Yars' Revenge
Atari 2600
Nostalgia Factor:
Yars' Revenge is a game that I always enjoyed when I was a kid. The graphics, the sound, just the overall premise of the game in general was something that appealed to me. While I liked the game, I always found it to be a bit too short and simple - as was the case with many Atari 2600 games. There are only two stages, both of which loop endlessly when you beat them, getting faster and more difficult until you lose all your lives and are forced to start the game over again. There is no "beating" the game. You are simply playing it for a high score and to make it as far as possible.
These types of games have always had a short leash with me. I want something with a goal and an endgame you can work towards. I liked Yars' Revenge, yeah, but I always found that it quickly would wear out its welcome. When I was a kid, playing sessions tended to last no more than ten minutes before I would move onto something else.
All of that being said, I have not played Yars' Revenge in, jeez, over 30 years now? At least 30 years. It may even be longer. Would I find that the game is still enjoyable (in its quirky, repetitive kind of way) or would I find that it had lost all its charm over the years?
That's what we're here to find out. Yars' Revenge. Strap in.
Story:
I'm sure there is some mention of the game's story in its instruction manual - but I never had the manual as a kid. I suppose I could just google it, but where would the fun be in that?
As a kid, I could only imagine what the story could be. You play as a guy dressed like a fly who floats around in outer space, battling aliens. Are these aliens an evil aggressor? Is the fly the aggressor? Who is Yar?
Gameplay:
As I mentioned before, there are only two stages in this game. In each stage, there is a barrier in front of you that you have to break through. There is an alien hiding inside the barrier. You have to get all up in the alien's grill and then launch a nuke from offscreen to penetrate the hole in the barrier and hit the alien in the head. Do so correctly, and you move onto the next level, where you do the same thing again. The only real difference between levels is the shape of the alien's barrier. In the first of the two stage types, it is conical in shape. In the second of the two stage types, it is long and rectangular. After you beat each stage once, the game begins to loop, with each iteration getting tougher and tougher in difficulty.
In the screenshots you may notice a big, staticy pillar running through the middle of the screen. The pillar is a "safe zone" that you can't shoot through. The good news is, you are safe from enemy attacks when you are inside the safe zone. After you cycle through the game's stages a couple of times, the safe zone disappears completely.
You break through the alien's shield by flying right up to it and "pecking at it" with the nose of your ship. You also have a light projectile weapon that can take out the shield. Taking out the shield is pretty easy, although you do have to be careful of the alien projectile that follows you around the screen. The alien also will randomly launch his head at you, which is harder to dodge and even harder to predict.
Once the barrier has been damaged enough, you must rush in and touch the alien head with your ship. Doing so makes a nuke appear on the far left edge of the screen. You have to line the nuke up with the head and time your shot just right, so that it hits the head and defeats the alien.
Like I said, the game is fun (for a while). Once you wrap your head around how the game works, it becomes less and less of a challenge. Until you've looped too many times. There reaches a point where the barrier disappears and the homing missile chasing you around is almost as fast as you are. This is where I usually die and have to start the game over again. If you get lucky and manage to beat a stage under this extreme difficulty, your reward is an ever tougher stage to battle through. Ick. No thanks. Once I consistently start making it to these super tough stages, that is when I normally lose interest and dip out of the game. Happened when I was a kid, and it happened here in 2025.
Graphics:
Obviously, this game is not much to look at. It features a plain black background, and some very simplistic looking shapes as characters. The weird rainbow static barrier is something that's always appealed to me visually, as unusual as that sounds. It gives the game some much needed color, in addition to offering you a safe harbor.
Another thing I appreciate is how the colors change as you get deeper into the game. The alien and his barrier always turn green and purple when you make it deep into the game - and that color combination has always made me think of Frankenstein, for some odd reason.
Sound:
This is an extremely sparse game, as far as its sound goes. The game is eerily silent, with the exception of an ever-present humming noise. I don't know what it is about that humming, but it has always created a somewhat scary, oppressive tone for me.
The sound effects are nothing more than beeps and bloops, but there are a few effects that stand out to me. The first one being the sound that the alien head makes when it turns into a swastika and tries to kill you. Then there is the sound of dying. And then there is the sound it makes when you fire your nuke and defeat the alien. These sound effects are all distinctly "Yars' Revenge" and really help the game lean into its unique aural identity.
Overall:
Despite this game's flaws and limitations, I still like it. Kind of. The premise of the game is good, and when I play it I am normally having a good time with it. But holy god damn, is this game short. And simplistic. And repetitive. You do the same thing OVER and OVER and OVER again. There is no variety to be found here. It is just the same two stages on repeat, with the stages getting a little more difficult each time through them.
You can't beat the game, and I don't care about high scores. That gives the game very low replay value for me. Every time I pop this in, my playing session is over within ten minutes. There is just nothing to keep you playing. No extra stages, no bosses, no story to follow, no variety whatsoever. The game does not even offer a two-player option.
I like the music, I like the eerie tone of the game. And I do like the gameplay and the concept of the game. But it's two freaking levels. Imagine playing Super Mario Bros, and the game ends after Stage 1-2, and then loops over from the beginning.
This game feels like it should get an incomplete score. It's barely a full game. How do I grade something that I enjoy playing, but has nothing within it to keep you playing or engaged? I don't know. That's a problem I've had with the 2600 in general. I like the system, and it got me interested in gaming when I was a kid. But holy cow, are these games brutal to play in the present day. I've reviewed 8 previous Atari 2600 games, and the highest grade I've given out is a C+. Ouch.
This game is going to get a bad score too. I feel like putting it in the D range is doing it a disservice - because the game was quite influential and ahead of its time for the early 80s. But anything higher than a C- is too high and likely a result of looking at the game with rose tinted glasses. So a C- it is! See, that was not too hard.
THE GRADE:
C-
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