The Case for Tyrian - The Best Shoot 'Em Up Ever Made

Watch Indigo give his case for the best Scrolling Shoot 'Em Up game ever made: Tyrian.
Head-to-head with games like Raiden, R-Type, Ikaruga, Gradius, there is some stiff competition. Enter Tyrian, a 1995 scrolling shoot 'em up by Eclipse Software for Epic MegaGames. Featuring tons of modes, arcade style play, two-player, advanced ship customization, branching path campaigns, and more!
Music Credits:
Tyrian 'The Beautiful Spaceships' OC ReMix by Mazedude
ocremix.org/remix/OCR03395
/ mazedude
Tyrian 'Data Flux' OC ReMix by Magellanic
ocremix.org/remix/OCR02918
/ mrlidawg
Tyrian's original soundtrack by Alexander Brandon and Andras Molnar.
Playing the Game:
Tyrian is FREEWARE now! You can get this game all set up to work on modern computers, DRM-free on GOG.com.
www.gog.com/game/tyrian_2000
Or you can try out the OpenTyrian project here:
bitbucket.org/opentyrian/open...
----------------
PATREON ► / indigogaming
TWITCH ► / indigogamingchannel
TWITTER ► / theindigogaming
FACEBOOK ► / indigogamingchannel

[@KelvinShadewing]

A note about OpenTyrian: it's actually an official port! Eclipse hired developers to translate the original game from Pascal to C and release it to the public. There's also been a fork made that makes the game compatible with the fifth episode.

[@Jammet]

To not forget the fantastic soundtrack, even on Adlib, and a sweet player in the menu for those tracks, with a fun to watch visualiser :D.

[@papagodzilla5465]

totally agree. some version had also a jukebox external app to listen the music.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I didn't mention Alexander Brandon's fantastic soundtrack to the game. It has held up surprisingly well like you said even in Adlib. I remember the 2000 rerelease had CD audio track remasters of the music too. I recommend checking out the two OverClocked ReMixes I used for the video that I linked to in the description, they're great!

[@AlexCBrandon]

Why thank you! Great video on our little project :)

[@Indigo_Gaming]

You're welcome, sir. People are still playing and talking about Tyrian 21 years later, so it can't be so little, can it? I'm a huge fan of your work on Deus Ex, the Unreal series and Wasteland 2. Looking forward to your treatment on Torment!

[@jasonemery4216]

I used to listen to Alex's music all the time while making Tyrian. Not only did I build the Jukebox, the graphic / level editor program also had a built in jukebox to play his music while editing. Couldn't possibly tell you how many endless hours I'd listen to his songs while developing the game. Gotta remember this was way back in the day before music was a normal thing to have playing in the background. Cassettes were so old fashioned. (Not that it didn't stop us from going to arcades and recording the music on micro cassette recorders.) :D

[@Bastiolo48]

Fun fact: if you read the Tyrian logo upside-down and from right to left, it says... Tyrian!

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I love ambigrams like the Tyrian logo. It's really clever.

[@KevinEontrainer381]

My mind just exploded

[@vansonhk]

WTF my childhood was inspired!

[@guitaroach]

Holy crap I never knew that

[@triiistone]

Woah, that's AWESOME!

[@ldcgfx8710]

I've spent an unhealthy amount of hours on Tyrian back in the day, and still have fond memories of it. Great game and great video! :)

[@Indigo_Gaming]

As did I. This was meant to be a little love letter to a game I didn't think many people remembered. Glad to see it was a special experience to many others as well. Thanks for watching!

[@KevinEontrainer381]

Its better than how games nowdays can make you spend unhealthy amount of hours AND money

[@stanstockton544]

Same. It was my favorite game and nobody knew what it was

[@LargeHamsterCollider]

Tyrian was amazing, I spent days upon days with this game. I still remember the feeling of discovering Zica Laser for the first time.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Zica Laser was my jam, too! So epic when it was upgraded all the way!

[@LargeHamsterCollider]

And let us not forget the ultimate state of the art, cutting edge technology achievement in the form of the Carrot ship and its unique and powerful banana blaster. That was... Something else!

