Atari announces Yars Rising reboot from Shantae creator WayForward

[+Zeptari]

On 6/30/2024 at 4:55 PM, Video said:

I could see Xbox wanting a larger print run, but those of us who want physical aren't buying digital just because no physical.

I'm starting to wonder if I should just grab a Switch Lite for physical OR a steamdeck for digital going forward. Might upset my old man eyes looking at those small screens. 

[Zoyous]

On 7/10/2024 at 3:19 PM, Zeptari said:

I'm starting to wonder if I should just grab a Switch Lite for physical OR a steamdeck for digital going forward. Might upset my old man eyes looking at those small screens. 

Handhelds upset my neck more than my eyes, having to tilt my head downward for extended periods of time. But with the Steam Deck or Switch (non-Lite) you have the option of playing them on the big screen as well.

[+Zeptari]

2 hours ago, Zoyous said:

have the option of playing them on the big screen as well.

Yes! And with that in mind I'll just stick with my Xbox, I don't know why I find the idea of owning a Switch or Steamdeck appealing. It's like a metal merry-go-round in my head. 

[Video]

Well switch (not lite) can be used like a console on a tv, that's cool. I bought mine because despite my aging eyes, I still like handheld. The switch is great, but underpowered for modern games. Lots of great classics and oddball games make it, but questionable absenses come into question a lot, like fallout? But switch has the best most complete version of Skyrim.

[PowerDubs]

The demo released on Steam yesterday if anyone plays on PC and wants to check it out

[digdugnate]

Today's release day!  I'm curious to hear any feedback from folks that bought it.  So far it seems to be reviewed well.

 

There's another game coming out later in the week that I'm purchasing so I'm going to hold off on this one for now.

[alucardX]

I'm excited to see what the reviews look like and a little note to Atari: I will buy this from gog.com but I will not buy it from Steam or from Epic.

 

I'm looking forward to when you release it through gog.com

[ShiftLock]

Hey some of these reviews coming out are pretty good - it has convinced me to buy it, looks like a lot of fun.

[Mockduck]

I said it before, but if the game is good then the Yars IP won't matter and if the game is bad then the Yars IP won't save it. Thankfully the gameplay is good, and the graphics and presentation is pretty good too even if it's very very different from something catering to your average 1981 vintage gamer. This is one of the better games I've played this year. If you like what Wayforward does you'll dig it.

[PowerDubs]

Wide range of opinions and reviews on this game… lets see how it goes.

[Razzie.P]

It's pretty much what I was afraid it would be and now I'm a bit torn.

 

It's not terrible by any means, but certainly feels like they had a throwaway game that's too bland to care about on its own so figured "lets add a license to spice it up" so we now have a bland, "nothing special" game with a special license tacked on.

 

 

The part where I'm torn is whether to keep it or refund -- Wayforward is one of my favorite developers, and love Atari, so I want to support them, but also don't want to vote with my $$$ and send a message that I want to see more of this caliber of game.

 

 

[ukiha]

Yes the game certainly isn't bad, I'm just wishing they could 'step up' these licensed games.

 

It's kind of a pattern of 'meh' (I should say, 'not worth 30USD') from Atari lately.

 

Yars Rising, NeoSprint, Lunar Lander Beyond, all games with their new price point for 'premium' re-imagined games after the recharged series.

 

Now the recharged games were 10USD, I could see a 20USD price-point for these new releases, but 30? Not even close to worth that.

 

NeoSprint is... Super Sprint with some extras. I played it through, unlocked almost everything, did the side races and time trials. Its more refined yes, but there is no depth.

Lunar Lander Beyond, I beat it including the perma death mode, the story was paint-by-numbers, and the gameplay was about as enthralling as the genre typically is. They did add a ship that just flies where you want, and the game is less annoying that way, but then it defeats the purpose of being 'Lunar Lander'

 

I guess Yars Rising is breaking that mould a little, doing something quite different, but its just sort of ended up as a 'just ok' WayForward game.

 

A lot of my complaints would go away if these games were 10USD cheaper, in any case.

[Mockduck]

I think this game gets quite a bit more difficult around 30% in, how do others feel about it? I have been seriously slowing down my progress of late due to a few tricky bits and trying to figure out how to get to the various locations on the map.

[LilSwampAss]

On 9/17/2024 at 12:11 PM, Mockduck said:

I think this game gets quite a bit more difficult around 30% in, how do others feel about it? I have been seriously slowing down my progress of late due to a few tricky bits and trying to figure out how to get to the various locations on the map.

I haven't had much trouble with completing the game. The bosses don't really get that much harder until you get to the last one, thanks to the passive buffs you can equip from completing some of the hacking terminals. My ease with parts of the game was probably because I made sure to buff the zorlon shot's damage as much as possible. Getting to areas on the map isn't super difficult since the map tells you when an unexplored passageway is and is not accessible, however there are a couple optional areas later in the game that stumped me because you need to apply a passive buff to buff one of your earned moves. But despite the passive buffs the game does generally get more difficult around area 3 or 4, when the rooms get a lot more difficult to navigate without falling down a pit or taking heavy damage from a larger enemy. The hacking terminals also definitely get a lot harder, but it's pretty easy to find buffs for your Yar in those, so they're always manageable.