YASS is a side-scrolling shooter based in a space universe, you’re the pilot and you’re overwhelmed by enemies. Is it worth taking the time to fight or should you give up right away?
First off, YASS supports the basic single player experience, and also allows 4 players to team up locally, adding a lot more firepower to the mix. The game includes 11 levels to battle through, each lasting 3 minutes, and each level ends in a battle with a boss ship. Beyond that, players can choose from 5 ships to pilot, though outside of the cosmetic appearance, there seems to be no varied effects between them.
If you’re playing solo, you’ll notice that the game is relatively easy, and you should be able to make it up to the 7th or 8th level before you really see a jump in difficulty if you’re playing on normal. Early on, it’s simple to avoid incoming enemy fire and refrain from colliding with their ships. You start with a basic laser, and using dual-stick controls, you can tilt your stream of fire approximately 45° upward or downward. By destroying enemies, you can gain power-ups, including 3 alternate weapons, such as a homing missile or powered-up laser. Aside from weapon power-ups, you can receive a temporary shield, or a “coffee break” which freezes the screen for a few seconds, and pizza, which fully replenishes current live and maxes extra lives.
Although I did not have the ability to play multi-player personally, with the games’ basic nature, I doubt the difficulty would increase much, if at all, and it might be an effortless run to the finish, dependent on the level of difficulty you choose. The number of enemies ships on-screen seems to be greatly increased, and likely the random fireballs would be as well, so that might add more challenge to the game as well. The gameplay is basic though, and it does get repetitive in a short time. Although bosses are randomized, as well as enemy patterns, the game lacks something that keeps pulling you in. If we ever see a sequel or a new title in the genre, it would be necessary to see a more detailed scoring system, leaderboards, and more variations of enemies, weapons, and playing fields.
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Visually, the game doesn’t look terrible, but it’s not something you’ll write home about either. There are a small handful of varied enemy ship designs, a few basic starry backgrounds, and the icons used for the power-ups. This isn’t the game you where you’ll see detailed ships, dynamic backgrounds with meteor showers, planets, or if you’re lucky, ALF. However, stacked against many other Xbox Live Indie games, the graphics are solid, and designs are unambiguous.
When it comes down to sound, that’s where it almost immediately won me over. Besides the overwhelming amount of laser fire and explosion that you hear, the game soundtrack is comprised of a handful of well-known and very catchy tunes. You’ll hear Flight of the Bumblebee, along with other famous instrumental tunes of which the names escape me. Besides the memorable soundtrack, there are in-game voices when receiving the coffee and pizza power-ups. The music and voices both have a somewhat compressed sound to them, but not in the sense that it sounds bad, but more similar to the retro feeling given off by some of the sounds in the much-adored Bioshock.
When all is said and done, YASS isn’t a bad game, but it lacks components to keep you coming back. It’s a decent side-scrolling shooter for a short period of time, and it’ll surely be more fun with friends locally, though LIVE co-op would be a huge upgrade. Despite what may come off as lack of enthusiasm, I did enjoy the game, mostly for the soundtrack alone, and it’s only 80 :MSPoints: which is hard to turn down. As a matter of fact, I even paid for this one myself, rather than using the provided code for the review, so you’ve all got a chance to win coming up soon. Head on over to the Marketplace and grab the demo, which is a very solid representation of what you can expect in the full version. While it’s not amazing, it’s worth the low price, and will provide you with enough fun to justify your purchase.
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