[@1tmildew]

Crank it to 11 (power level)! Me too! Though I ended leaning more into Mega Pulse (main) as the years went by; at 11 the shots move with your horizontal movement IIRC and their sub-munitions on hit were good on bosses and in confined spaces. Big Sonic Wave fan as well, on forward-firing mode -- just personal preference, I guess hehe.

[@11sus]

I'm still playing it currently!

[@ablationer]

How's Open Tyrian lately?

[@azathoz]

Me too, on original hardware (Pentium I MMX) and I have beaten 3rd episode today. Indeed it's the best shoot'em up I have ever played.

[@dustindacus967]

When Indigo Gaming AND Ross's Game Dungeon sing their best praises for the same game, you know it's gonna be good.

[@LemonRush7777]

You forgot to mention the secret moves you can perform with the ships by doing fighting-game like combinations on your gamepad / keyboard that result in a special shot (like an ice shot, for example) / armor regen etc depending on the ship you currently have. Some of them can be game-changing, especially the armor regen, and they come at the cost of energy.

[@nikpack1]

Good call on the Tyrion. I think I need to make a trip to GOG. I remember constantly playing Raptor:Call of the Shadows and Tyrion in the 90's, that it made me want to go out and play other SHMUP games, only to find those games missing something. I guess it was the story and progression systems that I loved so much. I wish more SHMUPs had systems like these.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Same here. I find it weird that almost no other games took the Tyrian model any further than it did. I found the branching path storyline and the upgrades and progression to be a huge feature and made the game really addictive. I really recommend GOG, and most all their older games have been tried and tested to make sure they run on modern systems. They offer new games too, but don't YET have the selection that Steam has.

[@Baalielieseee]

Maybe a bit late to respond (just 3 years) but there is a game kind of similar to this... it's called "Galaxy on Fire 2". Even though this is a game for mobile devices, it has many similarities with Tyrian like: - buying different airships - wide variety of primary weapons - wide variety of secondary weapons (rockets) - different turrets. - different type of equipment for your ship like shields, repair bots, or tractor-beams or even cloak-modules. - it has a certain story line (kinda short but still) but also a lot of freelance mission which can be hunting for pirates to being a postman in space. If you're interested and still looking for something similar to Tyrian (except for the graphic style but mainly the genre and features), Galaxy on Fire 2 might be worth checking. Its freely available on iOS and android. The DLC's aren't free unfortunately but once you start playing, you might buy them as well... having an own space station enables you to buy and keep more airships instead of having just one. Pfew what a long response xD. Just wanted to say tho. You might like it ^^ (Btw, I just scratched the surface of this game... there is really a lot in GoF2 like trading commodities or creating special weapons with blueprints, mining ores for special type of materials for the science centre and it goes on and on and on)

[@KayWizz]

This was one of my favourite games for PC in the 90s. I still listen to classics from the soundtrack like Rock Garden and Sarah's song to this day

[@zeeke.tv_4842]

Finally after all these year I figure out what the name of the shoot em up was that I used to play at this camp I attended as a kid.

[@jansobus7074]

Good lord, It's the first time I see the Tyrian video on YT. Thank you sir for my childhood :)

[@JosephAlanMeador]

Great job on the video! My favorite part is that it hopefully introduces new players to this absolute gem!

[@jpxenovore]

I absolutely adored this game as a kid. Shame it never got a modern sequel.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

+Josh Pedrick Yeah this game is great. One day I hope somebody picks up the mantle and makes a spiritual successor. That would be amazing.

[@edercahuana9322]

nice vid bro, tyrian is a masterpiece: history, music, jugability

[@Utubesuxmycock]

bro INDIGO your production quality is awesome! subbed!

[@lapinranger7405]

I was trying to find this game for years ! I loved it! thank you and thank you for all your videos

[@kiirothedriver8714]

3:30 , it's amazing how you could recreate the method of being a Millenium Falcon turret in-game.

