Review: Gyrostarr (WiiWare)

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gyrostarrOverview:

Publisher: High Voltage Software
No. of Players: 1-4
Cost: 700 Wii Points ($7 USD)

Gyrostarr is developed and published by High Voltage Software for Nintendo’s WiiWare service. The game features arcade shooter action with up to 4 players and some of the most polished graphics I’ve seen on WiiWare since Lost Winds (review soon). Is this arcade blast worth your hard earned Wii Points?

Review:

Gameplay:
Gyrostarr is an extremely straight-forward space themed shooter where you hover along a unique shaped track shooting endless waves of enemy ships collecting power-ups and energy orbs along each level. Sounds unbelievably fun, doesn’t it? Of course not. It’s the same arcade shooter we’ve played a million times before.

Not that Gyrostarr is bad, it’s just nothing new. And on top of that the pacing is way too slow. You’ll be constantly finding yourself wanting a challenge and it doesn’t come until after you lose interest totally. Every level looks the exact same as the one before it, starts out moving way too slow, then it’s over.

To play, you hold the Wiimote sideways and move left/right with the d-pad or by tilting (don’t use tilt), fire a grappling hook to grab power ups and energy with either up/down on the d-pad, shoot with ‘2’ and drop a bomb with ‘1’. The game also has support for nunchuck and Wiimote plus nunchuck as well as the classic controller, but the game doesn’t automatically pick up that you are using one, and I’ve only been able to do it once. And it was by accident.

Things get a little better with multiple players, though. Not much, mind you, just a little.

Graphics and Audio:
Gyrostarr really excels in the graphical department. As I’ve said before, it’s one of the best looking games on the service. Most of the visuals are simply eye candy, yes, and the backgrounds are just pictures of nebulas, but it’s all pretty. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise since High Voltage is also developing The Conduit, which is an absolute technical marvel.

The game doesn’t do as well in the audio department. While sound effects all work really well, the background music is rarely anything other than generic techno and electronica. Some songs are pretty good, though.

Value:
Gyrostarr has way more levels than you’ll ever need, beautiful graphics, and some innocent fun all for only 700 Wii Points. This is a good price when compared to equally boring games with less stellar visuals that sell for 1,000 Points.

Still, it’s easy to complain about the lack of WiFi support. I’m not saying we should’ve been given 4 player online coop and versus modes, but at least online leaderboards. In fact, without online leaderboards you’ll have trouble convincing yourself to keep playing to beat an old score.

Final Words:

If you’re not a huge fan of space shooters then this one won’t be of any interest to you. It’s fun for the first few levels and then it just takes up precious Wii internal memory. Unless you’re a fan of old-school shooters or are so desperate for something new to play then you should save your WiiPoints and internal memory blocks.

Pros

  • Graphics
  • Sound Effects
  • Lots of levels, but who cares?

Cons

  • Gets really boring
  • No online leaderboards
  • Slow pacing
  • Generic Techno

Score:

Overall: 7.0/10 (Average)

Gameplay: 7.0/10 (Gets really boring after a few levels)
Graphics: 8.0/10 (impressive)
Audio: 7.0/10 (Nothing special)
Lasting Value: 6.0/10 (no leaderboards leaves no reason to keep playing)

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