Hey look, it’s another game from the “never thought I’d review this for the blog” pile. Gyromite technically doesn’t star R.O.B., no game did until Mario Kart DS, but it was one of the two games that actually worked with the peripheral that now stars in the Smash Series, so it makes sense. Now, let’s take a look at this simple little puzzle game…
Background:
…. This is pretty much the entire game in a single screenshot.
Gyromite, along with Stack-Up, were the only two games that actually worked with the Robotic Operating Buddy, otherwise known as R.O.B. It was first released in Japan in August 1985 as “Robot Gyro”, then in the US in October that same year as Gyromite (though the title screen often still said “Robot Gyro” thanks to Nintendo re-using the Japanese carts rather than printing new ones…) Europe got Gyromite September 1986.
For those not in the know, R.O.B. was literally a plastic robot toy that could move and press buttons depending on infra red flashes on the screen associated with the game. It was slow, easily broke and didn’t always work right when it was in brand new condition…
Gameplay:
Red and Blue pipe-like gates all over the shop… (God it’s going to be hard to write things for these pictures…)
In Gyromite you have to control Professor Hector, moving him from one side of the screen to the next while picking up bunches of dynamite, all the while avoiding killer birds known as “Smicks”. Throughout the levels there are red and blue gates that must to raised or lowered, either by R.O.B. or a second player, with the latter being really the only method that works…
There is a second mode where Professor Hector “sleep walks” across the screen automatically, leaving just one player to control the gates.
Either way it’s actually quite a fun little puzzle game, with two or one players, though nothing to write home about (and not really all that fun with R.O.B., by all accounts)
Graphics and Sound:
…. Collect that fruit! Yeah!…?
It’s an early NES game, so the sprites aren’t very detailed or have more than one or two colours, but they are quite pleasing. The levels are on the dull side, being mainly a brick floor and blue girders with a black background, but again, it’s an early NES game…
The soundtrack of two little tunes are admittedly two catchy tunes, but that’s about all you get beyond basic sound effects.
Thoughts Then:
Yeah! Gyro that Mite!
This is another game I remember playing around my friend Jack’s house, 2-player with me controlling the gates. It was fun for a while, but we soon got bored of it. I honestly can’t remember if he had R.O.B., but if he did it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me…
Thoughts Now:
I swear some of these are exactly the same…
It’s still a fun little puzzle game, even for one player, but similarly it also still gets boring after a short while. Good for little bursts, but if it weren’t for the R.O.B. connection no-one, myself included, would never really have heard about it…
Hogan Reviews 