[@EmperorOfLols]

Oh btw, A brazilian developer made a spiritual succesor to Tyrian named "Beyond The Storm" and it was recently released. It adds an open world that you explore using Warp Fuel, and while you can do the hardest sectors on a planet or station right from the start, you usually dont get any story progression unless you were told to go there, but you DO get Equipment Data Cubes that unlock stuff not normally sold regardless of where you are on the plot. The big changes are also that the game is harder because the Generator powering your ship can be upgraded to have more "slots" or power cells for you to decide which powers what on your ship, Front, Rear, Shield, Vertical and Horizontal Movement. Have your ship grab more power cells out of your Generator to power your Guns and they will do more damage, and that is on TOP of also having the same system as Tyrian where you can upgrade the weapon too. Enemies give score but NO MONEY. Instead you get money by getting fruits and gems.

[@justmike3018]

Solid review and great production values. Loved it!

[@nomorenames5568]

I saw this on a picture of a desktop from probably like 2003. Tons of Tohou games, Diablo 2 and other classics and then just this Tyrian game I'd never heard of. The addition of a story mode, upgrades and credits make this the first SHUMP I've ever been really excited to play.

[@humbugnh]

My favorite vertical scroller also. I think I spent nearly as much time playing the artillery game, which was surprisingly awesome for an Easter egg.

[@1tmildew]

My brother and I played DESTRUCT so much. I remember holding down a lot of keys to lock his controls if he was winning, hehe

[@manuelink64]

This game was my chilhood....hundred hours "wasted" trying every secret mode, playing with my brother in co-op or just listening/viewing the amazing Jukebox...I played today on a real 486 (133mhz, Sound Blaster16) through a 50" plasma TV, looks gorgeous. Great video, my best custom ship was the: Pro.Stalker.C + SonicWave x2 + ZicaLaser x2 + Soul of Zinglon

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Yeah it's amazing, I can't believe more people haven't heard of it. Has the right balance between bullet hell, customization and content to keep you coming back for more.

[@manuelink64]

Probably this game did had almost zero (or no) distribution, on 1995. The Psx, Saturn, did had the attention for 3D games, few people still playing 2D games. First, I played to death the shareware version (in 1996), then, a friend lent me his full retail copy (1998), OH men, this game has everything. then the FULL 5 EPISODES version on 1999 blew me away! IF you want a real -hard to hell- challenge, try to beat the game with the first ship without weapons upgrade!! Regards from CHILE!

[@1tmildew]

Man I would spam the armor repair so much lol. Instead of Zinglon I think I'd use the Repulsor which, now that I think about it, could be partly the cause of carpal tunnel... As for a Talon run, ⬇ ⬆ ⬇ 🔥(hold) ⬆ ;)

[@AnaLivingston]

Thanks for the vid! Takes me back :)

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Thanks for watching. :)

[@Endarire]

One day at Best Buy, I saw someone playing the Deliani level. I soon obtained the freeware/shareware version of this game containing only episode 1, but it was well worth it! I eventually got the full game (maybe Tyrian 2000) and loved that, too! Alleluia!

[@KevinEontrainer381]

0:35 I was like "lol big mistake..." Man I still remember when I was playing this level with my mom, I used to to tell her to take the left path so I can eat all the strawberries (or whatever it is... pineapples?). And the funny thing is, I always told her that every time we play and she always complies... I guess she just wanted me to be happy. Also I love the part when you were like "Okay let me tell you what's good and bad about this awesome old game. The good: It's awesome, the bad: it's old"

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Not my best video, but I enjoyed making it all the same!

[@_Tzer]

now i need to have someone inspired by zerranger and tyrian to create some horrific shoot em up.

[@7e1a]

[@rubixd9v2]

I'm always shocked by how few people know this game. It's on my favorites to this day. I love that the highest graphics settings is "Pentium".

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I remember when having a Pentium 60 was considered "high-end". XD

[@csabapetrovay4919]

My all time fav shoot em up,it just never gets old

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Same here. So much fun.

[@METALFACEDOOMXXXX]

Csaba Petrovay looks like a shitty pc game

[@marcelcoetzee7152]

With the tank around 2 minutes in , if you waited until later you would get a powerup that increases the level of guns normally. Tyrian had a lot of secret weapons and levels that were hidden in strange ways. Some of the strongest equipment can only really be gotten by getting a very specific secret level on the first level. I think there were 3 different secret levels that you could go through off the first level in total.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Reminds me a bit of O.G. Star Fox, where you had branching paths and hidden levels/powerups. Something about these classic games had such a strong sense of discovery and mystery.

