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Name: Yar's Revenge

Yar's Revenge, a new game developed by Killspace Entertainment, isn't quite the remake of the classic Yars' Revenge we might have all hoped for, this one takes the form of a 3D dual stick shooter. For the older gamers amongst us, you'll no doubt be screaming at the monitor, flinging your arms around and demanding justice and recognition for the 1981 game Yars' Revenge for the Atari 2600, for indeed it was and is a classic, and I've just gone and called this a new game. Well you can go ahead and calm down; look closely at the title of the game, this is Yar's Revenge and the original game was Yars' Revenge, you see? The Atari game was about the revenge of a race known as Yars, this game is about the revenge of a single character named Yar, and that isn't the only change.

It's true to say that the basic elements of the Atari game remain in place, sort of. Yar, a member of a humanoid race that evolved from insects, rather than being insects, is fighting in a war with the Qotile, but, other than that, you're going to be struggling to find any correlation between Yars' Revenge and Yar's Revenge, and if you ask me, that's a pretty tenuous link to start with. So basically, Yar's Revenge is for all intents and purposes a new game, even if it's marketed on the premise that it's the classic Yars' Revenge.

Yar's Revenge is a fully rendered 3D dual stick shooter, as opposed to the originals single screen to move about, which is fair enough; the action is on rails and you'll be flying about the screen watching landscape and enemies come towards you rather than having any real control over your flight path, very similar to Space Harrier. This similarity gives Yar's Revenge some old school appeal, within minutes I was reminded of other retro titles such as Space Harrier and Afterburner, and I've got to say it struck me as an odd feeling to be playing an updated version of a game from my youth. Still, this experience reminded me of an old school game from a different generation.

Just looking at the game shows its graphical prowess, something the Atari 2600 lacked when compared to today's titles. The new game takes on a manga-esque style, and is certainly a great piece of eye candy. The main story, however, is presented to you with cartoon panels, while the main game uses cel-shaded graphics; it's obvious that a lot of work has been put into the game's aesthetics. It's disappointing to be honest, because the screenshots and trailers set a good first impression, an impression which ultimately leads to disappointment as you progress deeper in.

The controls are as you would imagine from the description, the left stick moves you up, down, left and right with the right stick taking care of targeting duties; it's, however, odd to note that only the left stick's actions are capable of being inverted. Playing with inverted controls may be an option used by a minority, however, this lack of functionality was, at least for me, an annoying hindrance that made the game difficult to adapt to when coming from other games that do include such functionality. Why this option was only included for the left stick and not the right just confuses matters even further, making the default control scheme easier in the long run once you get accustomed to it.

Unfortunately, that isn't the only problem I had with the controls, selecting weapons, accessing the shield and performing rolls to dodge out of the way of incoming fire, all seemed to be needlessly hard work. As you're making you're way through each of the levels, the enemies come in thick and fast in preset patterns, or as stationary placements, but they are so haphazardly placed that it's almost impossible to keep up and a lot of the enemies just end up being left behind. It doesn't help that at times there seems to be a flood of enemies to shoot at and yet you're still required to dodge out of the way of things as well. A quick experiment revealed that it's possible to just fly through the Qotile defences with no need to target and shoot at the same time, excellent for completing the game, but disappointing from a gameplay perspective.

There are six levels of action to work your way through, and these will be hard work. While the game is beautiful, it quickly becomes boring with many of the levels blending into one endless stream. The checkpoints don't help either, being given to you as sparingly as possible, you'll often find yourself thrown way back into an earlier part of the level, leaving you questioning whether to start again or just walk away. It might not be so bad if the story was easy to follow, or at least interesting, but you're normally given the story as dialogue that is written onto the screen; no voice acting. The text at the bottom of the screen isn't a subtitle just in case you can't hear what's going on, it's the story, and very easy to miss out on.

Yar's Revenge is both a frustrating and disappointing experience, I love retro games; it's safe to say that I thrive on them and get excited every time one is announced. I've been disappointed before, but this one has broken my heart more than any other that has come before it. I would have preferred that the good name of Yars' Revenge hadn't been sullied in this way; it really wouldn't have been hard to change the title to something else given all the other changes that have been made, but even then, it still wouldn't account for the game's problems.

It's hard to find recommendations for Yar's Revenge, there is simply too much wrong with it. Its all been done before and better, if not quite so prettily. Yar's Revenge certainly wasn't the remake many may have been expecting, or the sequel those may have hoped for, it provides a disappointing experience that enforces a point that some classics are best left untouched, lest they be remembered in a light not befitting the memories of those who played them.