Okay, I’ll admit it: Outside of my brief love affair with Galaga and the small bit of Frogger I played as a child, I’ve never meaningfully engaged with the vast majority of arcade games. It’s my weakest area in terms of video game genres I’m knowledgeable in and as such, I walked into my appointment to play Yars Rising only minimally aware of its first entry and the impact it had at the time.
Upon its release in 1982, Yars’ Revenge–the first entry in the Yars series–became the highest-grossing original title for the Atari 2600. It’s been included in more than a few Atari classics collections, a handful “Greatest Games of All-Time” lists, and a display on video game history at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Though part of its popularity was due to Atari’s status as a video game powerhouse at the time–thus giving the studio the necessary resources to actually promote Yars’ Revenge and build “hype,” as we’d call it here in the year 2024–it was also just an incredibly solid sci-fi shooter.
Yet, despite its success, a follow-up to Yars’ Revenge (a rail-shooter called Yar’s Revenge) didn’t emerge for nearly three decades and was largely met with disdain–even from series creator Howard Scott Warshaw. But after another decade–and another stab at regniting the Yars fandom with Yars: Recharged–Atari has recruited a new studio, Shantae and River City Girls developer WayForward, to help revitalize the series. The first challenge for WayForward? Steering Yars away from flies and aliens and into a new, flashier direction. And based on my time spent with the upcoming reiteration, I feel confident that it’s going to nail it.