[@franfernandez9551]

Childhood vibes! love it!

[@manamongmen3381]

I have Open Tyrian on my phone. It is indeed my favorite shoot em up. Pity it's so under rated.

[@hunteralderman4867]

WOT THERE WAS A SECRET GAME AAARGGH 25 YEARS TOO LATE TO HEAR!! Awesome work dude!

[@JGushi87]

I loved playing this game with my brother, he with mouse and me with keyboard. I'm glad finding this video spreading love for this game!

[@SlyBeast]

This is amazing! Never knew it existed. I'm checking it out.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@AngelEpinoia]

I was like 11 when this game came out, and play the heck out of it!

[@SovereignKnight74]

This was a severely underrated game, It is my favorite top down shooters of all time. Everything about this game is so well done. I wish someone would do a graphics improved remake of this for today's market. Oh yeah... Best track on this game, Rock Garden!

[@walkamileforyou]

Good video. I'm now convinced, partially. This might be the best western developed shmup before the year 2000, but not the best in the world by any stretch even during it's time. You have made a case for the merits of Tyrian however and I applaud that. Just remember Raiden 2 was already out by 95, so was Rayforce and Batsugun and many others, If we include all time then the competition gets even tougher. I will agree this might have been the best shmup you could play on 486 PC in 1995, that is almost certain. Anyway, I enjoyed the video, good luck and godspeed.

[@takptalyn586]

Funny you mention 'Raptor", that was the only other 'shootemup' I played besides this one. It was way more serious in tone, but this game had the replay value. I can't believe OP knocked the fruit mods, it was such a good expansion. Pretty sure there was a ship that shot bananas?

[@AngelEpinoia]

Such an interesting video!

[@YMSHighlights]

I was introduced to Tyrian through the first episode of Ross's Game Dungeon. It deserves to be more popular than it is.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Hey, fancy seeing you here! Love watching your edits of Adum's work!

[@maxwellfujs6124]

Tyrian (pronounced it “tie-REE-un” 20 years ago 😅) and Demon Star are so awesome. Love it. I’ll have to check out that open source version.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I did too! I guess tie-ree-un is correct for British pronunciation. I just think it sounds more regal.

[@snowcat20]

Agreed! Best space shooter ever made! Played it through and through, all modes, found all secrets. This game was unprecedented, and no outer game of this genre can compare to it!

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I truly loved the amount of customization and content this game had, despite the guys putting carrots and in-game ads into the Tyrian 2000 re-release.

[@definer0]

carrot ship, best ship

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Carrots: not only good for your eyesight, also good for blasting space bogies into oblivion!

[@mitraSamarasinghe]

Complete agree with you. Tyrian was the best shoot em up in almost every way. Never come across anything close to the addictive and fun nature of it. And we also used to play the amazing two player mode back in the days.. also the fact that it has some crazy ships and also an alternative scorch the earth type game in it...

[@amberschultz9125]

this game is my childhood.

[@Randalftown]

Don't mind me, just binging your videos to get your view counts up :)

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

We need a Tyrian inspired shoot em up

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

This comment didnt age well for me

[@JohnnyWednesday]

I couldn't agree more - I've played a lot of shooters and I love them - but when the weekend is over and I need to get some serious work done? I drive a Tyrian.

[@jettoscranda]

I agree, I never played a shoot'em up that was as compelling as Tyrian, loved the customizations, the levels, the bosses, weapons and the graphics were excellent at the time... Such an awesome game, I'm surprised it's not on steam.

[@SeekerLancer]

It always pains me to see the shmup community look down on Tyrian for not being their idea of a shmup. It might not be as balanced and polished as the top-tier Japanese shmups but it's a really good time.

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Is it because it isn't designed for arcade? Or is it control issues like having an inertia? I really haven't played Tyrian yet so I wouldn't know much on what is really wrong with the game.

