Over the past few years, Atari has been completely revamping its portfolio by releasing new takes on classic games like Missile Command, Centipede, and Asteroids. The latest project in this endeavor is Yars Rising, a new take on a name that – despite its success in 1982 – likely won’t engender many nostalgic feelings nowadays.
The team at WayForward seems to have understood this from the jump, however, as Yars Rising isn’t a new take on the original game; it’s a full-fledged Metroidvania that happens to involve the old Yars gameplay once in a while. It’s a bold and risky choice, but based on the hands-on time we got at Summer Game Fest, it’s one that may have paid off.
The demo begins with a neat-looking motion comic cutscene, which lays the groundwork for who the main character Yars is and what she’s about. The comic format isn’t just a style choice; game director James Montagna tells us as we watch that the original game came packed with a comic as a means to tell its expanded lore, and the team wanted to honor that here.
