Yar's Revenge XBLA Review

Yars Revenge remains one of the only classic Atari games to not to have earned a following akin
to Pac-Man or Galaga. So I was surprised to see a modern revival, especially a decade after this kind of
experiment was last attempted. Still, I’m not one to turn down a good rail shooter, so I jumped into the
game, expecting to have a pretty good time at the very least.

However, what I found was a particularly demanding shooter, playing on the tradition of Panzer
Dragoon, featuring a camera that whips the viewer to the next wave of oncoming enemies, and carrying
them around massive boss fights. This seems glorious on paper, but it has many unfortunate flaws.
First and foremost, the controls are needlessly complicated. Maneuvering your insectoid lead character
around the screen and guiding her shots requires both thumb sticks, and numerous buttons controlled
an interesting variety of weapons. Adjusting to split of flight and shooting between the two controls is
trying, and makes the game inaccessible to fans of the hit Atari game. Even when adjusted to this aspect
of the game, the hairiest moments will still cause some confusion, and damage can be found en masse
as a result.

Beyond the clean and almost sterile loading screen, a series of lush jungle settings and caverns
awaits, calling upon a palate of moist greens and dry dark earth tones. Unfortunately, this type of
setting comprises the majority of the game, only stretching the visuals out into the sky to offer variety.
Thankfully, the graphics are quite nice. The enemy animations are fairly standard in comparison to Yar,
who floats around the screen gracefully whilst painting the sky with laser fire. Cut scenes at the open
and close of each level are performed as a comic book, sans text bubbles, and feature a Japanese anime
art style. While this seems out of place, it’s effective, and doesn’t distract form the story that it attempts
to tell any more than the quickly disappearing subtitles. Due to a lack of voice acting, this text is the
players’ only connection to the story. The story itself is poorly written, and seems unnecessary. It gives a
reason for Yar’s constant insecticide, and nothing much else. The included comic tells a better tale, and
it was originally penned in 1981, around the release of the original. In stark contrast, the sound design is
bland. The soundtrack is filled with uninspired techno, cheapening the sweeping landscapes over which
Yar dies so many times. Laser and missile sound effects are equally stale, but are at least effective, and
don’t distract from the overall experience.

On rails shooting hasn’t really aged in the decade since it was last really implemented, so
Yar’s Revenge performs admirably as it glides from point A to B over the aforementioned landscapes.
Thanks to a wide variety of weapons, the steep difficulty can be tamed a bit with the help of homing
missiles and different lasers, and a shield which restores your ship’s energy. The shield is given out
fairly frequently, and you’ll find yourself quite thankful that you have such a thing as your shield gage
is reduced from the nineties down to the forties by a single wave. The enemies lack the variety of the
weapons, relying on a few models with swapped colors, but ultimately only differing in the amount
of damage that they take before dying. This isn’t a game breaker, however, as the challenge is still
implemented around the patterns in which new combatants enter the screen. Keep in mind, this game
is very hard. If you are new to rail shooters, try some other titles first, and come back for this one later.
If nothing else, try the cooperative mode. A second player is apt to assist with the hundreds of onscreen
enemies that a typical run through launches each minute.

Easily the most disappointing aspect of the game is the selection of bosses. Instead of being a
creative, and reflex testing challenge, gamers are introduced to behemoths intent on their destruction
that launch the same attacks in the same order until enough lasers are eventually shot into them
that they die. What makes this a crime is the time it takes to bring down these colossal beasts. Their
bottomless health meters drags the confrontations out, and kills the excitement built up from the levels
preceding the battle.

There isn’t enough to bring enough gamers back for another run. The six levels can be repeated
on three difficulties, and little is unlocked to satiate the many gamers, leaving them feeling wary about
the 800 points spent on the title. While the game offers an intense rail shooter experience, there just
isn’t enough to bring players back once the credits have rolled. It’s fun, fast, and diabolically difficult. It

just happens not to be for everyone.

