Yars' Revenge

"Of flies, and hyphens, and pinwheels"

When I was a kid I used to love Yar's Revenge, and it's pretty hard to see why. There wasn't much going for the game. You had ONE enemy throughout every single stage. And other than that, there was you, a cannon thing, a colorful bar, a big rotating block, and a hyphen of death. But it worked! You played what looked like a reject from Galaga placed in the role of a hero and fought a pinwheel, but it worked!

Graphics: 9. This is compared to what the Atari was capable of, not to today's standards. Turned out that the Atari was capable of quite a lot. If you thought Atari graphics were just simple, blocky shapes with one or two colors, then think again. While the background was plain black and the Yar was plain white, everything else was a multitude of ever shifting colors. Your cannon shimmered. Down the middle of the field was a bar that looked like white noise, but instead of being white it buzzed in multiple colors and threatened to give you a headache. Even your enemy, which was a strange thing called a Quotile, smoothly went through a wide variety of colors as it was about to get angry and attack you.

Control: 10. Control issues were pretty much non-existent back in the days of Atari. You had a button and a joystick, and your character pretty much did what you wanted it to do. That said, control in Yar's Revenge is fluid and responsive. You're not controlling a tank. You're controlling an insect, that can go back and forth and change directions on a whim and is pretty fast as well.

Gameplay: 8. Yar's Revenge had a very arcade appeal. Your enemy, the Quotile, lived behind a shield, which you had to wear away by eating it or shooting at it. Whenever you ate away part of the shield, your cannon would appear on the left hand side, and it had one shot only, until you at more shield and it would appear again. If you ran out of shield, you could touch the Quotile to make the cannon appear. But be careful. Every once in a while the Quotile will change colors and then launch towards you as a deadly pinwheel of doom. Sometimes it'll launch with no warning. The purpose of the cannon was to destroy the Quotile. Try and catch the Quotile when it's a pinwheel for extra kudos. But the Quotile didn't stay still. It moved up and down on its side of the screen, making hitting it with the cannon a game of precision. And a game of nerves. The cannon followed your vertical movement and didn't discriminate between you and the Quotile. Which meant that after you had lined up your shot and fired, you had best get out of the way FAST. After you've destroyed the Quotile, a new stage would start, and things would get progressively more difficult. In addition to the Quotile, there was a hyphen of death. In reality it was a missile that forever chased after you. It couldn't be destroyed, but you were faster than it. However, its presence meant you had to keep moving. A neutral zone, the colorful bar down the middle I mentioned, was a place you could hide in to keep safe from the missile. However in this zone you couldn't fire your cannon, and the Quotile in pinwheel form could still kill you. In some games the neutral zone was gone. All in all, these simple elements made for a very exciting game.

Sound: 7. No soundtrack. Seriously, there was absolutely no music. However when you're having this much fun on such a simplistic game, who needs music? The sound effects, then, were serviceable. In addition to the quaint little blips the Atari is known for, Yar's Revenge also has a buzzing sound for the Yar and a swirling alarm type of sound for the Quotile.

Replay: 6. Like all Atari titles, Yar's Revenge never ends. Never. However this game is difficult as it is and gets more difficult with each stage, so it should keep you entertained for a good while. Its unique gameplay is enough to earn it a high score.

Overall: 7. One of the few entertaining games in an aging system filled with outdated garbage.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/04