Review Mazinkaiser 3/5 · May 15, 2020
Tyrian 2000: Biting the Bullet
Tyrian's approach to shmups might feel a bit janky and have some frustrating moments, but there's a decently sized package in here that'll hold players longer that most of the genre.
In the distant future, the player takes on the role of a skilled terraforming pilot - avenging his best friend's death, you take on a giant corporation and blow …
Tyrian's approach to shmups might feel a bit janky and have some frustrating moments, but there's a decently sized package in here that'll hold players longer that most of the genre.
In the distant future, the player takes on the role of a skilled terraforming pilot - avenging his best friend's death, you take on a giant corporation and blow up a bunch of stuff. A lot of story and world details are hidden inside data cubes that the player can find in each level, but most of it isn't particularly interesting and can go so wildly silly in tone you'll be firing on fruit armadas near the end of the game.
The player has a main gun, a rear gun, a rechargeable shield, a generator for rate of fire, a ship type for health, and two sidekick weapons (one on each side). Other than basic shmup mechanics, the player can control sidekicks separately and use some helpful powerups. The meat of the system is using currency won in the game to upgrade the ship. There are a significant array of options but the player will go for the most obvious optimal setup very quickly, racking up a lot of unnecessary money near the end.
As for jank, the player has a life bar and a rechargeable shield bar instead of set hits like most other shmups. Most of the time the player will die due to being caught in an enemy's close proximity and get crushed, which can lead to some frustrating moments as levels are lengthy and contain some cheap dangers that will kill the player faster than they can react. It doesn't help that most of the controls are a bit slow and slippery (save for the mouse), but the player's health bar can also take a mighty wallop of bullets.
The graphics and sound are fairly impressive for a DOS game and a shmup at the time. There's a wide array of environments (volcanos, ice lands, deserts, fleshy places, underground you name it) and enemies (though the enemies all take a massive amount of firepower to sponge up unless you're on the highest upgrade) and the soundtrack can be a bit catchy, if not peppy most of the time.
Tyrian 2000 is a pretty lengthy shmup at five episodes with a large array of levels, and if you can have some patience for the jankier side of things you might have an interesting piece of shmup history on your hands. Just get prepared to take a LOT of bullets.
