My Played Video Games Review: Gyruss for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

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Gyruss is a 1983 shooter arcade game produced by Konami of Japan and ported over to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and released in 1989.

This is one of the only early retro shooters that I really liked. And I got engrossed in playing it a long time ago.

The Story

It is the future year of 25XX. You are mankind's last best starship pilot trying to stop an evil alien overlord, his fleet, and alien minions. You start at the edge of the Solar System shooting your way to the Sun!

NES cartridge of the game (Image source)

The Graphics and Sound

The 8-bit graphics in the game are better than some NES games. But they are not the best at the time. The enemy aliens and ship sprites are decent. I think the developers were somehow inspired by 80's sci-fi horror films when they made some of those boss sprites.

I kind of like this game's music. It is well done and quite catchy. I play this game always in the past just to listen to the synth music. The sound effects are okay. They are usually the basic laser blasts, explosions, and beeps.

Gameplay sample of Gyruss

The Gameplay

Gyruss is not the usual basic spaceship-styled shooter. You view your ship from behind and you travel around the screen in a circle always firing towards the center. This is what makes the game more original and unique.

Enemies come at you from all sides of the screen and fly in various patterns through the middle of the screen. If you fail to shoot enemies, they will travel ahead of you so they appear small in the center of the screen. You can circle around and shoot them but they will eventually fly back towards you to kill you.

Basically you fly around in a circle and shoot them aliens. It might look somewhat difficult to target your enemies and the controls take a little while to get used to. But after playing for about several minutes, it will be a breeze for you.

My Verdict

Gyruss is a classic NES spaceship shooter with a unique style that makes it a fun and original game. I would recommend it to anyone who likes retro game shooters.

The NES console or desktop NES emulators are the best way to play this classic. But if cheapness and laziness is your style, then you can play it online.

Let's keep on gaming in the free world!