WayForward revives the Atari game Yars’ Revenge in an unexpected way

Atari 2600 game for more than 40 years Yars’ Revenge has endured. Atari has re-released the 1982 action game several times, both as a cartridge and built into retro consoles. Several developers have tried to remake it, reinterpret it or create an official sequel to the simple shooter.

In September, the developer WayForward Technologies will make another attempt: Yars’ Revengebut it goes in the same direction as others. WayForward’s Years increase is an action-adventure exploration game in the style of Super Metroid And Shadow complexand instead of a vengeful alien chrome fly, the main character is a young hacker named Emi “Yar” Kimura who tries to take down a shady corporation from within.

Years increase is definitely a evasive maneuver, but it is created “with as much reverence as possible” to the original Yars’ RevengeGame Director James Montagna tells Polygon.

“I made the deepest dive ever made in the entire history of Yars’ Revenge”, Montagna told me during a video call. “I even mean things like the 1982 vinyl record release of Yars’ Revenge — really obscure stuff that maybe two people in the world would be interested in. We just tried to absorb as much knowledge as we could because when we do this thing, we want to make sure we do it right. We want to know the heritage that it came from. And I think that’s really important when you’re preserving something like this because it has history and we want to honor it.”

Despite it, Years increase differs thematically, aesthetically and mechanically from the original Yars’ Revengebut that’s intentional, Montagna said. Part of it serves the story of the new game, but another part, Montagna said, plays to WayForward’s strengths as a developer of platform games and Metroidvanias.

“It is also a bit [us] To surprise players with something they may not even have known they wanted,” he said. “Nobody expected or asked for an exploration action platformer. Yars’ Revenge reinvent, right? But I think part of our job as designers is to show people why and how something like that can make sense.”

The story of Years increase is about a black hat hacker ring that is approached by a “mysterious figure with deep pockets” to hack this megacorporation called QoTech. Emi takes the job because the price is right, Montagna explained. “She has this antagonistic streak; she immediately does something that is a little bit nefarious and dishonest,” he said. “She gets a job at QoTech to gain their trust over the course of several weeks, and the game begins on the night she’s going to pull off her heist. As the game progresses, you learn more and more about her backstory.

“Why is a Yars’ Revenge How about reimagining that kind of character and that style of play? The more you play, the more it makes sense. And I can only explain so much without giving everything away, but it really comes down to how we deliver the story. It’s a genre we’re good at, and a little [that] We want to surprise and delight.”

Years increase honors the original Yars’ Revenge in one important point: The game is full of hacking mini-games based on the concept of the original game. Hacking things in Uprisingyou play as the pixelated fly (Yar) and attack the enemy (Qotile) guarded by a shield. The hacking games are remixed versions of the original’s playing field, mixed with other classic Atari 2600 games like Space Invaders And Missile Command.

“In some ways, it’s almost as much of a WarioWare microgame experience,” Montagna said. “It’s also a stealth game. I think there are so many different elements. [game genres] […] That’s probably why I personally hesitate to label it with certain terms, but I can’t correct anyone who calls it a Metroidvania.”

While WayForward tries something new and different with its version of the Yars series, Uprising is also an Atari love letter, said Montagna. Years increaseIn the gameplay trailer you can see Computer station cabinets and references to Atari inventor Nolan Bushnell. But these nods to Atari’s history will be more than just backdrops, Montagna explained.

“We wanted to make it so that in many ways every detail is something that could be meaningful to someone,” he said. “There is a way to do that without feeling intrusive or [exclusionary]. There should be an emotional response – like: Oh, they’re getting me. I grew up with it. Or I know what this is. So throughout the game there are Atari references to varying degrees – even entire boss fights in this game are references that have something to do with Atari. I hope players are excited to see what those references are.”

Even the game’s hacker hero is based on Atari iconography. Emi’s aquamarine hair is a combination of the Atari logo “Fuji” and the silhouette of the original Yar sprite.

But Montagna said that Years increase can’t simply rely on nostalgia or a familiar game name to be successful. It has to play great and be a good action-adventure exploration game in a crowded market of Metroid-inspired retro games.

“I’m happy to say that I think we’ve done a damn good job of making sure the flow is right,” Montagna said of Years increaseThe focus is on precision and gameplay variety. “You can shoot down enemies, jump from platform to platform, mow down a bunch of enemies and then everything changes in the next room. It’s going to be a bit of stealth gameplay where we slow things down. I think that up and down is good because when it’s just pure adrenaline it can be exhausting. We also build in these hacking challenges that break up the moment a bit.”

Years increase will be released on September 10th for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.