Yars Rising Switch Review
Summary: The main character in Yars Rising has so much vigour that there are certainly no flies on her. Bad jokes! Bad jokes everywhere! Well, I enjoyed this game, though it’s not perfect.
3.25
Lady of the Flies
Metroidvania still remains a prominent force in the gaming industry. This year alone, a few of the genre’s representatives have been released, and they made a splash. The most recent one is Yars Rising from indie studio WayForward. Is this game worth a candle?
The roots of the title can be traced back to 1982. This is when Yars’ Revenge was released for the Atari 2600. That 2D shooter told the story of the fly-like humanoid race – Yars – taking revenge on bastards who destroyed their planets. Four decades later, WayForward decides to pay homage to the Atari’s classic, releasing a Metroidvania set in the flies’ universe.
In Yars Rising we unfold the story of Emi Kimura – a young and lively hacker who aims to infiltrate a mysterious corporation. Things get more and more complex with time, and it quickly becomes clear that a strong bond exists between the protagonist and the Yars race. Emi acquires some supernatural powers which turn out to be essential during her secret mission.
In this conventional Metroidvania the character passes through corridors and looks for ways to unlock new parts of the map. Emi jumps from one platform to another, fights enemies and hacks various systems. At the beginning, the protagonist can only avoid opponents and sneak past them, but the more we play, the more skills we unlock.
Enemies can be divided into two groups: robots and aliens. They sometimes present dumb behaviour, but the combat mechanics in the title are, by and large, captivating and satisfying.
Yet, the most exciting and enjoyable element of this indie are, in my humble opinion, minigames. There the player needs to break into security systems of the corporation. This mainly concerns crushing walls and shooting bugs. These minigames make up a “remaster” of Yars’ Revenge.
Honestly, I didn’t expect 8-bit games would be so addictive. They become tricky very quickly, but if you have a problem with them, you can adjust their difficulty in settings.
Dialogues in Yars Rising are packed with jokes. However, beware that most of these jokes turn out painfully cringe. Thus, if you don’t like this type of humour, you’ll probably find the title hard to digest.
Another thing is the voiceover. I really appreciate that such a small game has fully voiced characters, but sometimes conversations in Yars Rising appear way too emotional. After two hours of dealing with the mawkish and whiny expressions of Emi and her groovy friends, I couldn’t help my hand reaching the volume button.
Frequent loading screens are even more disruptive. In the Switch version they pop up very often, which ruins the gaming experience. Certainly, I expected more flow in the game about flies (well, bad sense of humour is certainly contagious).
Yars Rising looks charming. Locations are colorful and atmospheric. The protagonist’s journey entails a lot of backtracking, but this doesn’t cause distress in such an environment. I also like manga-style stripes that unveil the main character’s background. They’re simply artistic.
Final thoughts
Yars Rising is a non-rebellious Metroidvania with satisfying gameplay and cheesy dialogues. The game doesn’t have a mind-blowing plot or innovative mechanics, but it provides fun – and this in itself is enough to get your interest.
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