Yars' Revenge

Bundled somewhere in Microsoft's interactive hawker Game Room (released today) is Yars' Revenge, an 80s vintage Atari shooter by Howard Scott Warshaw. Players assume the role of a buzzing insect ship tasked with vanquishing a shielded floating face. A thick line of graphical corruption intentionally runs down the length of the screen, and the soundscape seethes with throbbing jeopardy. Divorced of any mechanic explanation, Yars' Revenge is an exercise in the nightmarishly abstract.

Shooting the face's shield only ever seems to make it angry, a state that eventually causes your enemy to fling itself wildly about the screen, hoping for a collision. Chugging bullets are infrequently launched that track and follow your fly, remorselessly zeroing in on your twitchy wandering. Moving into the corruption prompts the white noise soundtrack to sharpen, suggesting decay for anyone caught lingering. Die, and you get a brief readout of context free numbers. Eventually you work out that to damage the face you must cross the screen and begin nibbling at it, this feasting cues up a calamity cannon. Shots must be carefully lined up, firing where you expect the cornered face to be. Hit, and the screen explodes, before instantly dumping you back into an assault. Yars' Revenge wants to induce stress; nothing about the game encourages any sense of comfort or safety. It's all shrill noises, and relentless hysteria tasks.