Yars' Revenge

Hola y bienvenidos a Video Juego comentarios de ToriJ. It's that time of year where we stuff our faces and give thanks for what we have. A warm roof over our head, friends and family, good food, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Things of that nature. That's why I'm proud to bring to you the second annual Thanksgaming Month.

Once again, I plan to take us through four different gaming generations in honor of this special occasion. This year we'll be starting off with a game that originally came out in May 1982. A certain fixed shooter that was pretty well received when it first came out. Maybe you heard of it. YARS' REVENGE!

The game was designed by Howard Scott Warshaw, a man that some may know from his work on the Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. video games. Yars' Revenge was his first major success, and became the best-selling Atari game of all time before Pac-Man.

You play as an insect-like creature called a yar as it does battle against the evil Qotile, who hides like a bitch on the other side of a barrier. In order to destroy the Qotile you need to charge up the Zorlon Cannon stationed behind the neutral zone (where have I heard that before?) that follows you as you go up and down the screen. Unfortunately, you can be killed by your own cannon. Before we continue, I need to confess that I was not able to get my hands on the original game. Instead I'll be doing this review based off the remake available on the Atari website.

  Ahh! 2D artwork! This is horrible! Where are my 8 bits?

Aiming with the yar is a giant pain in the ass. His arms only move depending on where you are on the screen when you hit the fire button, making it difficult to line up shots. In order to shoot down destroyer missiles that Qotile sends after you, you have to get in close otherwise you may as well just be shooting air.

The netural zone can provide protection against destroyer missiles, but it's useless against the charge attack of Qotile which comes out of him like a homing missile. You're best bet is to fly up and down the screen really fast in the hopes of dodging it. Qotile's attack will always be represented by a green glow around her body, so there's plenty of chance to avoid it.

  Got ya, sucker!

At the beginning it's fairly easy to destroy Qotile with the cannon. The barricade doesn't even stop it. Only the stages that has the rotating barrier blocks the blast and you'll need to destroy them yourself to get a clear shot at Qotile. The further up the ladder you climb, the crazier this barrier gets, and the faster the cannon will follow you. You'll need to hit Qotile with more blasts from the Zorlon Cannon as well. No matter how good you get, the game will just keep upping the difficulty to continue to challenge you. As was the norm for games back then, otherwise you'd get bored fairly quickly.

That said, depending on your preferences the game may still bore you. Despite the makeover it definitely shows its age. By the sixth level I found myself becoming bored with the gameplay and not being able to play any farther. I think the fact that Yars' Revenge has gone from being on a major console in the eighties, to a browser game today speaks for itself. I'm not knocking browser games, but to a lot of gamers it could be seen as a downgrade. Some gamers are less likely to check it out than if it was re-released on a console or handheld system. For something that is free and openly available online, it isn't a bad deal at all. Whether you want to go on a nostalgia binge, or you're someone who's never played it before, I'd still recommend it if you enjoy shooters and a good challenge.

Get it.