[@XSlicer]

Most arguments are based on it's difficulty and gameplay randomness. Most schmups are carefully balanced and designed around a specific amount of weapons and their upgrades. Bosses are hard, strategic fights where you have to balance around dealing damage or evading shots. Tyrian on the other hand allows you to loadout your ship with too many options to effectively balance, and destroy anything in your path. Higher difficulties like Lord of the Game don't change anything in regards to strategy but are rather a form of 'try to evade bullets while still constantly fireing' (Besides the bullets going way to fast for doing anyhing besides flying in circles). The worst balancing would be items like Plasma Storm which is purchasable in stage 1 and insta-destroys any boss on most difficulties. It's just fly and blaze through everything, in contrast to the more strategic and punishing insta-death (besides a shield or two) or most schmups. That said, fuck that, Tyrian is amazing _because_ of its adjustability and shield/generator gameplay. It could have been more balanced though.

[@OfficialRainsynth]

"You can run it in DOSbox." Nah, I have an old 1998 laptop with Windows 98SE in it, so I can play it on actual hardware with all the finest stuff.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Well there you go, then!

[@EdfromVirginia757]

Real Nostalgia right there, I thought of the this game today and the old win98 Grey Acer Desktop that I spent countless of hours playing on.

[@OfficialRainsynth]

@@EdfromVirginia757 Mine is an old Toshiba Satellite 320CDS with Pentium MMX and originally I was about to use it for music. But it turned out pretty quickly, that I started to use it for retro gaming.

[@liukang85]

Tyrian to shootemups is like OMF 2097 to beat em ups

[@finnmarr-heenan2397]

playing now , couldnt get my controler to work but its still really fun on mouse , and the ost is great

[@METALFACEDOOMXXXX]

Battle gerrega is the best shmup

[@SamTahbou]

I've heard of it and played it. My fav two old smups were Tyrian and Raptor.

[@bobsky1129]

You are right. This game was an absolute masterpiece. I have spent a year playing the shareware before being able to buy the game and honestly, I was so satisfied with Tyrian that not a single other shmup felt as good as Tyrian. I have to admit, it took me an awful lot of time to figure out how to get to Soh Jin from the first level. My young mind thinking of superstitious steps to unlock the level once every 7th try haha. Thanks for your video :)

[@glennblanchardjr8826]

"Christmas has been detected"

[@Indigo_Gaming]

[resists urge to boot up Christmas mode]

[@Renegade666]

this is the best SHMUP ever i agree, i just finished the campaign again and its great!

[@DaiAtlus79]

you can also play OpenTyrian in Retropie (runs a treat!!!), it will usually pick up on the gamepad plugged into the Pi, as well as it will detect Christmas!

[@Ikouy]

I remember playing the heck out of it 20 years ago and still have a few DOS machines that can play the game natively. Great review though you didn’t mention the awesome twiddle commands such the Gencore particle redefinition technology that regenerates armor while dumping shields and some ships can summon weapons at will.

[@dinizen]

Awesome game indeed.

[@robinjohansson6604]

This game is amazing

[@DeadlusCZ]

Great vid. I played a lot of SHMUPS when I was small kid and I loved all of them. But my favorite one is Jets'n'Guns, its newer but its shame that more people dont know it.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Thanks very much! I haven't heard of Jets'n'Guns before, I'll have to check it out.

[@DeadlusCZ]

Its inspired by Tyrian (among other things), I have a feeling you might like it. Its on steam ;)

[@niespeludo]

+DaedalusCZ it was on sale last week, people have it for trade really cheap right now. It's probably one of the only shmups with the same degree of customization as this.

[@Resopheed]

Jets'n'Guns is worth the money for the soundtrack alone.

[@rodrigoaguilera1270]

Completamente de acuerdo aún busco juegos como Tyrian

[@bugothecatplays7864]

Yeah, Opentyrian is also ported in the various open handhelds like gamepark, dingoo, RG350, etc.

[@u9vata]

I just have to agree: best shoot-em-up ever. Period.

[@LeandroFTW]

Holiday Mode!!

[@Brodiz]

Holy crap I forgot about this game!

