Gyruss

Gyruss is a shoot 'em up video arcade game developed by Konami, and released in 1983.

Released: 18 November 1988
Platforms: Arcade Atari 2600 Atari 5200 ColecoVision Commodore 64 Famicom Disk System NES Xbox 360
Genres: Arcade Shooter Tube shooter
Developers: Konami
Publishers: Konami
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: Japan
Age ratings: USK 6 ESRB E CERO A CLASS_IND L
Languages: English, Japanese

About

Gyruss (ジャイラス, Jairasu) is a 1983 tube shooter video game developed and published by Konami for Japanese arcades. It was initially licensed to Centuri in North America for dedicated machines before Konami released their own self-distributed conversion kits for the game. Parker Brothers released ports for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit computers, ColecoVision and Commodore 64 in 1984. An enhanced version for the Famicom Disk System was released in 1988, followed by the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989.

The gameplay is similar to that of Galaga, albeit in a tube shooter format, with the player's ship able to move around the perimeter of an implicit circle. Stars come into view at the center of the screen and fly outward, giving the impression of the player's ship moving through space. Gyruss is the second and last game Yoshiki Okamoto designed for Konami, after Time Pilot. Due to pay disputes, he was fired after the release of this game, and he soon joined Capcom, where he designed 1942 and produced Street Fighter II.

Keywords

shoot 'em up
spaceship
digital distribution
bonus stage
single-screen level
cheat code
konami code
digital rights management
xbox one backwards compatibility
planet
no game pause
fan translation - english

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The graphics are displayed using one-point perspective, with the vanishing point in the center of the screen. The player's ship is restricted to a circumference around the edge of the screen and may move in either direction along this path. All shots from the player converge at the vanishing point.

The majority of enemies are spaceships, which must be destroyed to complete a level. They appear either from the center of the screen or from one of the edges, and move in swirling patterns. They can shoot the player's ship or destroy it by contact. They hover near the center of the screen after completing their deployment pattern, and occasionally fly outwards and shoot at the player. If not destroyed by the player, the enemy ships gradually fly away one by one.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Gyruss as the seventh most successful table arcade unit of June 1983. Computer Games magazine gave the ColecoVision and home computer conversions an A− rating in 1985, calling it a "very good adaptation of the Galaga-in-the-round arcade game". Computer Entertainer reviewed the NES version in 1989, scoring it 7 out of 8 stars.

Legacy

The Famicom version of the game is included in the Majesco TV Game Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced and was released for Japanese mobile phones in 2004.

Gyruss is included in the compilation Konami 80's Arcade Gallery, released for both the arcade and PlayStation (known as Konami 80's AC Special in western arcades and Konami Arcade Classics in the North American PlayStation version). It is also part of Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced for the Game Boy Advance.