Giles N

This is a pure design flaw. How could, or why should, a new gamer suspect touching the main-enemy(!!!) that need a cannon (!!!) to be taken down? I know people back then had LSD on their sandwiches for breakfast, but you still shouldn’t be able to bring your mind perform logical breakdowns like ‘’whats displayed there to kill and destroy you, which you need a cannon to take down… yes, little bee - just fly over and touch it… its safe’ - - - They obviously discovered the basics of elementary psychology in Yars:Recharged, where you gather space-honey or coins, which are dropped from that which seems visually dangerous to the players character, as you destroy that which has the appearence of killing you. Short version: after 40+ years, they finally fixed Yars. But, good thing is: even if it took quite awhile, the fixed version got really good, so good it can be further expanded upon.

My guess is they want to make game using the Yars’-IP, but with intent making it a starting-point for younger generations, who then mayhap ‘discover’ old Yars, anf get an interest in it. Short version: I don’t think its designed for oldschoolers at all. Its meant to make Atari relevant to younger folks with content that brings up a conglomerate of associations from their everyday-media world, and then associate ‘Yars’ with a broader ‘world’. It appears to deliberately wish to speak to what many younger folks may find interesting. Whether they succeed with this is difficult to say. Tons of metroidvsnias out there, so you get the competition situation. Will one or 2 mini-game(s) to unlock things or proceed, be original and satisfying enough to hook new fans? I don’t have any opinion from som little gameplay video. Cute-and-well-animated heroine/girl factor is (over-)obviously(?) there (for a space-insectoid franchise). But people will in the end have to enjoy the gameplay, and not feel suffocated by overloads of Atari attempting self-mythologization. I’m pretty sure this isn’t remotely intended for oldschool Yar-fans. It’s made to bring ‘Yars’ to ‘dem cool and impressionable kidz. Which is ok, if they primarily stick to creating a quality game, not oversell it as something bigger or more.

I hardly can play or understand (by only following the visuals on-screen) the original Yars-games (arcade or 2600): its just messy and utterly unintutive what the heck is going on, what you’re supposed to do, and then have fun with it. Now, Yars:Recharged is a very much better take on it. 1) a short intro gives you very short turtorial as to how to complete a level. 2) the visuals are clean-cut and gives you a non-cluttered and clear gameplay-field view 3) the gameplay-levels are recharged by having the Enemy Hive/Fortress change in both shape a movement from level to level. Not often I do this, but this one is worth 10-12 bucks, if one wants to get to grips with what’s the best/better stuff this new Atari have pulled off (through SqeakyBox) so far. It manages to take what seems like a dated and a bit wierd early & experimental sci-fi space-shooter, and make it feel more like an action-shmup with game-objects that feels satisfying to both shoot and solve as in a combination of a schmup and modern bubble shooter with varying constellations to take apart. If one is interested in the question of ‘where should Atari take these old franchises - in stasis for 4 decades+’ or just get a original 2D shooter thats also fun, I can recommend using 10-12 bucks on it (unless you starve daily). It’s a good example of what direction Atari should move their older IP/franchises into in my opinion.

Xybots - take 2! In a brilliant move, I decided to actually learn the basic controls before going in-depth, finding out that you can turn 90 degrees to right or left, moving about the Mazes quite freely. Turns out then, this isn’t a rail-shooter+, but more like an early 3rd person labyrinth shooter, even with cool, atmospheric music changing from level to level, money to get, weapons to buy. Yes, should wish for some smoother 3D forward-backward movement effect, but this seems like really, really cool stuff. I upgrade from ‘slightly disappointed’, to ‘mild-wow!’…

So, today I got Hydra, Xybots and Pit Fighter. I knew that Pit Fighter was a real stinker of a game, - a guilty pleasure for a few gamers -, but fairly universally regarded as crappy. Therefore it was fun to see I could actually learn some moves, actually get better. But crap, goodness, yes. Hydra was cool. As expected - alot of fancy 3D scaling and colorful backdrops and lots of arcade boat-shooter action. Good stuff. Road Blasters is still better overall, more smooth and more classic, but Hydra is really cool stuff. Xybots: a bit disappointed. Thought it would play smoother and be more ‘open’ as to moving back and forth in the corridors. Ok. I need of course to test both Hydra and Xybots more to see if my first-impressions sticks.

Sorry for all the typos in my texts: I often write on-the-go or while multitasking in other ways. In my different comments, I’ve pointed out that 1) the Lynx’ failure was probably due to too few games produced and released for it during its commercial time, more than the library content itself. 2) as to how you open, what then about those who’d find Tetris (in black and white to boot) tedious? I love both Klax and Tetris, so it wouldn’t apply to me personally. But you do appeal to personal taste here, and as to ports they are very often measured by ‘faithfulness’ to the original, which the Lynx sometimes did with phenomenal results. It was just that these ports weren’t the most popular and fashionable at the time. 3) The Lynx didn’t have a massive library, which, - I believe - ended up being its main problem, probably followed tightly by distribution and logistics-factors. But it does have exclusives that hold a ‘very high’ or ‘high’ handheld standard. Much of the Epyx-titles were really solid stuff for that era. I personally find Scrapyard Dog a good, fun and charming game. It’s one of my favourite Lynx titles, even if its through Thr Evercade I’ve played it thr most. (I played through it on Atari 50th too, on Switch, but it really shows that Lynx-games are meant for smaller handheld screens to look good. But even on a big screen I had my fun.)

