Yars' Revenge

released on May 01, 1982

Yars' Revenge is a video game released for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It was created by Howard Scott Warshaw and was Atari's best-selling original title for the 2600.


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Yars' Revenge is probably the best Atari 2600 game I've played. The gameplay itself might be a bit too simplistic for some, focusing on a singular boss surrounded by a destructible barricade, but it all shines for me with the comic and whole backstory created for this game. Had I not known the Yar feed on materials to power their cannons, I probably wouldn't have known to eat the surrounding barrier instead of shoot it.

The only thing that bums me out a bit is that this never got "reverse-ported" over to arcades. If Tron (which happened to also come out the same year) could have a similar section involving destroying a barrier to reach a boss, then I think Yars' Revenge deserves to be presented with arcade board flair. It's a shame this IP never really went further.

Played as part of Atari 50.

By itself, Yars' Revenge is a fairly bland shooter, being a complete cakewalk even on the hardest difficulty (but still admittedly one of the better 2600 games lol). But when taking into consideration the comic book it shipped with, it having an actual story and clear aesthetic direction, and some of the best sound design and graphics the 2600 has to offer, this had to have been pretty damn cool for the time.

Yar. My beloved. I don't know what that Qotile meanie did to u but I will help u kick his ass.

it's fine. Great for 2600 standards

I don't understand the love for this game. For one, I think it looks hideous. The force field strip is yet another example of developers of this time period getting access to color, and then vomiting it out on the screen instead of doing anything coherent with it. The gameplay itself is slightly obtuse yet so simplistic as to not be very entertaining beyond the constant threat of the homing missile.

Edit 1/16/24: I found out recently that the force field is actually the game's source code. Adding half a point to my review for that just being straight up cool. More info here if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HSjJU562e8

Yars Revenge is an interesting historical oddity that is definitely worth a bit of time. This might be one of the most visually stunning games on the Atari 2600. On a system where characters are often just a square, and other items are blocky, Yars' Revenge feels abstract in a way that evokes surreality. The central color pillar is a flowing rainbow of color shifting through hues. I don't entirely know what it is supposed to be, but it looks very cool. Likewise, when the base explodes, the screen becomes awash in triumphant color.

Yars' Revenge certainly feels unintuitive. I can pick up and play many shmups and generally get how it works very fast, this is a game that took awhile to figure out. Flying into enemies is usually death in games, but maybe back in 1982 that wasn't as ingrained in players. Perhaps in that regard this game has been hurt by the passing of time.

Even if you know how the game works, Yars has problems. There are two levels the game cycles through, and while these add variety, the levels don't feel nearly as varied as modern offerings, or even games that would come out a few years later. The game does get harder over time because the chaser missile gets faster, but that's the main difficulty spike. Perhaps it is unfair to compare Yars to later games in that department because it is on such limited hardware, but other space shooters get harder by throwing in more obstacles and enemies, or harder enemies, and it lets those games feel much better paced.

Yars' Revenge is a graphically impressive game for its system, and even separated from its limitation and taken purely on its own merits it still looks great. It's easy to see why this game made such a strong impression, because nothing looked quite like it. Even the MOMA recognized this game's value today and included it in its collection. It's worth a play, if only because it's short and you can get the gist quickly, and its historically important and visually iconic.