Picture this: you’re strapped into the cockpit of a high-powered rocket ship thundering full-bore down a winding, half-pipe track towards what essentially amounts to a giant brick wall. Your route is populated with robotic enemies that take pot-shots at your rig and make every attempt to thwart your progress. In between dodging laser fire, you’ll have to maneuver your vessel to pick up enough stray energy orbs to charge up the jump gate at the end of the course. Make your energy quota and you’ll live to fly another day. Fail in this critical task and you’ll meet an explosive fate as the fiery impact obliterates you into nothingness. Welcome to Gyrostarr.
The WiiWare releases thus far can be divided fairly equally between the reasonably awesome pile, the mediocre and overpriced pile, and complete and utter crap pile. There haven’t been a lot of major winners, but more than half of the 15 or so games on the service have escaped (by varying margins) being a complete disappointment. In the first month since WiiWare’s official launch we’ve already seen two rather bland top-down space shooters come and go. Though Gyrostarr, developed by High Voltage Software, is a slightly different animal, the space shooter theme finally prevails with this one. Priced on the lower-end of the scale, it’s a worthy investment of your time and 700 Wii Points.
It’s a shame Gyrostarr contains absolutely no plot or story elements whatsoever. When you take a moment to think about the foundation of the game, it practically begs for some form of explanation. Why would you be rocketing towards your impending doom with nothing more of a safety net than the random balls of energy you have to pick up along the way? What’s your motivation? Are you deranged? Do you possess a death wish? Are you walking the path of vengeance? Is it some kind of sick spectator sport? It’s anybody’s guess. The game’s arcade feel all but renders this argument moot. Still, even a few paragraphs of text about some sort of intergalactic conflict or whatnot would have sufficed.
Gyrostarr is a nod to classic tube shooters like Gyruss and Tempest, from which it borrows more than a few gameplay ideas, but it also brings in other touches into the fold. Each course drops your ship on a moving track (featuring a solid variety of shapes, colors, and designs between the game’s many levels) where you’ll slowly build up speed as you follow behind a moving portal that lays down the course in front of you. While dodging attacks from waves of enemy ships emerging from the portal, you’ll also have to quickly dart around to pick up oncoming energy spheres. A meter at the top of the screen simultaneously tracks your progress through the course and the level of energy you’ve gathered. If you don’t gather enough energy by the time you reach the end of the course, the aperture of the final warp portal will close and…BOOM.
The twitchy action-shooter also has a strong racing game vibe, though there are no real racing elements present in the actual gameplay. This feeling crops up primarily in the bonus tracks found after each of the game’s 50 levels. Completely devoid of enemies, bonus courses are particularly windy and much faster than the regular levels. As you blast along the track, you’ll struggle to pick up energy spheres and extra bombs in hopes of amassing a surplus to carry over into the next level with. The sheer velocity reached in these sections reaches dizzying speeds and may cause your eye’s to hurt. The main gameplay areas feel sluggish by comparison.
Despite being a shooter, the game is less about blasting away enemies to attain a high score and more about staying alive long enough to collect the precious energy spheres required to move on. The ship moves side-to-side (including up walls), so the primary gameplay involves a hell of a lot of firing and dodging. High-powered weapon upgrades offer temporary armament boosts to cut through thicker swaths of foes. They are extremely helpful, since you’ll lose some of your total accumulated energy each time you perish. Adding to the collection element, a grappling hook can be deployed at any time to quickly nab power-ups and energy spheres floating around. Intermittently, you’ll also run through other portals on the track that give speed boosts or destroy all enemies on the screen.
Trying to maneuver your ship with motion controls turned on is a completely worthless endeavor. They’re horrible. You’ll be flying into laser blasts, up walls, and into enemies: everywhere besides where you’re trying to go. Using either the classic control and or the Wii Remote held sideways, mashing the D-pad and buttons is the way to go. In an unusual and ingenious control twist, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk can be connected for a combined control system that allows two people to play (one at either end). This is great if you’ve got a room full of friends and only a few controllers, since a total of four players can blast away at once.
Graphically, Gyrostarr is one of the most impressive WiiWare titles available to date. Wii games in-general are not commonly known for amazing graphics, particularly in comparison with the PS3 and Xbox 360. High Voltage Software’s new Quantum 3 Engine is impressive in action, even in a space shooter. The same engine will be powering their upcoming Wii first-person shooter, Conduit, and the company is seeking to raise the bar for graphical performance on Nintendo’s console. The frenzied action in Gyrostarr takes place against a gorgeous backdrop of highly detailed galactic scenery with vast star fields, colorful nebulae, and swirling lighting effects. Everything is extremely polished for a WiiWare title.
Gyrostarr is pretty, simplistic, and straight-forward. Tougher difficulty kicks in after the first dozen tracks or so and the fun ramps up as the action on the screen grows more and more hectic. The game does have the tendency to get repetitive at times – you’ll be doing a whole lot of the same thing over and over again for 50 main levels and 50 bonus tracks – but it’s a good WiiWare title at a budget price nonetheless. In short bursts, this is one you won’t want to miss.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.5 Graphics
One of the best looking WiiWare games yet! The Quantum 3 Engine rocks. 3.7 Control
Motion controls are worthless, but the straightforward D-pad and buttons approach works great. 3.7 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The game features a bevy of loud, pumping techno tracks if that’s you’re thing. The lady robot voice is pretty sweet. 3.9
Play Value
It’s addictive and there’s plenty of it to go around.
4.0 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
Game Features: