Yar's Revenge Review (XBLA)

Bugging out

Yar's Revenge

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Killspace Entertainment
PEGI Rating: 12+
Players Offline: 1 - 2
Genre(s): Shooter (On the rails)

Supported Controllers (hover for description)

This game supports the Xbox 360 controller

Full review

Parental Perspective

You say:

Difficulty

Not recommended Your child may find parts of this game frustrating, awkward, or otherwise too difficult.

OK with caution. Certain elements of this game may be too challenging for a child of this age, but they may be able to muddle through. A lot depends on the child.

Suitable. A child of this age should have no trouble getting to grips with the game.

Content

Violence: None

Games in this category will be very tame. At worst, the may feature unrealistic violence between/against non-human characters.

Bad Language: None

The strongest language we allow in this category is God, Damn, and Hell. Games rated as having no bad language are free of swear words, or other strong language.

Sexual Content: None

Games in this category will be completely free of overtly sexualised characters or imagery.

Reading Required: Required

Games in this category may be text heavy, or will otherwise require your child to be comprehensive. Sample sentences are given where possible.

The dual analogue control scheme took a lot of getting used to for our experienced team, which is something to bear in mind when buying it for your child. In fact, the control scheme's probably the only barrier that may prevent your child enjoying this game, as the difficulty level's surprisngly tame, and the regular checkpoints almost ensure you can progress through the levels with ease.

Strangely, Yar's Revenge is rated a PEGI 12+ for violence, despite featuring nothing of the sort. In the game, you'll be shooting down bugs, and destroying things that look a bit like tanks, with the tanks simply exploding, while the bugs ooze green goo as they pop and disappear - there's nothing phenomenally gory about it at all.

While Yar's Revenge does feature a local co-operative mode, it's hampered by some poor design decisions. The main problem is that both players share a health bar, making progress at least twice as hard, as you're taking twice the damage, with effectively half the health. It's also pretty confusing trying to figure out which character you are, at times, due to their inherent similarities, and the complexity of the control scheme. If you're looking to buy this for the co-op, don't.

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