Review: Gyrostarr
Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 7:01pm by David
My first run through Gyrostarr was a failure. I hadn’t read any of the instructions, just hopped in and started to play. “This is trippy,” I thought as a I blasted away at ships and avoided all the obstacles. Finally, I reached the end of the level and BLAM … crashed into the final gate. Turns out you need to collect enough energy to make it through, energy I had advoided thinking it would destroy my ship. Second time through, the concept of the game made sense to me and I was in for a blast.
The game plays like a cross between a traditional SHMUP, a tube shooter, and Tempest. (No surprise on the Tempest feel, since they helped develop a few versions of that arcade classic for various consoles.) The standard control scheme is to hold the Wii Remote horizontally using the D-pad to move your ship left and right, up or down fires a grappling hook, the 2 button is your standard weapon, while the 1 button launches bombs. Control isn’t limited to the Wii Remote. You can use the Nunchuk, Classic Controller, or even use the tilt sensor in the Wii Remote to steer. You can even play with two people just using one Wii Remote and one Nunchuk. This allows you to play up to four players using just two WIi Remotes with Nunchuks. My favorite control scheme was Wii Remote on its own.
As you fight off the bad guys ahead of you, energy clouds come floating along the track. Collecting these helps to ensure you won’t meet an immediate demise at the end of each course. Unfortunately, you can’t just shoot wildly at your opponents since hitting the energy clouds will push them away from you eventually making them impossible to pick up. Your grappling hook can be used to zip out and collect energy or power-ups, such as fast shots or a triple-shot. After completing each level, you move on to a bonus round that consists of collecting energy while flying through boost gates. By the end of the level, you’re moving so fast over hills and turns that you might even get motion sickness.
Multiplayer matches are cooperative, so no matter how good or bad your friends are, everyone makes it through the final gate if you have enough energy stored up. I would’ve liked this to be optional; stealing energy from in front of a rival and watching them crash into the final gate as you sail through would be hilarious.
High Voltage Software has been around for 15 years, developing games such as the Hunter: The Reckoning series and various movie, TV, and sports tie-ins. It wasn’t until this year that their trailer for The Conduit for Wii came along that they stepped out from behind the various publishers and started to generate some media buzz. Gyrostarr is the second WiiWare title they have published (after V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack) and it has deservedly garnered a lot of attention, too.
For only 700 Wii Points, this game is a must buy! Four out of four stars.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I agree. I have found it to be loads of fun as well. My only regret is that the music is rather lacking in quality for me. A game like this demands a thumping techno soundtrack, but the music feels rather subdued and not too remarkable. Then I remind myself, “Well yeah, it is only 700 points.”
June 28th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
This actually looks really interesting, this might be my first Wii Ware Purchase.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
From what I’ve read they chose to replace difficulty with length. Which is a TERRIBLE (!!!!!!!!) choice for an arcade shooter. Everything I’ve read from the shmup crowd about it has been quite bad. I haven’t played it myelf so take my opinion how you will, but if you want a wiiware shmup get Star Soldier instead of this.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I’m not looking for something that appeals to “the shmup crowd”. I’m looking for a great shooter with early-80’s gameplay (not psychotic bullet hell rote memorization 90’s gameplay) and trippy visuals, and this sure looks like it fits the bill. It reminds me of Web Wars on the Vectrex, brought 25 years into the, uh, present.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Yeah, this isn’t exactly for the hardcore shmupers (of which I am one) look at it as Shmup Lite” or something like that maybe. It’s still fun.
June 29th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Reminds me of STUN Runner from the arcade. It was worth the 700 points. Hope i actually play the things that I download for my wii.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:19 am
I wish there was a resume feature, so if you didn’t have an hour or two to play the game straight through you could resume at whatever level you left off at.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Commentary updates:
Music - is adequate for the game and like Brian said, it’s only 700 points. Seems like the music is adaptive, though. Get some powerups or a boost and the music intensifies.
Resume / Length - seems like some levels are a bit easy/long, but I believe this is supposed to purely be an arcade experience.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
4 out of 4 seems pretty generous. Shouldn’t at least a half star been deducted for enemy ships that look like fleas?
June 29th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
I am going to buy this game for sure. MOst of the reviews I have seen are very positive, and I love flight games. Nice review.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I have mixed feelings about this game. I’ve loved it, but my friends have hated it. The first 2 levels are too easy and actually quite boring, and the bonus levels are seizure-inducing, but otherwise, it’s a lot of fun. That’s my opinion. My friends, on the other hand, say that this game sacrificed content for speed and flashy graphics. I might have to agree with them on that…
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 pm
http://tgnthegamersnation.blogspot.com/