Atari and Wayforward’s Yars Rising is out in September and looks slightly more Yar

Atari and Wayforward have announced that Yars Rising, a spin-off/reimagining of the 1981 Atari 2600 title, Yars’ Revenge has a release date of September 10, 2024. They’ve also released a new trailer that covers the gameplay in better detail.

Announced back in April, Yars Rising is a gated exploration (Metroidvania) game that bases itself on Yars’ Revenge. It’s a weird way to reimagine a fixed-screen shooter from the early days of home games. While the initial trailer didn’t really show much relation to the original beyond some visual references, both the demo and the trailer show a more distinct link. I’m talking about the hacking mini-games that are essentially new configurations of the classic Yars’ Revenge gameplay.

It’s a better trailer overall, though I’m still not sold on the aesthetic. I say that as someone who actually likes Yars’ Revenge. However, Joseph Luster tried out the demo and came to the same conclusion that he’s curious, but not wild about the game. I’m just not seeing much of a hook here.

Yars Rising still fits into Atari’s business model of adapting old licenses into smaller-budget games. So far, a lot of what I’ve experienced from the initiative is solid but unremarkable. However, with the resurrection of the Infogrames label and Nightdive and Digital Eclipse at their side, they aren’t restricting themselves to one strategy. It’s a lot better than what we had a decade ago when they last tried to resurrect Yars Revenge and Star Raiders.

Yars’ Rising will be released for Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC on September 10, 2024.