| Yars Rising | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | WayForward |
| Publisher(s) | Atari |
| Director(s) | James Montagna |
| Writer(s) | Adam Tierney, James Montagna |
| Composer(s) | Tommy Pedrini |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Atari VCS |
| Release |
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| Mode(s) | |
Yars Rising is a 2024 action-adventure video game developed by WayForward and published by Atari, Inc. for home consoles and computers. [1] It is part of the Yars series. [2]
Yars Rising has been described as a metroidvania genre with 2D exploration and labyrinthian level design. [1] [3] The player is expected to hack into terminals while progressing through the game, giving the player-character different abilities by altering her DNA. [2]
Set in the year 2049, Yars Rising is about Emi Kimura, a young hacker who is hired to expose the dark workings of the shady QoTech corporation. [2] [1]
Yars Rising was announced at an Indie World Nintendo Direct on April 17, 2024. [4] Its creator James Montagna said that the game was made to be "a little bit unconventional" for the Yars IP. [2] He added that they were going for what he called "freeform stealth" in the gameplay, while the environment was based on retrofuturism. [5] Howard Scott Warshaw was not involved in the development of Yars Rising. [2]
The soundtrack of the game consists of music composed by a collaboration of twenty international artists, and includes vocal tracks in both English and Japanese. [2] The music too was designed to be parallel with the retrofuturistic game theme. [5] The team also worked on making the most out of the rumble feature of the Joy-Con, on the Nintendo Switch version of the game. [2]
Development was done by American studio WayForward, who are known for Shantae (2002) and River City Girls (2019). [2]
It was released on September 10, 2024, with physical editions for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. [3] [6] [7]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | (NS) 75/100 [8] (XBXS) 70/100 [8] (PC) 63/100 [8] (PS5) 59/100 [8] |
Yars Rising received a "mixed or average" critical reception according to the review aggregation website Metacritic, and a "positive" reception for the Nintendo Switch version specifically. [8] Reviews by PC Gamer , Rolling Stone and Slant Magazine found the game's 2D platforming sequences weak with simple platforming, while commenting that the hacking sequences were the high points. [1] [3] [9]
