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"Definitely not worth beating, unless you use cheats."

Ocean made a port that they should regret having made. I find this one to be the worst of the home ports they developed. The game play is just appalling. I don't like it and of course, I'll explain in this review.

Story: 8.5/10
The story is the exact same as the other Gryzor ports Ocean created. But this one is less detailed than the CPC one. However, I give it a better score since it doesn't feature that spirit-crushing ending.

Graphics: 7/10
This is a game in which the graphics aren't pleasant. It's very colorless and plain. Everything seems choppy and too fast. The pace is so fast that you'll often die trying to progress in the levels, especially the vertical one. It's because you get hit and don't know what is coming since the projectiles are blended in with the environment. Even the ZX Spectrum version, which is a weaker system than Commodore 64, has better graphics for its system.

Sound: 7/10
Once again, this isn't that great either. Want to know why? Because the sound you'll hear most often will either be the annoying pea-shooter sound of your default gun, or the high-pitched whine when you die. Calling it annoying is an understatement. In addition to those, most guns have somewhat similar annoying whine noises.

Music: 7/10
This game has only two music tracks. They're the same ones as the CPC and Spectrum versions. But one of them is only heard at the main menu, and it is the ending music. The other one is Contra 's base level music. EVERY level has that track.

Game play: 4/10
This is why most people hate this game. The difficulty is spiked up because of bad gameplay. The rate of fire is so slow, you're definitely going to lose lives by one enemy while trying to hit another. There is an interval of about half a second between each bullet, if you have the typical game setup. This goes for every gun except for the machine gun, which shoots slightly faster. There's no point in getting any gun because it's almost impossible to shoot the weapon pods; you'll probably lose the power up a few minutes after you put effort in destroying the pod. I've beaten the game once or twice. But this is not one I'd want to go back to playing fairly. I'm sure this slow gameplay is common to most C64 games. But after I encountered the fourth level boss, I realized that you must be insane to beat the game without cheating. That section is extremely difficult, you'd probably give up because of it. Some versions of this Gryzor lack the Waterfall stage except for the boss battle. I suppose that makes the game easier, but it doesn't allow for the complete (crappy) experience.

Re playability: 7/10
Not much is seen here, since it isn't that much of an amusement. Unless you cheat, you won't go far. Those that do beat the game without cheating will spend forever on the fourth boss battle. You'd have to practice like there's no tomorrow to get good at this game.

Overall: 7/10
This game isn't a good Contra entry. Most Contra fans should only buy this as a neat collector's item or complete collection's item.

Rent or buy?
Simply try it; any way you can. Then decide if you want to hold onto it.


Reviewer's Score: 7/10 | Originally Posted: 08/24/06, Updated 01/06/12

Game Release: Gryzor (EU, 1988)