Another attempt (remember - new stuff can done, rebuild walls etc + remember 2, itd just concept-art)

Another attempt (not more) at illustrating what it could look like in the middle of the action:

As mentioned, the gameplay id hampered a bit by slow turn-ability, but since you can play a entire tournament with everything from 0-9 opponents, you can adjust it. As actual lynx cart, its ‘all-over-the-place’ on eBay. If you want it for Evercade, you may want to hurry and find a Lynx 2-collection.

Probably a power-up mode where she can fly around and shoot as the Yar insect-something for a period. I really think Atari needs games that hits broader audiences, as some of the things they’ve released of modern originals may cater a little too much to ‘mostly specially interested’ or ‘already Atari-super fan that buys anything new from Atari anyway’. By all means some of it had potential, but seeing Atari really hit a much broader crowd (with games made after 2020), seems still to have to happen. Cannot be too wierd, cannot be too generic. Cannot cost too much. Tough line to balance.

My guess is that they deliberately wants to make a modern-type genre 2D platformer using a really old, classic Atari IP (Yars), ie. a spin-off game, not a sequel, in order to make more recent/younger gamers interested/introduced and aquainted with older, classic Atari franchises. This seems to be an obvious spin-off type game, not meant to bring very much Yars gameplay into action. — It seems her ‘superpower’ is to don Yar-insect-wings at occasions (power-ups? Level up? Particular mission?) — Dunno if you’re into the Evercade stuff. They released a indie-game about a kid in cyberpunk world, who would have to move about like Prince of Persia and those ‘realistic movement-type games’. It seems to want to cater to that crowd, and try to expand Ataris old IPs to find their ways to popular genre-types. I don’t find that a bad sign in itself. What remains to be seen is whether they deliver quality and fun gameplay. Looking at several of Atari’s modern games, they seem to have in common that they’re not overloaded with both effects and much onscreen-action-at-once (downscaled), probably as to have the gsmes run fairly well on Switch and perhaps even also their own VCR. I feel its way too early to hail or doom it. The full game must be released and then we can get to see if its generic metroidvania from A to Z, or actually contains something new, or something old, just very well done/executed.

yes, the details may have been unique at the precise year of release, but by the time I read about it (…never came across it in the stores …) I had Streets of Rage 2 for Genesis, where you can throw, hurdle, smash…everything but hang from a lamp-post and kick back-forth. Now, Ninja Gaiden is one my favourite Lynx titles, - one I hope to beat (what-pun-there) without save-states. As for the Lynx alone; the problem was that it didn’t have any ‘crowd’ of any genre in the first place. But I find the quality of the Lynx games to be overall good. A few outstanding, brilliant ones, lots of good stuff, a few dreck titles. Just too few games. Cluncky; yes. I didn’t care overmuch, when you got backlit screen and superscaler graphics. Battery life and expenses: definitly a headache.

I think very many here wonder about the same. That better graphics becomes less important with games that are 30-50 years old is understandable. Yet, - improved graphics will probably always matter, it’s just that as we are in the era of 8th to 9th Gen. of consoles, and PCs have actually gradually evolved in background, the difference from whats really good-looking now contra then is so vast, the older games seems to be viewed more like ‘early, primivite block’-games, then NES-type 8-bit or 16-bit era. As of now, what should be the next quantum-leap in graphics…? Do we need it…? Guess for me, good graphics have always been one the most integral parts to everything-video game-related. Even as a very young kid, I was frustrated with our Dragon 64s poor graphics quality… like ‘why does stuff in Arcades (think Ghost n Goblins, Dragon Buster, Commando, Jail Break etc) actually pull me into a fantasy-world, while the unrecognizable block-world on the home-computer hardly tells me anything, shows me anything, - gives me no exciting feelings of adventure and ‘being there’ etc. Guess, people may differ in whats important to them: Is it about videogames being a digital Air-Hockey+, is it about video-games to be an interactive action-movie or interactive story-world…? For retro-games, how much is pure nostalgia (re-living or awakening a fond memory) and how much is about exploring what you wished to experience back then but couldn’t (pretty big part for me) and how much is just being universally interested in everything game-like just to have fun with that paradigm or platform provided…? Certainly can distinctly remember asking myself whether I’d see Konami, Capcom and Sega titles on the Lynx… - of what they would’ve looked like…

You need to add 2 more! Strictly not, but lets put it another way: How Missile Command and Yars, - MSLC-YR really play in as you envision it…?

Love the graphics, but while the car may be a bit too sensitive in controls on Pole Position 1 and 2 Arcade, the drawback here is that the car feels a bit slow in turning, making it frustrating to avoid other cars. They should also have drawn the section of the car panel between the rearview mirrors 3 pixel-lines lower, so that it wouldn’t get in the way of seeing your car fully when it turns to the right snd left. This is only like deleting 3 pixel-lines. Except for that, it’s a fine pseudo-3D pole position style racer, with lots of ways to set up your race: with or without qualification lap, single race or tournament (8 tracks in a row) number of laps, number of opponents (drones). Racing against 7 other car makes for a very, very crowded experience… It has also quite a lot of tracks to choose from, so even if the road behaves the same ways, many turns to learn. And of course colorful, vivid ‘super-scaler graphics’…!