6.5/10

So, I'm a hair late posting this particular review up here, but it was originally penned for a possible job writing video game reviews. Obviously, I didn't get it. Oh well.

Nintendo 3DS--Yes, I have one now.

This photograph was taken at UNCW, using the AR Cards that came with my beautiful new blue 3DS. Yes, I spent most of my first day with the console playing around with the pack ins. But, honestly, I feel like this was a justified move. Why move on to my games when there are toys packed with the toys, and built into the toys, that just have to be taken advantage of. And this, as always, is one of Nintendo's strongest suits. They have the ability to make the most simplistic of things into a key selling point, as they have done with their augmented reality demo AR Cards and Face Raiders.

But that's not all I have with my sweet new system. With this wonderful graduation gift, I was also gifted Super Street Fighter IV 3D and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. I'm going to leave the story short on those--pick em up if you have a 3DS. They are fun, functional, have minimal to impressive amounts of 3D, and have given me plenty of reasons to keep coming back to the console for more. They are performing admirably in keeping my appetite in check until Zelda comes out next month, and Star Fox later on, and Metal Gear Solid 3...and well...you get the point.

So what if there aren't a massive amount of games right out of the gate. I can't really recall any NDS launch titles that were even of this quality, so I'm just excited about the potential of the system right now. There are a few RPG's headed my way, several fighters that I'm actually excited about (but the lack of Soul Cal 3D is heartbreaking), and even that Kid Icarus thing that has been the shining emerald of the rumor mill for years now.

And this isn't even including the upcoming e-store opening in early June. I'm not sure of where I'm going to dig up points by which to jump on some early digital titles, but I'm going to try to. It's hard enough to even pay off my copy of Zelda right now. But the question for me is--do I want the 3D updates of classic games, or to play old hand held titles that completely passed by my five year old radar that ignorantly ignored the majority of games that were not platformers.

Probably both.

Anyway, this entire post has been completely driven by the desire to say something about the 3DS, and say that I'm actually at the party on time for a console for once in my life, thanks to my beautiful girlfriend, and my roommate who is awesome himself, though I can not claim any grounds for his looks. It's disconnected, brain dead, and loopy, and just the kind of thing to expect on hour twenty-two of my day. Perhaps I'll drop another post up here later when I'm on hour thirty, and completely out of my brain.

In other, non 3DS news, we want to bring Z-Trigger back out, but keep having scheduling issues. Sorry folks. Really am. I'm dying to get back on the phone and talk games with everyone.

Also, elephants.

Wait, where are we now?

The Rebirth of the Traditional Gamer

In their opinion, you are either casual or hardcore. There is no in between for the marketing committees who design the advertising push for the latest games from all of your favorite publishers. This is a symptom of the modern gaming problem, and quite possibly, the source from which all other evils flow.

Or perhaps I'm just being too dramatic.

Nevertheless, I've been quite unsettled by this dichotomous portrayal of the video game market. There are far more than two types of gamer out there, and there always has been. But in the past decade, this analysis of our favorite hobby has been more and more common, eventually becoming the manner by which all games are designated an audience. I can't recall the last time a game was made and sold without seeing one of the words in a preview/review blurb somewhere. It's no longer about the genres, and the fans of those genres. It's about cramming all games into two little bins, where the supposed mass for each variety comes and picks one of the two; a colorful click fest of little substance, or the dark and muddy killing floor. In these areas, genre loses meaning. The AAA role playing games don't even differ from this. Whether fantasy or sci-fi, acclaimed and heralded RPG's resemble first person shooters in tone and visual design, and no longer have the broad spectrum of designs that they have in past generations. Sure, some of the less mainstream JRPG's still play and feel Japanese, but let's stick to the big name stuff, for the sake of argument. A decade ago, we got things like Planescape: Torment, which was a bizarre and brilliant little title that still gets attention today. It was gritty and dark, but it also had a sense of humor, and was colorful. Now, Dragon Age and Fallout 3 are the flavors of the moment, and look almost like everything else that comes out now: dark browns and grays. I'm getting off track, and no, I don't plan to edit. I never edit this bloody thing anyway.

