tdswift89's Full Review: Yar's Revenge for Game Boy Color
I honestly didn't know Yar's Revenge existed for the Gameboy until I saw it in the epinions database. Being a huge fan of the original Atari 2600 game, I plunked down the 9 bucks Gamestop wanted for a used copy.
For those unfamiliar with the original, a Yar is an alien that looks like a fly, and travels in a spaceship built to resemble a giant housefly. They are peaceful creatures forced to arms by the evil Qotile, who had the audacity to destroy one of the Yar's home planets. (We've still got two out of our three home planet's functioning Yar's, and THAT AIN"T BAD!)
Your mission is to pilot a Yar ship, and try to destroy the Qotile. Your Yar ship doesn't have enough firepower to destroy the Qotile on it's own, so you'll need to arm the Zorlon cannon on the left side of the screen. You can arm the Zorlon cannon by either eating away at the Qotile's shield, or flying directly over the Qotile.
Sounds easy right? It would be if it weren't for a dreaded homing missle constantly chasing after you. It's not enough to just avoid the homing missle, as the Qotile itself will occasionally do a spin attack to take out your trusty Yar spacecraft. Even orlon cannon will wipe out your cruiser if your timing isn't just right.
The original Atari game, while very simple graphicly, is still lots of fun to play. None of the gameplay elements have been lost in the ensuing years. Personally, I have about 3 copies of the game, from buying collections of cartridges to get other games. It's easily in Atari's top ten, and maybe even in my home console top ten for fun gameplay.
So why did Telegames have to go and fudge it up for the Gameboy?
The guy at Game-stop didn't have to do a hard sell to get me to buy this cartridge, just based on it's lineage; not to mention Gameboy has an excellent history of updating several golden age classics. All I was hoping for were a few graphic updates, nothing more. Maybe a cute intro or title screen.
On the latter, Telegames got that part right. The intro screen is an exact copy of what was pictured on the original 2600 cartridge. There's even an opening screen with a rendering of a Yar that looks to have come out of the comic book packaged with the original game.
The Qotile looks exactly the same as does the homing missle chassing after your Yar. (It's just a dash, assasination punctuation out to get ya'). The Yar ship is updated to look like a real buzzing housefly, and control of the ship is just as easy as the Atari. Unfortunately, the speed even on level one is jacked up to professional level. The spaceship is much bigger, not giving you as much room to manuever away from the homing missle. On top of that, the Qotile spins out of control without much warning, with almost no room to get away. Even the neutral zone won't protect you from the Qotile.
On the Atari, everything took place on the screen at once, but on the Gameboy the action scrolls. So hitting the Qotile for bonus points and lives while it's attacking you in midair becomes just that much harder. Hell, just loading your Zorlon cannon is a chore, as I was only able to accomplish this feat once. (The cool explosion and vanishing screen effect isn't even used, just another generic cut scene screen.) Eating the shield doesn't seem to activate the cannon, nor does flying directly over the Qotile. (Not that you'd want to fly over the Qotile, as it seems to be constantly swirling.)
The average game on the Atari for me can last hours after I've "warmed up" a bit, as it would be for most gamers. My average game on the gameboy probably clocks in at 3 minutes. . .and even that would be shorter if I didn't have to wait through the opening screen every time.
If yo usee this chunk of plastic at your favorite bargain bin, leave it there to collect dust. Pick up it's older Atari cousin for maximum enjoyment.
This is my addtion to Rice75 " 's dustbin w/o. The mission: write about that forgotten classic or dawg you rescued from the bargain bin. Since ALL the games I buy are from the bargain bin, the task didn't seem that daunting.
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