[@borebnm]

probably the first pc game I played in my life. have it installed on my pc to this day about 25 years later haha Im playing it from time to time when i get bored of modern games. I love it

[@MukuonChannel]

I think most Shmup games nowadays are just bullet hells (most notably the CAVE serries and of course Touhou), widely popular in Japan because of the challenge. I can't even remember the last time I played one, I remember Gunbird 2 on the dreamcast.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Tyrian occasionally gets into bullet hell territory, but its campaign and shipbuilding mechanics make it feel quite unique among its peers, in my book.

[@valentinom.4292]

@@Indigo_Gaming Yeah, but your ship it's pretty tanky and the game has no life system so it's manegable.

[@knate44]

I finally checked it out after looking for junk to do with my hacked Playstation Vita. Holy crap, can I not thank you enough. It's a great game that I can now play anywhere.

[@baronepam]

Gyges level beat me every time. Loved this game

[@cloudbloom]

This game looks badass. Aside from strikers 1945 I remember playing Mars Matrix in the arcade religiously in my late teenage years. I love shoot em ups, but some of the crazy hard bullet hell games are just too much for me haha

[@THEDESTROYERvU2012]

Great video but should have mentioned the soundtrack being fantastic and the amount of levels, secret levels and secret levels in secret levels

[@PureEvil1138]

I just played it for 2 hours straight

[@hcli6901]

This was one of my childhood games along with Duke Nukem 3D, Normality and Little Big Adventure 2. I really wish it would get some kind of modern remake, but keep the original soundtrack, it was really unforgettable.

[@spiritofthewolf15x]

Tyrian was one of the best games to come out of the 90s

[@WillMoon]

Where did you get the music for this video?! This brings back memories...

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I believe I used Overclocked Remixes of Tyrian music. Should be in the description.

[@Cienciamarcial]

It´s the best indeed!!!! I´d played it many many years ago, on the PC, I didn´t remember it´s name. Luckly I could find it. I don´t remember repeating a gun/power/ray at any match I played. This game is AWESOME. And at least, the best shoot´em up game I have ever played.

[@The_SOB_II]

I loved tyrian lanius because i very played it

[@Prizm44]

I loved Tyrian and spent countless hours playing it and adjusting my ship 😢 It wasn't as graphically polished as Raptor, but it had much more variety and depth. I think the only similar game I've played since was Jets N Guns Gold in the early 2000s. Although it was very hard and unbalanced, it brought back some of the fun I used to have on Tyrian (there is apparently a Jets N Guns 2 now which I might have to check out).

[@SeekerLancer]

I like the art direction of Tyrian a lot more than Raptor. Raptor just looks like a washed out version of Raiden.

[@MDUmairKh]

Check out Raptor: Call of Shadows. Amazing shoot em up and my favorite game from the genre. Played it when it was released for MS DOS. It's getting a sequel in the future as well. So excited.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I mentioned Raptor briefly in the video. That was a good game too. I hadn't heard about the sequel. That's awesome! Looking forward to it.

[@MDUmairKh]

Indigo Gaming Yeah, I posted the comment before watching the video. Another great video mate :-)

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Umair Khan Thanks Umair. Seeing your name on a lot of my videos. Glad they are entertaining. :)

[@abadenoughdude300]

Amazing gameplay aside, the story of the game is so much fun. The story is pretty daft but it's self aware and rolls with all the random silliness (like you can find a data cube in one of the levels that ponders what's with all the fruits floating around in space. Pure gold). You can tell what the devs were going for when writing and developing the game - sheer, unadulterated fun.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

There was some fun stuff like the carrot ship, but some the food-related stuff was mostly added in Tyrian 2000, in which another developer added some pretzel character from their other game to advertise their other products. A bit silly, but the game is still really fun!

[@litlclutch]

Tyrian 2000 was a surpise joy when I got it form GOG for free. I had recently gotten back into the genre thanks to the PS4 Skyforce games, Skyforce Anniverary & Reloaded. I found those really compelling partly due to the great gameplay and partly due to the pretty awesome upgrade system they use for improving your ship. Tyrian is the only other shmup I've found that does this as well as the Skyforce series. Too often I find shmups have you buyign new weapons rather then upgrading or they do it through drops in mission which is less compelling IMO ... especially when grabbing a weapon drop changes you to a different style and you go from a higher lvl of one type to the base version of another cuz you happen to hit a say "machine gun" when you were using "laser" so your lvl 2 or 3 laser is now a lvl 1 machine gun ... hate that style. Anyway, love your reviews and retrospectives.