I ultimately want to beg gamers for another option insofar as how games are presented as they are being sold to us. So, I present to you, how I designate myself when I am presented with the casual/hardcore question.

I am a Traditional gamer.

This means that I still play the brand new Mario game, but don't mind a round of Call of Duty. I play Angry Birds when I get a chance and the mood hits, but I am cursing and tearing my way through Castlevania Bloodlines on the Genesis. I play classic games. I play modern games. I play Tetris on my Game Boy Pocket which is permanently located in the glove box of my car. I will play whatever I want to play, when I want to play it, and I don't care what people think of my gaming habits, as they are my own. This is the way we played games when I was a kid. We could jump from Mickey's Mousecapade over to Super Empire Strikes Back (still one of the hardest games I've ever played) and not even think about the switch-up which we played through.

And those of you doubting this concept by saying it's just another one of the aforementioned bins, I contest your opinion by saying that this isn't a bin. It's the whole world of gaming, presented to you, without the forced categorization. You can still go play WiiSports with your parents between sessions in Half-Life 2, and your position doesn't shift.

I still haven't revealed what would make this easy for the kids in marketing. The simple fact is that most of their so-called "hardcore" audience is already pointed at being a traditional gamer. Just think about it. There is a pretty good chance you have been playing games for a long time, depending on your age, and you have played through a good number of titles during your gaming tenure. Not all of these games were made with the "hardcore" in mind. In fact, some of them are sometimes considered "kid games" by modern standards, due to the lack of blood, gore, and sex. You know what? That's fine. You probably enjoyed them if you saw them through to the end. This idea that "hardcore" games have to be mature is immature anyway. This brings me to the next reason why this whole casual/hardcore bit bothers me.

Hardcore used to mean that you were a brilliant gamer, completing the hardest titles with little effort. I don't know any of the "hardcore" gamers who can do a perfect run of Ghosts and Goblins on the NES, or even a solid run at all. I sure as hell can't do it. I can't even clear the first level of that beast. The gamers who have played a single title into the ground, and know all of it's ins and outs are the true hardcore gamers. Without the Traditional moniker that gives us our free roam of the gaming landscape, we could get shuttled into the casual brand with this definition. But this brings me to my next little gripe.

I don't like the easy setting of a game being called Casual mode. Casual isn't a difficulty. Easy, Meduim, Hard, and others qualify as difficulty settings. Casual is a mode of dress, not a difficulty, and not a gaming audience. Now I'm just getting a bit repetitious and silly.

Ultimately, I want the landscape to grow, and gamers of all walks to stride into the future together. My mom was the one who beat the Mario games first in my house when I was a kid, and the Wii brought her back to video games. Despite the fact that she fits into the casual moniker doesn't make her less of a gamer than the person who dumps thousands of hours of their existence into playing World of Warcraft. Sure, she may not have the same sense of dedication, or even the same goals, but she is getting what the marathon WoW player is:

She's having fun. Isn't that what this entire hobby is all about?

Nintendo's Next

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I love Nintendo more than any man should love a corporation designed to empty his wallet. Regardless, I can't help but get excited when they have a new console coming down the pipe. Sure, the Wii has had hard times all throughout, and I absolutely despise the me-too minigame collections that have poured out of the woodworks trying to capitalize on the success of WiiSports and WiiPlay. I imagine people have been trying to understand my excitement about the things that Nintendo does to sell their product since I claimed my love for the GameCube so many years ago.It's simple.

