A lot of people nowadays do not remember the games from super ancient systems like the Atari 2600. In 1981, Yars’ Revenge burst onto the scene. No, I did not make a typo, the apostrophe did indeed move in the newest version of this game. This relatively popular game started out as a port of the arcade game Star Castle, but evolved into something of its own. Due to the success of the original title, it is no surprise that it has been remade several times, with the most recent version being made for Xbox Live Arcade by Killspace Entertainment.
There has been definite improvement to a lot of aspects of the original game, the most notable being the addition of a story. You play as Yar, a girl that is part insect and part human. Yar has been kidnapped by an evil race of aliens to be used as what seems to be an assassin. The beginning of the game will feature missions under the captivity of these aliens before you escape. Can you get what happens next? You seek revenge of course.
The story is presented to you in comic book style, complete with cut scenes in between missions. The subtitles pass by you pretty fast which will not a problem for those who read fast, but could be a problem for those that like to take their time reading through. This is also problematic when your character takes it upon herself to talk to others during missions. The rapid nature of gameplay makes it hard to read these subtitles while playing. In saying this, it’s also important to note that there is no voice acting. I would have almost rather had voice acting in the game, even if it was bad, if it meant that I could avoid missing some of the conversations.
While adding a story is somewhat necessary to improve upon games from long ago, when you get the the gameplay of Yar’s Revenge you will realize that it has very little in common with the game it is based upon. For one, it is a rail shooter. While you are allowed to move your character however you please, you will ultimately be forced into moving into random directions. I did not find this necessarily enjoyable as I’m used to being able to have full control of my character. Movement is controlled by the two analog sticks as is the standard in most XBLA shooters today. While the controls were fine, the rail shooter mechanic fell short of what it was supposed to do. Often times I would find it would mess me up (I assume purposely), but would not so in an enjoyable way. A lot of time was spent missing the enemy and I found the constant changing of perspective to be dizzying.
The game is definitely challenging to say the least, but luckily you have several weapons and power-ups in your arsenal to get rid of your foes. Your main weapon is the pulse laser, but it is not especially powerful. You also have a rail gun, which is satisfying to use but has a cool down timer to deal with. Rounding off your list of main weapons are missiles. These are very powerful, but are limited to what you pick up in game. It takes a fair amount of strategy to make the last until they’ll really count. In addition to weapons you have four power ups to use, two defensive and two offensive. The defender destroys enemy projectiles,the shield protects you from damage and replenishes your health, the annihilator gives you a weapon damage boost, and the seeker destroys enemies via seeking them out directly. Both power-ups and weapons require strategy, which adds to the already challenging aspect of the game.
There are really only three different enemies that are recycled throughout the game, albeit with different color schemes. They are all essentially bug like creatures. There is a tiny bug which is very easily killed, a slightly bigger bug that is a tiny bit harder to kill, and then a tank like bug which is hard to kill. These three enemy types are used over and over and the lack of variety gives the game a certain staleness.
The game is fairly difficult to get the hang of but that challenge alone cannot make up for how short the game is. There are six stages in the entire game with very little variation in enemy. The difficulty was well appreciated as it reminded me of the challenging games of yester-year. Unfortunately, the game was still too short for its price. I would suggest playing the demo before committing to a buy because the game could be hit or miss for players especially when there are a lot of shooters in the marketplace that are superior.
