GYRO Review

Gyro is not for those who desire a relaxing experience in their puzzle games. While some puzzle games let you sit back, match gems, and collect cute creatures, Gyro couldn’t care less about those games’ fans. In fact, Gyro doesn’t seem to care about anyone. Gyro is a huge jerk who teases you with a simple and light-hearted experience that morphs into a sea of difficulty. And it’s incredibly fun.

Right from the start, Gyro feels similar to Terry Cavanagh’s Super Hexagon. When you first hop into arcade mode, you’ll find yourself rotating a giant three-colored circle. From there, orbs of each color will sneak onto the screen and slide their way toward the center. Your goal is simply to rotate the circle so the orbs collide with the portion of the matching color. This simple idea goes a long way in defining Gyro‘s identity as a straightforward game.

The other part of Gyro‘s identity is that it gets difficult quickly. While it takes a long time to get anywhere near Super Hexagon levels of frustration, every game mode will challenge you. In arcade mode, the colored orbs start floating in at a slow pace, not requiring you to spin your circle much at all. Over time, you’ll be eased into a more rapid pace. You’ll start to spin your circle to catch a flurry of orbs or rhythmically rotate to gather a single-file line of alternating colors. All the controls are touch-based and they work wonderful.

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Gyrating difficulty

Gyro is not for those who desire a relaxing experience in their puzzle games. While some puzzle games let you sit back, match gems, and collect cute creatures, Gyro couldn’t care less about those games’ fans. In fact, Gyro doesn’t seem to care about anyone. Gyro is a huge jerk who teases you with a simple and light-hearted experience that morphs into a sea of difficulty. And it’s incredibly fun.

Right from the start, Gyro feels similar to Terry Cavanagh’s Super Hexagon. When you first hop into arcade mode, you’ll find yourself rotating a giant three-colored circle. From there, orbs of each color will sneak onto the screen and slide their way toward the center. Your goal is simply to rotate the circle so the orbs collide with the portion of the matching color. This simple idea goes a long way in defining Gyro‘s identity as a straightforward game.

The other part of Gyro‘s identity is that it gets difficult quickly. While it takes a long time to get anywhere near Super Hexagon levels of frustration, every game mode will challenge you. In arcade mode, the colored orbs start floating in at a slow pace, not requiring you to spin your circle much at all. Over time, you’ll be eased into a more rapid pace. You’ll start to spin your circle to catch a flurry of orbs or rhythmically rotate to gather a single-file line of alternating colors. All the controls are touch-based and they work wonderful.

Arcade mode is forgiving. If an orb collides with the wrong color, that section loses health and the game continues until one color’s health is gone. Players who crave a more immediate challenge should flock to Hardcore mode. Hardcore is the game’s biggest challenge, with the circle divided into six segments: three colors and three colorless skull sections. Hardcore begins by throwing everything at you, and one wrong hit will end it. This mode is simultaneously the most fun and most frustrating part of the game. Players craving sheer difficulty need to look no further.

GYRO

The Time Attack mode isn’t much to talk about. You get 90 seconds to build a large combo and score as many points as you can. There’s no failure and the only penalty for getting hit is a reduced score multiplier. Those who want more variety to their challenge will be right at home in the Challenge mode. Challenge mode puts you through dozens of quick trials that range from playing with six colors to a three-section wheel whose sections are rapidly changing size. Each stage comes with three timers. You gain a star for each timer that expires. Landing the first two stars is generally easy, but the last will usually test your skills.

There’s not much else that Gyro offers. There are unlockable color schemes that just change the visuals (no color blind-friendly options, however). There’s online leaderboard support and an unlockable 8-bit sound mode. Even with these limited extras, there doesn’t need to be much more. Gyro will push you to your limit, but not to the point where you want to throw your device out the window and watch a raccoon run off with it. If you’re looking for a game that’s perfect for short (but challenging) sessions, look no further.

The good

    The bad

      80 out of 100
      Derek Tillotson spends his free time wandering around San Francisco, forever searching for the best burrito in town. He hasn't found it yet, but the hunt may very well be the greatest treasure of all. When not eating burritos, Derek writes stuff and posts updates to his blog at derektillotson.com.