Tyrian 2000

the game brings back childhood nostalgia right here. and it's still challenging

Tyrian is a beloved vertical shooter that offers nearly everything you would like if you enjoy the genre, and even tries some new things on top of it. Had it nailed those things a bit better it would have been hall of fame worthy in videogame history. As any good shooter it offers you lots of weapons and ships to choose, resource management, secrets, different game modes, hidden extra hard difficulty if you enjoy suffering, etc.. All of this done with a nice design and a great UI that easily stood the test of time. What it offers on top of it is storytelling, worldbuilding, or at least an attempt of it, complete with bonus information you can pick along the way as you destroy everything if you're quick enough. It mostly doesn't work, partly because in a shoot 'em all mindset you really don't care who you're shooting (not like you can correct course other than to keep shooting more) and partly because it's just too hard to track, you don't have a log or something that allows you to check how things go. That's okay though, it still makes it for a memorable feature of an already great game. It also shows what could have been though, particularly as the "story" gets stretched a bit too long and after about 60% of it inspiration starts fading, and not only with the data cube content but also enemy/level design wise. Still, when it gets close to perfection, it's really easy to appreciate. -1 Because of a boss mechanic that kinda takes you away from the whole flying and shooting vibe. Fair enough, it's an effective one, but also kinda too basic to be repeated so much throughout the game.

Still great. Inspires me to think there are still things to explore in shmups

Pretty good as far as these games go.

Played this back in the day on my friendss gateway computer. After all these years, its better than I remember.