Atari (publisher) and WayForward Technologies (developer) have announced a new chapter in the Yars series. It's about Yars Rising and will be available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch in 2024. A trailer has also been released, which you can see below.
In Yars Rising, players take control of the young hacker Emi Kimura, hired by a mysterious patron to infiltrate the shadowy Qotech corporation. We're talking about a metroidvania, so we can expect to have to jump, run and take advantage of the protagonist's hacking skills to unravel the mysteries of this sci-fi adventure. At the center of the plot will be not only the corporation but also a distant alien race.
The team explains: “WayForward has built a reputation for developing franchises with strong characters and rich storytelling. In Yars Rising, the studio delivers a Metroidvania adventure side-scroller with platforming action, a balance of stealth and combat gameplay, and retro-inspired minigames.”
WayForward Technologies and Atari
WayForward Technologies is the team of Shantae and River City Girls. Wade Rosen, President and CEO of Atari, says:
“Wayforward's proven ability to tell stories and build worlds made them a perfect choice for reimagining one of Atari's longest-running game series. I'm sure fans will enjoy this dynamic new chapter in the Yars story: Yars Rising.”
The history of the Yars series
The Yars series was born way back in 1982 with Yars' Revengethe best-selling first-party game on the Atari 2600, created by Howard Scott Warshaw, also author of the tie-in Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones) and the failed ET The Extra-Terrestrial.
The game was initially born as a licensed conversion of the arcade shooter Star Castle and then transform into a different title, maintaining most of the basic mechanics. As a fly-like insectoid alien named Yars, the player must move and shoot to eliminate an alien enemy called Qotile, destroying its outer barrier while evading its attacks.
The series returned in 2005 with Yars' Return, born as a homebrew hack of Yars' Revenge, but subsequently officially published by Atari, while in 2022 Yars: Recharged arrived, a remake of the first episode that blends the basic gameplay of the original with new bullet hell, arcade mechanics and shoot-em ups. Furthermore, in this remake, the protagonist Yars takes on humanoid features, although he still resembles an alien insect.
In this sense, Yars Rising represents a further evolution and mutation of the seriesgiven that as previously mentioned it is a metroidvania, starring a girl much more similar to a human than to an alien insect.
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