Yars: Recharged review

Yars: Recharged is fun, affordable, and respectful to the original game, which is the trifecta for Atari remakes.

Yars’ Revenge is often mentioned as one of the best games in the Atari 2600 library. But the 1982 title wasn’t always so positively regarded. Game critic Bill Kunkel called the game a “video sleeping pill”, while publications of the era criticized the endless repetition of the game’s David vs. Goliath-style showdowns. Over the years, these types of boss battles would become ubiquitous in gaming, which must have given designer Howard Scott Warshaw some deferred fulfillment.

While the faultfinding reviews would be forgotten, appreciation for the cartridge would grow in the ensuing years. This led to several re-releases, remakes, and at least one abomination. 2011’s Yar’s Revenge for the Xbox 360 was a clumsy, on-rails shooter that felt like a bad Rez knockoff. When an effort veers that far from the source material, occasionally the property is irreversibly stained.

But after an eleven-year cool-off, Adam Nickerson has given Warshaw’s single-screen shooter the same kind of treatment he’s applied to Missile Command, Centipede, Breakout, Asteroids, Black Widow, and Gravitar. The result is a modernization that will likely please fans of the original 2600 game. Players with no connection to the classic title will find a competent and affordably priced effort but might wonder why Yars’ Revenge is well-regarded.

My Ship Don’t Nibble, It Aims

Tackle Yars: Recharged Arcade Mode and you’ll face a randomized succession of structures to be toppled. Your insectoid fighter is nimble, able to scurry around the screen with the left analog stick. Meanwhile, the right stick directs a steady steam of firepower, which is used to chip away at the mass of hexagons that shield the mega-turret you’re trying to destroy. Alternatively, players can come dangerously close to the massive enemy and nibble away at its shielding. Whether you shoot or peck, bright yellow pellets are dropped which gradually fuel the only weapon capable of eliminating the main turret.

The structures you’ll face are also outfitted with smaller defenses that will emit projectiles and later, display energy beams to prevent your rebellious pursuits. And periodically, the mega-turret saves up its power to launch a spiral bomb that can kill you with a single hit. Otherwise, contact with enemy bullets subtracts one of your three hit points. Mercifully, your health is renewed after every round.

When you finally collect enough of the yellow pellets, the right side of the screen glows, letting you know that your own massive weapon is ready to be fired. Once you have the unprotected core of the mega-turret in your sights, you can let loose with a pair of missiles that will obliterate the mega-structure and you’ll start the process anew.  While you can use your own cannon to blast through the enemy’s shielding, the explosion isn’t all that powerful- especially on the reinforced hexes of latter structures.

Precipitous Power-Ups

Nickerson’s customary power-ups appear after destroying the sub-core. These augment your firepower, offering abilities like a spread shot, three-way, or a laser that fires in a straight line after briefly charging. While helpful, these powers are frustratingly fleeting, lasting only a few seconds. For some reason, Yars: Recharged will distribute these after the mega-turret is annihilated. But since you can’t take them into the next stage or earn any additional points, their presence at the end of a round is rather pointless.

Likewise, the game’s scoring seems a bit unbalanced. You’ll earn the same point value for eliminating reinforced hexes as you would from basic ones. Demolishing a sub-turret will also demolish adjacent shielding earning you points. So, the most efficient method for score-chasers into to take their time destroying the main core. I would have liked to have seen a countdown timer that rewards risky play rather than a system that incentivizes taking it safe and slow.

Outside of Arcade Mode, you’ll find the series’ customary standalone missions. Here, you’ll find 30 different variations on the principal gameplay, which adds a bit of value. Although Yars: Recharged offers only a single difficulty mode, players can toggle a trio of modifiers on and off, gaining a slight score boost in exchange for an extra challenge. Finally, you can tackle the game with a local partner, working in unison to defeat mega-cores.

Conclusion

Yars: Recharged seem suited for sporadic play when you only have about fifteen minutes and don’t want to engross yourself in anything deeper. Across the last few weeks, I’d play in intermittent sessions, that are longer than most arcade-style sessions but shorter than most story-driven titles. At ten dollars, it’s a no-brainer for fans of the property and the best follow-up in forty years. But given the bugs in Yar’s Return and the disgrace known as Yar’s Revenge, that’s a low hurdle to clear.

Yars: Recharged was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.