Gyrostarr - WiiWare review

This is the second WiiWare effort from High Voltage, the outfit behind much-hyped shooter The Conduit. The first one was total cack, but happily this old-school space shooter has a good deal more going for it than giant floaty man hands. It’s simple enough stuff – you hop in a little ship and fly down the pathways, blasting away at enemies and picking up sufficient energy blobs to open a warp gate to the next level. And that’s about your lot, aside from bonus levels where there are no enemies, just points to beef up your high score while travelling at barfneck speeds.

There are various types of enemies of varying toughness to wade through while assorted weapon pick-ups give your guns extra – but only temporary – bite. Oh, and you can even choose what colour ship you fly. There’s the option to use the D-pad to fly (well, shuffle left and right in your tube), or you can switch on motion controls. We wouldn’t advise against the latter. The spacey backgrounds are really nice, but each level sees your ship accelerating to such speeds that they pass you by until you jump through the warp gate at the end. Fail to collect enough energy and you can admire the backgrounds as your ship explodes.

The big pull and main reason to fork out the not unreasonable 700 points is the multiplayer mode, which allows up to four of you to compete for points and bragging rights on the same screen. Not bad. Old school sci-fi shooter with one trick but plenty of ‘high-score challenge’ potential thanks to loads of levels and four-player split-screen support.

Aug 12, 2008