Yar's Revenge

[h1] Starting the game might be very daunting... Clunky controls, problems with high resolutions, running in fullscreen mode and some other minor bugs. On the contrary gameplay is not bad as it resembles arcade style rail shooters where you dodge from incoming bullets and such. Levels are fun to play as you fly through different environments. Boss fights are entirely different each and might get quite tough. Graphic is not the greatest now and textures are rather blurry. Music and sounds are mediocre. With some kind of patch it would've been a great arcade experience but currently running game feels like a chore. Play only if you like arcade shooters! [/h1]

I've had this game for awhile and finally sat down and beat it. As someone who loves a good on-rails shooter, I had fun. The game is brief and can be completed in a single sitting. The game's six levels have some interesting scenery. The motion comic that provides the narrative looks great. Enemies lack variety and the action and boss battles are really an endurance test and are tiresome. I also struggled to find a real connection to the original Yars' Revenge. This is a shame. That said, if you like games like Sin and Punishment or Panzer Dragoon, you'll find some fun here. Worth picking up for a few bucks on sale. Tip: This is an older title and launches in windowed. Find the game's file on your PC and change the configuration settings for full screen. You can also manually up the resolution.

Not the best rail shooter but more than satisfying since there aren't that many anyway, and especially worth it on a $2 sale. The challenge level feels appropriate and there are some scoring leaderboards and extra challenge modes. It's panzer dragoon style in that your aiming is detached from your movement. Irritatingly, you'll have to enable steam input and manually invert the y for the movement (left joystick) with steam, because the game only gives the option to invert y for the aiming reticle. The game also didn't give me how-to-play instructions for controller. Most of the controls are easy to figure out but I had to find an old xbox version let's play video to learn the intended way to use the Zorlon Cannon is to hold down both left and right sticks until charged. 4k@120 FPS works fine after adjusting an ini file to increase the max frame rate. There were some Linux issues with fullscreen but I resolved them by launching in windowed mode with gamescope and using gamescope's fullscreen.

This reimagined Yar's Revenge is actually kind of a hidden gem, though it has little to do with the Atari 2600 game except for the fact that it contains bugs and the story (Kinda). The negative reviews are likely fans of the original who don't like that the game used the license to create a rail shooter that's basically a Panzer Dragoon clone. Well, I love Panzer Dragoon and 3D rail shooters in general tend to be really impressive. This one has some super cool flying sequences that really get your adrenaline going as you shoot countless bugs and several bosses across six stages. The only thing wrong with this game is that some of the environments get repetitive and the ending is abrupt. The bugs actually move similar to the formation of an Atari 2600 game, but it's hard to tell because you're constantly flying all over these 3D maps and blowing up anything that moves in the process. Some really cool sequences involve flying up and through tunnels and far into the sky. The camera tilts and whirls as you do this, as though you are on a rollercoaster made of air. The only thing that would've made it better would have been if you could select from branching paths at some point. The ga…

The original is better.

Artificial difficulty... I guess the developers thought they were clever...or maybe they were just incompetent. Maybe some people think punishing you for failing by making the game harder when you do is cool? Why would the game wipe out your pick ups when you need them most? then proceed to screw you by placing check points in a spot where you can't gather any before facing the boss again. I guess when the game is basically a fixed slide show that you can just spam shots at it's hard to innovate or even nail the basics...oh well...dead game, dead studio, dead publisher...forgotten from most players minds...it's a shame the net records everything and the existence of this game is still out there...