Yars' Revenge

"I was yelling "I AM YAR!" after playing this gem from Atari"

Well the synopsis was pointless but true. Yar's Revenge is another addictive Atari game. You play the role of Yar, a flying....fly. The enemy of Yar is the Qotile, which is enclosed by a barrier. It's your job to destroy the Qotile, by either eating through or shooting away it's barrier, then blasting it to hell with a missile. It's not that easy however. The Qotile has this little missile thingy of it's own that chases after Yar and kills him if it touches him. In the middle of the screen is a safe zone though, which protects you from that little missile. But sometimes the Qotile becomes a spinning thing and goes to kill you, and the safe zone doesn't stop it. You either have to dodge or nail the spiral with a missile, which nets you a 1-up. The Qotile has 2 types of shields, and sometimes it alternates colors. Also, the little missile thing gets faster after each level.

Back in the day when this game came out, it would've been called the best game of it's time, but nowadays most people trash it, or ''misplace it'' somewhere. If it wasn't for the great Atari games like these, you wouldn't have the game you have today, so you should thank the good people that made these games, if they're still alive. Games like these can still be fun, you just need to give them a chance. Everyone seems to be hung up on graphics, well I got news for you, this game had state-of-the-art graphics when it was made. Give Atari games a chance people, I find some (like this one) to be better then most games we have now.

Graphics: 8/10
You're a little fly that is constantly flapping it's pixelated wings. The safe zone looks cool, the Qotile flashes colors, and when you kill it it looks damn good.

Sound: 8/10
Basic Atari sounds, but they're still good.

Challenge: 8/10
It starts out easy, but gets gradually harder as you progress, and that missile gets super fast later on too, plus the Qotile comes out as a spiral more often, etc.

Fun: 9/10
It's a fun game, go against your friends and see who's the best.

Story: 8/10
If you get the cart, a comic comes with it showing the beginning, and why the Qotile wants you dead.

Overall: 8/10
Yar's Revenge is a solid game, one of the better Atari games out there. You can probably find it on eBay somewhere, along with an Atari, so act like Lycos and go get it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/01, Updated 03/06/01