Review: Yars Rising Mixes Yars’ Revenge With Metroidvania Style

It certainly feels like WayForward is being picked up as the developer for revival and tribute series, doesn’t it? Between his work on games like Advance Wars: Boot Camp Reboot And River City Girl 2seems to specialize in bright, vibrant classics. Yars increase feels perfectly in line with its siblings, with the same bright color scheme and character designs. However, while it’s entertaining and the source material is clever, at times I felt it didn’t stand out enough to be truly memorable.

Emi “Yars” Kimura is a hacker. She’s working with a group of friends to infiltrate an apparently evil organization called QoTech. That means posing as an employee until she has the chance to sneak into a server room, plug in a USB device, and escape. She does it! But shortly after she does, she’s captured and thrown into a “detention” center in the building. After sneaking through some vents and hacking into an unusual terminal, she finds herself with new biohacks that enhance her abilities, giving her the ability to shoot or create energy wings to dash or jump. Armed with these new talents, she sets out to break out and take on the ruthless executives and their henchmen.

The “Yars” element shows up in a number of ways. Some are plot-related. Yar is Emi’s hacker alias. She has a tattoo of the character. Not to mention that Emi’s last name—Kimura—is a reference to Atari artist Hiro Kimura. The evil corporation is QoTech, not unlike the original game’s enemy Qotile. But the most obvious is the actual inclusion of Yars’s Revenge hacking games of all kinds. In order to open new paths, gain abilities, or generally complete goals, Emi will need to hack terminals at the company. When she does, a hacking mini-game will take place that is actually standard Yars series of games. So maybe you’ll shoot a cannon to penetrate the Qotile shield. Although, there will also be times when it’s like Space Invaders and you are shooting the enemy that is coming towards you.

While I applaud the way WayForward has successfully incorporated Yars’s Revenge with Metroidvania elements in Yars increase and while it was clever to include the original gameplay in the hacking mini-game, I also found it a bit annoying. This was mainly due to the frequent hacking that occurred as Emi made her way through the QoTech building. Yars’s Revenge can become quite a challenging game, and when those situations keep happening And punishing you by reducing Emi’s health for failure can start to feel a little unoriginal. On the plus side, WayForward even seems to acknowledge this, as there’s an option to make yourself invincible for these hacking segments to get through them faster.

Especially since the core gameplay in Yars increase is an accessible Metroidvania. Emi is going through Qotech, acquiring biohacks that allow her to escape the company’s control after being arrested for hacking. It’s pretty straightforward and I didn’t find it as complex or challenging as a title like The Horror of Metroid. However, the influences are still clearly there. Especially early on, before you get your hands on weapons, there’s a heavy reliance on stealth to get around. The gameplay here is pretty solid. It’s easy to maneuver Emi around her environment, and the upgrades we eventually get only help make that more fluid. It’s really a great time. I really enjoyed running and gunning my way through the game.

However, while I did enjoy it, Yars increases art direction, enemy design and environment didn’t really excite me. The human character designs are great, but the final enemies look a bit generic. The insectoid enemies are a bit better, but the areas around QoTech and most of the enemies feel identical. I will say it made me appreciate the more classic designs Yars or even other Atari products when they come out. Especially since the concept—hackers against a big evil corporation—is also an incredibly popular one. Since most of the more unusual plot twists only appear in the second half, it takes a while for those elements to become unique.

I appreciate what WayForward has done with Yars increasebecause it combines the source material in some interesting ways while doing something completely new. It’s a solid Metroidvania and delivers Yars’s Revenge Hacking games can be fun. I just feel that even with the unusual approach to hacking, some of the design elements and decisions feel a bit bland. It’s fun, but I’m not sure it’s memorable.

Yars increase available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.