I understood exactly what Yars Rising was the instant I saw that the save points were authentic recreations of the sleek, yellow curves of the 1971 arcade game, Computer Space. This is an anime-influenced Metroidvania from WayForward, the studio behind the likes of the excellent Shantae and River City Girls, so it has plenty of pedigree in that space. But it's also a love letter to Atari history, those foundational bits of gaming lore that sadly don't get the same modern play that the iconography of Nintendo and Sega does.
I got to play about 30 minutes of Yars Rising as part of Summer Game Fest, which was just enough time to get a feel for how the game blends its nostalgic view of Atari history with the format of a modern side-scrolling Metroidvania. This game's namesake, Yars' Revenge, is almost inexplicable if you haven't played it before – a sort of proto-shmup about crossing a barrier to defeat a creature called a Qotile on the other side. Here, that gameplay mechanic becomes a pixelated hacking game. At its most basic level, an allied cannon follows your position as you point it toward the enemy you need to destroy. Fire the cannon, quickly get out of the way, and complete the objective. Other hacks I saw added Centipede-style enemy formations to the mix, or barriers you need to shoot with your ship's gun before firing the cannon.