[@zsideswapper6718]

Want a challenge? ENGAGE MODE! this thing was so hard, like, I couldn't even pass Episode 1 🤣 and it was so hard that at some parts of the game you really required to use special moves, else you were dead.

[@Eldorado1239]

Don't insult my Carrot Ship! ...yeah, this and Stargunner are the best PC shooters I know of.

[@drumjod]

Tyrian.

[@Parris360XP]

Just got into shoot em ups, or "Shmups" as they're called which I think is really cool, I've been looking for some that are a bit more modern and crazy looking. I started playing bullet hell Monday on my phone and couldn't put it down. Does anyone have any suggestions towards games anything like that, I can play on my phone?

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I haven't played many mobile shmups, but I did try out the fanmade Tyrian port on Android. It wasn't bad, I'd recommend trying it out. I think there's a version on iOS as well, but I can't speak for that one. Good luck!

[@danepresley7851]

Indigo Gaming I was jus playing it on my phone, on insane, and turbo speed and it's responsive enough to beat the game. Highly recommend

[@eagleeye55]

I know this is an old comment, but I figure I'd chime in for anyone looking for a good mobile Shmup game. It is called BlastZone 2 and it is available on Android as well as Steam. It is lots of fun and has a ton of content!

[@LIFEFORCEX]

...also, Tyrian pays homage to other legend from the BEST computer ever made: Zanac from MSX.

[@roudanskalamir9251]

The hardcore Shmup community, (the ones that derogatorily use the term "euroshmup") probably isn't going to like this video if they find it. It's kinda interesting in that I think there's two diametrically opposed approaches to the SHMUP genre: There's the hardcore approach of people who see the genre as a way to pit their reflex, memorization, dodging skills, & hand-eye coordination against a tightly crafted beast of a game until they can finally 1cc it. Then there's the more casual approach of people who dive into it for the simplistic but no less satisfying pleasure of blowing stuff up while enjoying the visual & auditory trip. I think there is a case to be made that Tyrian may be the best example of the latter approach. The former side, however, tends to thumb their nose at it.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Tyrian is messy and far from a "perfect shmup." I'd point to something like Ikaruga as being way more elegant in its design. I definitely want to cover that game someday.

[@roudanskalamir9251]

@@Indigo_Gaming Funny you say that because, based on what I've seen, the hardcore crowd is starting to turn on that game as it's started to garner a reputation as a game put on a pedestal by people who haven't experienced or delved into other shmups. It's kinda becoming the FFVII or Elder Scrolls III of its genre or perhaps even more accurately DDLC.

[@sebastienbaeyens2358]

true

[@ferdinandavila-soto7233]

If you like ship customization and campaigns involving resource management, then you might really like Cryptark on PS4.

[@Alianger]

The case against it: -Pretty much requires the mouse to beat on normal -No checkpoints -Too easy to miss power ups including data log -Very uneven difficulty curve -Unskippable secret levels, some of which are brutal early on -Excessive trial & error -Certain shop gear disappears in-between levels even if you previously had it equipped -Laser special weapon+flamethrower and pod is an OP combo -Repeated alarm sfx when near death Still it's a good game, especially considering it's free on GOG.

[@uno99]

I remember playing this in the 90's, and I agree with you. It's great, but Jet's and Guns gold I think is better.

[@Krystalmyth]

Oooppph, this is a rough sell in a world with Ikaruga in it. Ikaruga brought me to tears from the ending... The mechanics, the music... And you mentioned it so you're aware of it... I mean the game is great for its age, but c'mon. In a world with Lightning Force, ESP Ra De...? That said you sure blew me away stating this was an MS-DOS game. Should have lead with that.

[@jocogi8]

So the United States is developing drones that fly alongside a manned aircraft and bank in perfect formation with the plane. They called them 'Loyal Wingman' drones, and I'm like 'No, they're called sidekicks'....

[@Indigo_Gaming]

But can they be controlled by Player 2? Asking the hard questions...

[@SiegahertzCarmin]

nothing to say... I agree at 100%