anyone’s attention for several hours these days, let alone the seven or so it took to finish Yar’s Rising.

All these retro references culminate in an amusing gag near the conclusion, where “Phillip Ong” hacks your system and you battle... in a game of pong. Phillip Ong. P. Ong. How the hell did I miss that?

This got me thinking — in a future Yar’s Rising game, it would be extremely cool to see the Atari reference scope expand to more than Yar’s Revenge. I’d like to see Wayforward’s creativity unleashed on Paperboy, Battlezone, Pitfall!, Night Driver, Defender, all the like. I could easily see Wayforward coming up with clever inversions across every Atari classic, and I can feel the desire already permeating in Yar’s Rising.

Heck, one of the bosses is literally named Missile Commander.

Flex Your Wings

Like any Metroidvania, Yar gains access to new movement and weaponry options throughout the game. All these upgrades are based on existing mechanics in the original Yar’s Revenge — by the time you unlock a new attack, you’ve seen its equivalent in the hacking mini-games already. Thematically, this is genius.

Functionally, however, I’m less impressed. Most of the upgrades are relatively predictable; a stronger shot, a missile, a double jump. I kept waiting for one of these upgrades to really wow me, but they never quite got there. Even as I barreled towards the conclusion, I just unlocked an even bigger charge shot.

If by some miracle we get another Yar’s game, I’d love to see some outrageous upgrades. What if instead of referencing Yar’s Revenge, they had a broader thematic message? What if in the early game you can only fire in 4 directions, but later unlock 8-way aiming for more precision? (Savvy players would recognize this as a reference to arcade hardware and the move from 4-way to 8-way joysticks.)

Rather than Yar’s Rising functioning as a vehicle for one series, it could parallel the way games evolved to go along with the bustling retro aesthetic.

Let Emi "Yar" Kimura be Emi "Yar" Kimura

As the resident Yar’s Rising enjoyer, I must also come to the defense of the script and voice talent. Whenever I found the action subpar or the exploration moot, the silly quips and lighthearted banter kept me going. Much must be said for Jenny Yokobori’s performance, because at least 60% of the game is Emi “Yar” Kimura talking to herself — and by god, she sold it. Every meta joke about the seemingly endless array of laser walls got me good. At one point, Emi adopts a mocking tone and pretends to be some laser distribution warehouse service rep, shipping out lasers by the dozen.

I see complaints about Emi’s endless need to yap and quip, but without it, Yar’s Rising loses something special. Without this dedication to character, it moves closer to what more critical voices already see. Plenty of reviews have called out Yar’s Rising for merely acceptable design — "competent and forgettable", as Gamesradar put it.

When looking at the mechanics in a vaccuum I’m hard-pressed to disagree, but when looking at everything else I’m no longer convinced. There’s a charm here, a heart to the script, the voice acting, the writing. Yar’s Rising was enjoyable because of these elements, and if removed or lessened in some way, then you have a Metroidvania with no redeeming qualities.

So, in a hypothetical sequel, I want more absurd Emi monologues. More meta-jokes about the absurd security measures, guards who only patrol thirty square feet at a time, or how impossible it must be for any worker to go about their day when surrounded by eighty lasers and thirteen kill drones shooting on sight. If she wants to monologue for fifteen minutes straight, roleplaying as shift leader for all the murderbots chasing her down, let her.

I’m Delighted Yar’s Rising Exists, Even Though Maybe it Shouldn’t

It’s a weird thing to say, I know. The sad truth is as soon as WayForward knew they were making a Yar's Revenge game, I have to believe they knew it wouldn’t be on any GOTY lists. They’ll be lucky if it lands on any list at all. Their best bet is to cross their fingers and hope grandparents buy it for their grandkids as a Christmas present based on name recognition alone.

But after finishing Yar’s Rising I was struck with yet another thought — how lucky are we? Someone at Wayforward cared enough about this old Atari game to give it their all, knowing it probably wouldn’t do well.

Every creative element of this game — the music, the voice acting, the dopey script — all feels intentionally designed and created by a team of people who really gave a shit. Sure, the mechanics don’t stick with me, but you know what does? Megan McDuffee’s “Hacking my Brain,” a catchy beat which serves as the title theme. The ingenuity of Yar’s costume design, and the way she slowly becomes more and more bug-like with each act. The improvisational and casual tone Yar takes with everyone in her life, at the best and worst of times. Blasting stuff may have been the primary activity in Yar’s Rising, but everything surrounding it is what I cherished.

We’ve played a lot of bad games around here, so I’ll assert some authority and say I can tell when a property is phoned in. This ain’t one of em. From beginning to end, I never doubted for a second that everyone who touched Yar’s Rising loved what they made... and the painful truth is, sometimes it’s not enough. Yar’s Rising is here to remind us there’s passionate people down here in the trenches, putting their heart and soul into a game that, at the time of writing, has no current players at all and an all time high of forty-three concurrent players on Steam.

Yar’s Rising makes no sense. Adapting an ancient Atari property into this dual Metroidvania, old Atari game hacking extravaganza with sick beats, slick cybertech costumes, and meddling young adults is beyond nonsensical. I cannot fathom why you would ever do it. And yet, like Daniel Craig in Knives Out, I’m confounded and compelled at the same time.

It may not be Game of the Year material, but that’s okay. Not everything needs to be. Yar’s Rising doesn’t deserve the negativity, and it certainly doesn’t deserve any descriptor close to “soulless” or “cash-grab”. There’s something special here. Something worth defending, something this industry needs more of. Too many games today are either massively budgeted Triple-A monstrosities, or developed by one passionate dev in a garage. This industry needs a middle ground, a middle tier held up by creative people capable of building more with less. If sales figures won’t save Yar, the next best hope is someone like me, willing to stake a claim and spread the word.

We named our website based on a fictional man who dreamed large, and I cannot think of a more quixotic idea than hoping to make a Yar’s game work in 2024... except maybe cheerleading for a sequel.

May both our dreams come true, Wayforward.

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