STAFF REVIEW of Gynoug (Xbox One)


Friday, November 26, 2021.
by Adam Dileva

Gynoug Box art Picture it, you’re in a gamer who’s wanting to play something new on your Genesis back in the radical 90's. You see the usual games that everyone has, but come across a weird looking box with ripped buff dude with some wings punching some flying demon thing on the cover. This exceptional game is titled Wings of Wor. While I don’t remember ever seeing this box or playing this game back in the early 90’s on my Genesis, having now played Gynoug (its original Japanese title), I’m glad to have experienced such a weird and unique shmup (shoot-em-up).

Given that it’s Gynoug’s 20th anniversary, it only seemed fitting to release this version to current consoles with modern quality of life updates. This is publisher Ratalaika Games’ second obscure shmup they’ve brought to modern consoles from classic developer Masaya, a trend I hope continues as I’m getting to experience old classic games I never would have otherwise.

Now, in most shumps, story and narrative aren’t usually a focus, as you generally play these to shoot a bunch of enemies and avoid bullets. Gynoug is no different. In the game itself there’s no dialogue or story in any way. The official store listing provides this huge backstory and lore, but oddly none of which is found within the game itself. Essentially, an evil entity known as the Destroyer is attacking the heavens, so it’s up to you to destroy them all and every mutated and disgusting boss that stands in your way. Again, in a shump like this, none of it will matter, as you’re simply just going to blast anything that moves.


Six challenging levels stand between you and victory, as do countless enemies, mini-bosses, massive weird grotesque bosses and power-ups along the way. At the end of each level is a massive boss, as expected, but what surprised me was that instead of piloting a ship in space against other alien ships, you instead are some sort of mythical man-creature thing with wings facing off against gross and weird monsters along the way.

While most shmups have some sort of power-up system, and Gynoug is no different, here though there are blue and red orbs that can be collected to improve your shots and damage, along with different power-ups that change your shot styles and multiple magic types to be used as your specials. The game itself teaches you absolutely nothing about what the power-ups do, how to activate your specials or anything else, so I had to do some research online. So while I was gathering all these different orbs and scrolls, I had no idea what they did or how to even use them.

Blue orbs apparently make your shot spread larger while red increase the damage you do. There’s a meter at the top of the screen that fills once you collect them. Dying will have you lose orbs, but they come so frequently that this doesn’t really become much of an issue as long as you don’t die numerous times in succession.


There are also different gem-like things to collect, changing your shot pattern between a very spread out shot, one that’s more focused forward or another that shoots front and backwards simultaneously. Either of the two are the best choices, were as the one that also shoots backwards is almost useless as not many enemies come from behind, making your front shots weaker.

Lastly for your offensive skills are scrolls you’ll find along the way. These are your magic which are used instead of typical screen clearing bombs that most shmups utilize. It seems there’s about a half dozen magic spells you can collect, holding up to three at a time, ranging from lightning bolts to arrows, shields and more. Honestly, I can only assume they were doing more damage, as I always saved them for bosses, but never seemed to make the massive difference that I was expecting.

The six levels are easily beatable in a single sitting, but because there’s no online leaderboards, I’m not sure who’s going to care much about scoring high without a way to share it, which was a bit disappointing. The gameplay itself is quite simple given the time period it’s from, moving with the Left Stick and simply firing with one button and magic uses on another. You can cycle between your magic spells which are banked, but again, the game doesn’t teach you this at all.


Just like their last release, there’s plenty of extras and bonus options available should you want. There’s not only a CRT option to make it appear you’re playing on an old classic tube TV, there’s plenty of sub options as well. Accessibility is a focus as well, allowing for rewinds when you make a mistake, Save and Load states whenever you like, and even cheat options like invulnerability, unlimited magic and more.

Given that Gynoug is from the 16-bit 1991 era of gaming, you know what to expect from its visuals and audio. Bosses are quite detailed, and given that they are massive and grotesque monsters, it was quite a unique experience for this genre. The audio was decent, not overstaying its welcome during a playthrough or two.

Out of curiosity I went online to see what a physical cartridge copy of Gynoug and Wings of Wor are currently going for. Needless to say I was quite surprised, and the mere $6 CAD to play this digital version is a minor fraction of the cost to get a physical copy. I really enjoy finding old classics that I never got to play growing up, and I hope that the trend continues with weird and unique games like Gynoug.

**Gynoug was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**




Overall: 7.0 / 10
Gameplay: 7.0 / 10
Visuals: 8.0 / 10
Sound: 6.0 / 10

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