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My Played Video Games Review: Gyrodine for the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom)

darthnavaPosted for Everyone to comment on, 3 years ago3 min read

Image source

Gyrodine is a top view, vertically scrolling, video game shooter developed by Crux and released in arcades by Taito of Japan in 1984. It got ported to the Nintendo Famicom in Japan in 1986.

This is another game that is always included in Famicom compilation games that were bootleg cartridges being sold in my country during the early 1990s.

The Story

There isn't any background story in this game and there are no levels. You just pilot a helicopter and have to destroy as many enemies you can over various terrain.

Famicom cartridge of the game (Image source)

The Graphics and Sound

Visually, Gyrodine has average NES graphics. You will see a variety of rural and urban terrain. All of it looking bland in the meantime. The enemy vehicles and defenses all look dull and cheap and do not have much detail. And they have few different colors that don't do much for the look either.

The sound is nearly bad. Title screen music is missing and only very short tunes come up when you start play or die and they are forgettable. The sound effects are pretty generic and weak sounding. I only liked the helicopter sound. The lack of action music kinda hurts the game.

Gameplay sample of Gyrodine on the Nintendo Famicom

The Gameplay

You take control of a lone combat helicopter which has to fight off endless waves of enemy vehicles. Your three basic weapons are; a basic gun against aircraft, a machine gun against ground troops and a missile (press "A" and "B" buttons together) for hitting ground targets quickly.

No weapon upgrades exist in the game at all and the only thing that you can pick up are some secret hidden mermaids in the sea for a point bonus to get extra lives fast. As you go further, sometimes the screen will stop scrolling and you need to take out enemies first before you can proceed. Not much to do then. You move slowly which makes you bored fast and the game never ends but loops back to the beginning once you go far enough.

My Verdict

Gyrodine is a game that is nothing more than a generic point scorer that feels like Xevious. If you are a die hard vertical-scrolling shooter fan, then you may want to check this out just to see what it has to offer.

However, if you dislike these type of games, then you might as well avoid it and play something else. Gyrodine, unfortunately, has nothing to offer to the already over-done genre of vertical-scrolling shooters.

Try to test-play this on the NES or on emulators. See if you can have a different opinion on it.

Let us keep on gaming in the free world!

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