Gameplay
Tyrian is an arcade-style vertical scrolling shooter. The player controls a space ship fitted with different weapons (front and back, linked to the same button, and up to two external pods with their own buttons) and other equipment. The game is mostly fast-paced but easily memorizable and it presents a variety of enemies (some flying, some fixed, some on rails) and bosses, with many occurrences of fixed and/or indestructible obstacles.
Before the player's starship is destroyed it must take enough damage to exhaust several points of shields (which regenerate over time) and armor.
Tyrian's Full Game mode features a credit and equipment-buying system, and the shield/armor hit points which are similar to game mechanics in Raptor: Call of the Shadows, another PC game from the same period. Tyrian also features an Arcade Mode which has characteristics from coin-op arcade shooters, such as in-game powerups and extra lives.
Tyrian was a departure from the prevalent "serious" style of shooters like Raptor and Aero Fighter, due to the cartoon-like artwork and the abundance of silly (or at least strange) dialogue and content. The bonus levels in Episode 1 and 2 were meant as a tribute to Galaxian or Galaga, where there are large formations of enemy ships that gradually break off one by one to attack the player.
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