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.
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