by Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine is an obscure shooter that was released for various home computers and the Nintendo Entertainment System.
There aren’t any fancy cutscenes in Cybernoid, and you wouldn’t know what the story is without reading the manual or an article in a gaming magazine. Apparently, the Cybernoid ship was deployed to retrieve treasure that was stolen by space pirates.
When you first play Cybernoid, you’ll notice its strange control scheme. Holding up will propel your ship upwards, but letting go of the button will sink your ship down.
After you notice the strange control scheme, chances are that you’ll quickly be destroyed by one of the first obstacles. That’s all you need to know about Cybernoid.
Once you’ve seen the first screen, you’ve pretty much seen it all. Cybernoid is game of trial-and-error. It’s all about navigating each screen by weaving through narrow passages, dodging enemies and using the right powerups to carefully blast your way through.
And unlike most “shooters” of the time, this game isn’t a side-scrolling shooter. Think of The Legend of Zelda where you inch through the game screen-by-screen. Except Cybernoid is nowhere near as good as The Legend of Zelda.
Cybernoid is a game of patience, but I should also mention that you’re on a timer. While you slowly try to make your way through an onslaught of enemies without getting hit, you also have to make sure not to run out of time.
However, if you’re bored enough to take the time to learn each screen, you can beat the game in less than eight minutes.
The game was eventually re-released on the Wii Virtual Console, but it didn’t generate a lot of excitement. After all, this game is a relic of the past — a time in gaming when high difficulty meant replayability. These days, gamers want a more stable learning curve.
In short, Cybernoid is nothing special.
