Tyrian - Need I say more?

Way Back in 1995, when I was but a lad, a vertical scrolling space shoot 'em up game called Tyrian was tearing up computer screens everywhere. Nearly 15 years later, Mobila Entertainment brought it back to life, squeezed it down to the iPhone, and all without losing a single bit of fun.

Tyrian is a game with a simple shoot 'em up premise but delivers loads of fun right to your iPhone. There are two game modes in Tyrian and each is worthwhile. The first game mode is the Full Game mode. In this mode, you collect money for every enemy destroyed and in-between levels you can access the upgrade screen, in which you can spend that money on weapons and shields and such. The second game mode is arcade game mode. Here, instead of upgrading your ship between levels, the enemies drop weapon upgrades and power-ups. It may seem like a small difference, but it totally changes the way you approach a level.

The game has four acts. Each act has you go about to different planets and tasks you with destroying as much as you can. There are enemies flying at you, squads of enemies swoop in from all directions, land-based foes, and each planet has a boss or boss-like battle at the end. The enemies are clever and inventive. The enemies progress over the game and they keep you guessing. Tyrian has one of the smoothest learning curves of any game I've played. Each planet has a secret level that you can get to if you destroy the one enemy or enemy squadron that carries the yellow secret level pick-up. On top of that some levels have an even more secret level that is even harder to find and its' pick-up is blue. All told there are enough levels to keep even the most hardcore shoot 'em up fans at bay. Other pick-ups include bomb-type weapons and data cubes used for advancing the storyline and providing depth to the universe of Tyrian.

The controls of this game really make it shine. It is played in landscape view and one finger controls your ship. It is responsive and smooth. Before you know it you'll be weaving in and out of bullet spreads and dodging for dear life. On the side of the screen you see some Hud readouts that also double as buttons. It is a really clever way to maximize on the screen real estate. Everything is responsive all the way through to the main menu.

The graphics are über-smooth. Animations that are so smooth, they might drip off your screen. Ok so that was figurative, but it really does look great and constantly smooth with no slowdown. Explosions look good, enemies are easily distinguishable, bullets stand out plus all of the weapons in the game look unique and change for every level they get upgraded. Your level 6 Multi-cannon looks weaker than your level 7 Multi-cannon. There is a serious amount of weapons in the game. There are front guns, rear guns and left and right sidekicks. Also, the game has minimal loading.

Another thing I want to mention: Tyrian has an extremely interesting and unique feature. At any point, in any of the menus, you can tap a small button on the bottom-right of the screen that will bring up the onscreen keyboard. Why, you may ask? Because one of Tyrians most popular features from its 1995 PC origins is its cheat codes. One was able to unlock all sorts of cool ships and game modes using cheats typed in at the menus. Tyrian's on-screen keyboard allows you to do that. I would like to thank the developer for supporting almost all the original cheat codes. (Hint: type "techno" at the main menu.)

Really, everything you want in an iPhone game is here. Pick-up and play, sweet presentation and graphics, lots of great gameplay, lots of great weapons, and an intricate upgrade system that allows for hundreds of combination's of weapon and ship load outs (Including a carrot ship shooting hot dogs. For real.) It's a steal at the current price of 1.99 and it would be a steal at five times that cost. Tyrian delivers on every level and even after a week of straight Tyrian I find myself wanting to play it right now. I think I will...