GyroBlade (Steam, Switch) - Toaplan-inspired budget heli fun

[TransatlanticFoe]

Mentioned in the M2 Toaplan thread, picked it up and figured it's worth its own thread! Launched on Steam in 2020 but Switch only arrived a couple of days ago.

It's missing some polish in the presentation, but ultimately is a fun, worthy Twin Cobra tribute and is less than a fiver! It's also tight to play - no noticeable lag, inertia or other jank. It's clearly had a lot of thought go into it.

Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1469340/GyroBlade/

Switch launch trailer:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d5oLX14uWgU

No bombs, two weapon types (straight and spread) so it feels barebones. Basic enemies take 2 hits and bullets are quite slow - which seems a deliberate decision, if you let enemies on screen it quickly fills up with bullets. And a couple of stages in you get fast, aimed rockets thrown into the mix. While it looks like a Famicom game, the sprites are cute and nicely animated, and it can handle a lot of stuff on screen if you're foolish enough to allow it to! Explosions are MD Kyukyoku Tiger satisfying, though this feels a bit unintentional as the sound levels are a little inconsistent - but is still welcome. Nice music, clearly inspired by its source material.

You get 3 lives and 3 credits (credits of course reset score), with no extends, over 8 stages. Easy, normal, hard and classic - though classic appears to be as normal except weapon power maxes at +2 levels not +5. Difficulty appears to impact amount and types of enemies with bullet speed unchanged - this isn't really a bad thing because hard throws rocket tanks at you from the outset and I didn't survive long in stage 1!

I cleared it on easy using all credits, there's some classic early Toaplan light memorise elements (side enemies charging in! Nothing from behind though) and good enemy variety (yep even the helis that can go to the bottom of the screen and come around behind you). Bullet sealing appears to be well implemented, nothing sniped me.

It needs some work in the presentation - the options screen is like the result of a BASIC programming tutorial, could do with more music tracks, definitely needs rotor sounds and stage end fanfare, more variety in boss design is needed too. On the gameplay side it's pretty tight, though I think bosses could use a faster bullet speed or infinite spawning backup enemies. They're not as stressful as they need to be - but there are some surprise patterns (usually rockets!).

Definitely worth a look for fans of Toaplan's earlier stuff.

[Steven]

I love Kyuukyoku Tiger; it is probably my #2 or #3 favourite Toaplan game, and whoever made this obviously loves that game as well. GyroBlade is good.

I did actually get an extend, BTW, although I wasn't paying attention to the extend score, but I got it from the stars after killing the stage 2 boss. Edit: extend score seems to be 100,000. Edit 2: Okay, it's not every 100,000, as I didn't get another extend at 200,000. I wonder if it's actually 70,000 and then every 200,000, just like a Toaplan game and I just wasn't paying attention when I got my extend.

Seems to have some bad screen tearing without Vsync on for me, though.

Those rockets are super fast, though. Holy shit I was not expecting those! The bosses also flood the screen with bullets, almost to a bullet hell level, which was also very surprising, but it works well here and I like it.

It even has the boat that you land on between stages, so I give it 14/10 just for that.

Anyway, I like this game. It's not perfect, as it seems to have no control remapping, which sucks, and there are only like 2 music tracks, but what is here is good. Nice little game. Classic difficulty seems to be weird, as it seems easier than normal but you can only power up twice, so it's... kind of harder while also being easier, which is weird, but okay.

[Creamy Goodness]

Saw this and it looks pretty good, but this may be a bit nit picky, but the lack of a bomb is killer. That is a huge part of these games.

[Yes Boss!]

I’ve been playing it for the last couple weeks since it releases early December on the Japan eShop. It is simple but well-polished and quite fun. Lots of throwback but some nice little effects with the bosses and explosions. And it is just fun to do the star scoring system.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Played a bit more on Switch and there are no extends, must only be on the Steam version? Switch is at version 1.3.0. I can get into stage 5, thought I lost my last life as something suicided at me but I must have hit it point blank - by the time I realised I was still in the game, my heli was going straight into a bullet and that was game over

I like not having bombs, there's no get-out in an emergency except to split-second find a way through.

[hamfighterx]

I bought the Switch game last night after posting about it in the Toaplan thread, agreed with the general positive sentiment here. I think it's all the work of one person, so considering the rock solid fundamentals I can easily look past some of the (legitimate) minor criticisms like very barebones options screen, small number of music tracks, etc.

It even has the boat that you land on between stages, so I give it 14/10 just for that.

Hahaha yeah the boat made me smile. The floating Kyuukyoku Tiger style power ups too

Saw this and it looks pretty good, but this may be a bit nit picky, but the lack of a bomb is killer. That is a huge part of these games.

This is also my biggest issue. I appreciate the comment that not having bombs forces you to find a way through without relying on them as a crutch, but bombs are a really such a core piece of Tiger Heli and Kyu Tiger's identity that it feels a little empty to have what is obviously a tribute to those games lack one of the distinguishing elements of them. When I started playing, it felt so wrong to me that I kept feeling like I was just missing the correct button, or needing to get a bomb as an item before I could use it.

Still a worthwhile little game though, obviously a labor of love with some real care put into it.

[FunktionJCB]

Thanks for the heads-up, TransatlanticFoe.

I just picked it up on Steam.
It's currently on sale for around 2€.

[FunktionJCB]

The Steam page for the developer's next game is now up:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2268960/GyroGunner/

[FunktionJCB]

The developer's new game, GyroGunner, launched today on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2268960/GyroGunner/

It looks pretty good.