When Nintendo makes video games, they make the best video games. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, yes, all of them. Sure, it's an easy ploy, banking hard on one's franchise characters. But you have to remember, these are the games that brought us to the consoles, hooked us, and made us seek out other games. I know this isn't true for everyone, but I'm not going to try and make a play for Sonic, who has an even rougher track record than any of the aforementioned characters in this post.

Another reason I will always back Nintendo is their sheer insanity. I've not witnessed one of their console launches that didn't make blink twice at some aspect of their console and controller design. I can't help but get excited because they always do something different. They have redefined how we play video games with everything that they do, and don't just stick a new console out just to increase the graphics processing power. Sure, that usually comes in the package, but it's not the main event, so to speak. The only console I've actually seen them fail to completely rewrite things was with the GameCube, and it was still a great console with a fantastic library of games. The only thing I remember warping my vision was the controller, and I still love that silly little pad. Although, it must be said--the GBA cable was the testing ground for one of the rumors floating around about the next Nintendo console: the on controller screen.

And this, friends, is what I mean by insane. The most exciting rumor in circulation about the new Nintendo is the hi-def screen dead in the middle of the controller. Yes, the controller is still traditional in that it has buttons and analog sticks. Beyond this, it's a play in keeping the "casual" crowd that funded this beast of a console. It's a concept that has been tried by Sega and Nintendo alike, but never made it's way into the forefront due to lack of support. Honestly, it's the most interesting part of the package to me. I have long thought that if they could bridge the game to the screen on the controller, containing information on controller screen that could be interactive within the game beyond using menus, than they would have the opportunity to have an experience so immersive that no third party would be able to contest it. Not to mention that they can employ the online store to keep the casuals contented and stick a knife right into the heart of Apple, who quite frankly doesn't belong in the gaming market. Remember the Pippin, my friends. Remember!

I'm going to let the other rumors pass, because this was the most exciting one to me. But let's think about the reaction from the Sony and Microsoft pending the success of this insane concept.

We can already predict that Sony will be smug and bash the console with that prick in the commercials right up until the day that it's in stores. Microsoft, if I recall correctly, didn't sit around complaining that motion controls were a joke, so I can see them being respectable about it, if nothing else. I mean, Microsoft is fairly new to this game aside from the MSX in Japan, so they need to remember that they are only making video games because Nintendo saved the market in the 80's. But both of these companies are probably working on their follow up consoles at the moment, whether they are going to admit it or not, and will be watching closely as Nintendo readies their new console for marker. So I see two scenarios, which apply to each company. They will either wait it out, and see if the controller catches on, and apply the technology to some "higher" degree (like the Move, haha, haha), or send out an attachment for the current consoles. However, I don't know if Sony will be willing to try and cash in on Nintendo's success again, considering that the Move is derided by most gamers, and their own audience won't adopt the bloody thing because it costs so much. Microsoft could easily pick up some steam with the concept, as they seem to have a much better idea of what the casual crowd wants--silly easy games where you look stupid playing them. After all, the Kinect is outselling the Move in spades, and is actually appealing to the audience it's made for. They are trying to shoot for the whole "hardcore" thing supposedly, but I haven't really seen anything outside of Child of Eden that even raises my eyebrows. And I won't be playing Child of Eden with one of those contraptions either!

But this is all purely speculative at this point, seeing as we still have no real idea what Nintendo is hiding at their secret underground laboratories, stroking their angry white cats, and counting their money. The next few months will be interesting, not just because of the official announcement of their new console, but because the backlash from the Sony and Microsoft fanboys will be so blinding that I might actually have to get some sunglasses.

Let's just hope that Nintendo doesn't blow this golden opportunity. They appear to have been trying hard to appeal to the whole "hardcore" audience again, pushing real video game experiences for the past couple of years, and having a ground for that as well on the 3DS. It's not enough to just push this concept though, they are actually going to have to work to get that slice of the market back in their corner. It's going to take time and sheer insanity. Since they've already got that, I think it's now that they should put the time in.

Guess we will just find out in a month.