Tyrian doesn't screw around trying to be some epic adventure, or try to create a deeply involved story line - it's just a really good, simple, vertical scrolling shooter with a couple of neat twists. The fact that you get to outfit your ship before the missions, as opposed to picking up random "power up" objects during them, is a really nice feature. There's nothing more annoying in vertical scrollers like this than when you build up an incredible ship, get destroyed, and suddenly have to face the coming onslaught in a dinky little default fighter. Plus, you can pick the upgrade type you want, as opposed to trying to pick up the correct power up (and dodge the incorrect ones) while fighting. Other big selling point: shields! Again, a major irritant with most vertical shooters is that no matter how astonishingly badass your ship is, one shot will blow it apart. Tyrian provides shields and armor, so if you get killed, it's pretty much because you deserved it. Graphics are marginal, but hey, it's an old game. I think it's fun.
