OpenTyrian: The Review (UPDATE #4)

If you are looking for some background/history/info on Tyrian here are some links:
Tyrian Wiki, Tyrian Fansite, Tyrian Repository.

I played Tyrian a couple of times many years ago. OpenTyrian brings back memories of fast game play, beautiful graphics, and a never ending onslaught of enemies. This review is about the porting of the game not the game itself so I won't be reviewing the game play but the adaptation of the game to play on the PSP. I will say that the game play is addictive and fun. A great game.

OpenTyrian was ported to the PSP by Deniska, best known for Mapthis! GPS app for PSP. I never have high hopes when someone takes a program, app, game, etc. and adapts it to work on hardware it wasn't originally developed for. The outcome is usually disappointing because it was never meant to be used that way. When I think of PSP homebrew ports that work well, Cave Story is the only one that comes to mind. The Cave Story port is perfect, at no time do you realize that this wasn't originally made to work on the PSP.

OpenTyrian isn't there yet, but it's close. I am pleasantly surprised by how well the game plays on the PSP. While in the middle of destroying hundreds of enemies there are very few hints that this wasn't originally meant to play on the PSP. OpenTyrian has two game modes: Arcade and Full versions.

During the arcade campaign the PSP seems to slow down a little when the action gets hot and heavy. This slow down is very slight and does not hinder the game play but it is noticeable.

Now let's get to where I think the OpenTyrian port has a major flaw. While playing the full version you will notice that there are no power-ups like in the arcade version. Upgrades to you ship are made be purchasing better guns and shields with money/points. So if there are no power-ups what do you collect as you play the game? Data. This data is basically how the story of Tyrian is told through the game. The arcade version has cut-scenes between missions to fill you in on what is happening but the full version's story is found in the menu. The full version's data problem is that you can't get the whole story. The text runs off the page and there seems to be no assigned button to scroll the text. This makes it very difficult to follow the story when you only get half the information.

Another flaw, which is more of an annoyance, is that navigating through the menus is quite difficult. Moving through the menu is done with the directional pad (up and down). The problem is that you will constantly go past the item you want. The pad should be pressed each individual time you want to move to a new choice. Currently pressing the pad will highlight the next item, then the next, and so on, with a constant scroll. Believe me, you will go past the item you want several times before landing on the correct one.

If you are only into the game play, and not interested in the story at all, then OpenTyrian is an excellent port for the PSP. The controls respond as you would expect and the only in game problem I found was the slight slow down when there is a ton of enemies and bullets on the screen. Well done Deniska, thanks for all the hard work. I hope that since this is version 0.5 we can expect a solution to these couple of problems I mentioned.

(My first impressions post on this game has download links and some other useful information.)

UPDATE (12/07/07):
Deniska has put out a new version. OpenTyrian v0.6 is a bug fix. All of the bugs I have mentioned have been addressed. Whether they have been fixed is another story. I'll let you know.

UPDATE2 (12/09/07):
Well as far as I can see Deniska has addressed and fixed all the issues I mentioned above. Here is a link to the full KXploited eboot for Deniska's OpenTyrian v06 port. I have nothing but praise for Deniska and the port of Tyrian to the PSP. This is a memory stick "must have". One thing I forgot to mention above and is an issue/problem for me is that currently OpenTyrian isn't able to save games. Since you have to start at the beginning everytime, it can get a little mundane. Since Deniska fixed the bugs listed above in such a timely manner I expect that the "save game" issue will be cured soon too. I will be adding this to my Best Homebrew list soon.

UPDATE3 (2/01/08):
As you will see from the comments, Deniska has released version 1.0 with improvements/fixes. I will find time to play it soon and edit this update with what's new.

UPDATE4 (2/10/08):
I found the time. Deniska has definitely did OpenTyrian right with the latest versions. Version 1.0 has none of the flaws I listed above and I can say it is very close to perfect.







The last major issue I had with OpenTyrian was the fact that you could not save your progress in the "full game". Deniska has granted my wish, back in version 0.7, and now I will be able to slowly but surely reach the end of the game. As you can see from the screen shots above game saves are possible. Unless you read the readme file included with the download you may miss the reference to the OSK (on screen keyboard). I would like to thank Deniska for this addition. I will admit that the OSK is a little buggy. I'll save all of you the trouble of figuring it out:

• In the menu, go to Options.
• Select Save.
• Select an "Empty Slot" and a pop-up screen appears.
• Press the right trigger/shoulder button and there is the OSK.
• Press up and down to select a letter. The readme file says to press the right shoulder button again, this is supposed to transfer your letter back to the pop-up screen. Sometimes it will transfer the letter, I have gone back and forth several times without the transfer taking place. I found that if you select your letter, then press square, then press the right shoulder button, the transfer rarely fails. I'm sure this isn't supposed to work but it does. Deniska will probably fix this soon, not many bugs last long around him.
• Continue to select letters with the OSK and eventually you'll have the name for your game save. See screenshot above. Mine is jackal, go figure.
• To load a game, select Options in the menu, hit Load and choose which game save you want to play.
  

The only thing left for Deniska to do is provide all of us with the holy grail of homebrew: Infrastructure play via the network option. I won't hold my breath expecting Deniska to provide us with servers to play on but it would be nice.

Deniska, thanks for all the hard work.