Tyrian - 1995

The best game I ever played on my 486. Tyrian, followed by Tyrian 2000 4 years later. Tyrian is a very good 2D top down shmup, with plenty of ships, plenty of upgrades for different components and a pumping sound track.


What made this game especially awesome was the complex plot, detailed universe and the awesome 'meta' ending which I won't spoil for you here! :-)


Tyrian had heaps of different ships, with unlockables spread throughout the game. You could fly a Stealth ship, and load it up with a ninja star weapon. Or, you could unlock the carrot ship, and obliterate the opposition using flying bananas. I tell no lie.


Despite the awesome gameplay, the thing that makes Tyrian memorable for me is the extra stuff they gave you. Hidden away in the game files was a jukebox, which let you play all the game tracks with a cool particle effect display driven by the music. And, if you completed the game (with the carrot ship?) you unlocked a completely separate scorched earth type game, which was rather cool, and multiplayer.