Gyruss (NES)

Shoot 'em up week comes to a close!

Difficulty - ***1/2
Controls - ***1/2
Sound - ***
Graphics - ***1/2
Overall - 13 1/2 stars out of 20

Ultra Games (the sister company of Konami) brings the unique arcade game Gyruss to the NES! The Gyrusian Force has taken over our solar system! Its up to you to stop this planetary madness as you travel from Pluto all the way to the sun! But no problem right?

The game is quite the challenge. With forty stages to warp through and no continues, you'll be tearing your brain out and throwing it at the screen in no time!

But the game does ease you into the challenging portions. Especially with the boss'. For the most part you will take on the enemy base that has a number of pods attached to it. In the beginning it will have four. By the end, it will have up to nine! Learning how to disarm its various blasters and blockers will be the key to victory.

What makes Gyruss unique than all the other shoot 'em up games is the fact your ship rotates around the screen! Yes you travel forward into deep space as enemies come at you! Its really neat. You have two types of control options to pick from. Option A you press all eight directional arrows on the pad to move. Option B has you just pressing left or right on the pad to rotate. It takes some time to learn either of them. I say try both and see which one you prefer. Overall, solid controls.

You're treated to some Bach in the opening shot. Very rad of you guys at Ultra to put that in. For the most part what's there is good. But there is not that much in regards to music. Maybe a handful of tracks. With forty stages what else could they have done eh? The sound effects of your weapons firing, explosions, warping etc. is all great.

Right from the get go your treated to some nice graphics of our (doomed?) solar system. The bad guys are detailed and there is quite some variety too (I enjoy the ship that spits out the mines, ooh nasty!) Like I mentioned before the boss sprites are big, but you'll be seeing them throughout the game. However, there are two bosses that are totally different which is nice.

While there are forty stages to plough through, it isn't as difficult as you might think. The controls while totally unique will have you getting the feel of the ships movement. You get the option of two movement types which is great. The music while almost lacking, is good for whats there (Bach in an NES game!) The graphics are easy on the eyes with some good variety in enemy sprites. Snatch up a copy of Gyruss and hop in your ship so we can take back the sun!