Play Gyruss Online

Summary

Gyruss on the NES feels like piloting a lone starfighter through a cosmic tunnel that shrinks toward a single vanishing point in the middle of the screen. Your ship slides along an invisible ring at the edge, turning left or right while every laser you fire converges on that central point, giving the whole battle a hypnotic, spiraling rhythm. The soundtrack is a fast‑paced electronic take on Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue, rendered through the console’s five AY‑3‑8910A chips and even supports true stereo, which makes the music pulse as you dodge swarms of enemy ships, rotating satellites, and indestructible asteroids.

The NES version adds a whole lot more than the arcade’s 24 stages – it expands the journey to 39 warps, inserting Pluto, Venus, Mercury and the Sun, and each planet brings a boss fight and a bonus round where extra power‑ups can be snatched. A super‑phaser attack drains energy but clears the screen, while satellites sometimes drop smart bombs, extra phasers or even an extra life. The classic Konami code still works, but you have to input it backwards (A‑B‑A‑B‑right‑left‑right‑left‑down‑down‑up‑up) to earn those hidden lives. When you finally reach the end, a brief text declares the universe at peace, giving the whole space‑flight a surprisingly tidy conclusion.

Storyline

In the year A.D. 2500 humanity has spread peaceful colonies across the solar system, from Mercury to Pluto. Suddenly, alien death‑ships—dubbed the war‑starved Gyrusians and led by the immortal Genghis Khan—swarm the Milky Way, flattening the galactic fleet and threatening Mother Earth. You play the lone space cowboy who escaped the Gyruss shroud of doom and must scorch through the galaxy, freeing each world with your Neo‑Bomb‑Blastic cannons and Ultra‑Lazonic phasers.

The NES version of Gyruss begins with the on‑screen cue “2 WARPS TO NEPTUNE,” sending you outward through space to Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and finally Earth. Each planet is reached after a series of warps and a short bonus round where enemy ships can be shot for points. After Earth’s bonus stage you race through a fast “3 WARPS TO NEPTUNE” level before the cycle restarts.

When the loop finally ends, the NES ending displays a brief message that the Universe is at peace, while the Famicom Disk System version adds a full credit sequence to wrap up the adventure.