Yars Rising

• Title — Yars Rising • Developer — WayForward • Publisher — Atari • Director — * Matt Bozon • James Montagna • Producer — Brian Smith • Designer — Barrett Velia • Programmer — * Robert Koshak • James Guintu • Artist — Elina Bell • Writer — * Adam Tierney • James Montagna • Composer — Tommy Pedrini • Engine — Unity • Series — Yars • Platforms — Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Atari VCS • Released — September 10, 2024 • Genre — Action-adventure, Metroidvania

• Illustration — Gameplay screenshot Yars Rising has been described as a metroidvania game with 2D exploration and labyrinthian level design. The player is tasked with hacking into terminals while progressing through the game, giving the player-character different abilities by altering her DNA.

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.

Yars Rising was announced at an Indie World Nintendo Direct on April 17, 2024. Its creator James Montagna said that the game was made to be "a little bit unconventional" for the Yars IP. He added that they were going for what he called "freeform stealth" in the gameplay, while the environment was based on retrofuturism. Howard Scott Warshaw was not involved in the development of Yars Rising. 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. The music too was designed to be parallel with the retrofuturistic game theme. 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. Development was done by American studio WayForward, who are known for Shantae (2002) and River City Girls (2019). It was released on September 10, 2024, with physical editions for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.