Tyrian 2000

Brilliant R Type style game (with upgradable ships). Played this on it's first outing in 1999 and still as fun to play today. Features CO-OP, rich story and a no strings attached way to play. 5/5

Like the title says, nostalgic fun in this fast paced topdown scroll shooter.

A random playthrough every now and then over the decades. Never disappoints!

What a wonderful game to have back! I have such wonderful memories playing back when I was young. So goooodd!!!!

I vaguely remember playing this game when I was five… nowadays, having finally learned its name by giving AI a brief description from memory, I’ve actually completed it. It’s good, but it has its flaws. Tyrian is a top-down vertical shooter, where you pilot a spaceship and fight regular enemies, bosses, and environmental hazards. The more enemies you destroy, the more credits you earn, which you can then use to upgrade your ship. Each level the upgrade selection changes, but you always keep those you have installed and can resell them at full price. You’re essentially growing your upgrade potential, and if you put in some effort you can easily be buying all the top-tier gear way before the final episode. There’s no tutorial, so you have to learn controls from the setup menu. The Enter key changes your rear gun firing mode from the very situational DEFAULT horizontal mode to the actually useful vertical mode. I wish I’d learned that sooner. Another issue is that you have 3 separate keys for 3 guns you want to fire together most of the time. Consider using a DOSBox-configured AHK script. You learn what’s going on through datacubes you collect. You can use a walkthrough to locate most of them, but some are unaccounted for anywhere. Oh, and the game crashes if you attempt to read the Asteroid City Flux 53863 datacube after E03L02. The story can be at times unclear, especially early on, but you can make it somewhat easier on yourself if you find the manual for the original Tyrian, which should’ve been included, IMO. Once you get into its rhythm, Tyrian is pretty good. If you’re ever stuck on a level, you can learn it and get better (thankfully, there’re no modern randomization shenanigans). If I had to nitpick, I’d say the game could’ve used more varied and memorable bosses. Tyrian deserves a remake. One with a better control scheme and better-presented, clearer story. However, even right now I can’t name any other worthwhile game of the same genre.