Yars: Recharged (PS5) Review
Release Date: August 22, 2022
Publisher/Developer: Atari, Adamvision Studios/SneakyBox
Platform: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, Switch, Atari VCS, Stadia
Price: $9.99
As Atari celebrates it’s 50th anniversary, many of the classics such as Centipede, Asteroids, and Breakout are receiving the “Recharged” treatment: affordable, arcade-style updates to the classic gameplay loops. They feel like what the games would have been if developers had some more muscle to work with graphically back in the day, as they remain wondrously addictive despite their simple premise. Yars’ Revenge lends itself to the new palates better than some of the others in the series, with the intense neon colors feeling right at home in the alien landscape.
The original Yars’ Revenge had a plot only found in a comic book or on a record I never owned as a kid, so it boiled down to a single screen and blasting away at enemies. I knew a little more about it than E.T., which baffled children across the nation. Our heroes, the Yar, are attacking the alien homeworld of the Qotile. A game screen consists of your solo (or multiplayer) Yar attacking the Qotile cores and their defense mechanisms. A series of hexagonal shields protect the Qotile, who send programming and signals to the defense, resulting in a bullet-and-laser hellscape for you to navigate Destroying enemies and shields through shooting or directly “nibbling” on them fills your Zorlon Cannon, the only weapon capable of destroying the Qotile. They have their own deadly shot as well that can break through your protective shield and destroy you while in your safe haven.
Taking Yars’ Revenge off the Atari 2600 allows it to become a full on twin-stick shooter. You can pilot your Yar with the left stick and shoot with the right. Power ups are instantly used, be them temporary rapid fire, blast shooting, or lasers that zap everything in a straight line. Outside of menus, you don’t use anything but the sticks. I’d have loved to be able to reserve a powerup so I could line them up for a guided blast, but that is not the case.
Yars Recharged offers a direct arcade mode with 30 levels to get through in succession, as well as a separate Mission mode with particularly tough stages to take on one at a time. You can tweak speeds and abilities prior to starting to add score multipliers to pound your way up the leaderboard.
As a budget title, it’s good to know that this is what you get: these 60ish levels and leaderboards. Mind you, some of them are rather creative, and it is overall a lot of fun, but it is simply good old-fashioned arcade action and a chance to show off your mad skills. The combination of bullet hell plus the risk/reward of shooting versus extra damage “nibbling” makes it tempting to delve deep into the enemy territory and away from your safe zone chasing that next spot up on the leaderboards.
As a gamer since the original Yars’ Revenge, I appreciate the artistic style chosen for these retro titles. The 80s neon works well, and colors pop. I wish there was a little more variance of enemy color and design, but I reckon that’s a design choice for the arcade feel. As you whittle down shields, they slowly turn more transparent. I wish that they’d dense up the colors a bit more there, as the weakest shield is very faint against the starry backdrop. I’ve wasted plenty a Zorlon Cannon shot simply because I missed that I left one shot of a shield and it’s right in the way.
Atari and the developers have done an excellent job with the Recharged series as a whole. Yars Recharged is set at that sweet price point that, after getting some time with it, makes me want to nibble on the rest of the series, especially since at the time of this writing, most of them are on a substantial sale, dropping them plenty below the $9.99 ticket. Younger players will find constant arcade action, but those of us who were there for the original are in for a treat, as this modernization brings the classic formula up to today’s standards.
Pros:
-Excellent reimagining of the original title
-Budget priced arcade action
-Twin-Stick is how it should have originally been!
-Multiplayer on these retro titles is definitely a plus
Cons:
-Only so many levels and abilities
-Cannot reserve a power-up
-Near transparent shield blocks sometimes waste ammunition
Special thanks to Atari, Adamvision Studios/SneakyBox for providing a code for review!