aNewDomain — Gyro is one of the most interesting and engaging arcade puzzle games I’ve played in a long time. Developed by two guys from Submarine Factory, this fun little game has a fairly simple concept, but trust me — simple is good. Embrace the simple. Seriously — in this case, simple gets really hard.
In a Nutshell
The game consists of a tri-color wheel in the middle of your device screen. You control the wheel using the slider bar or by turning it on your screen. There are colored balls (that match the colors of the wheel) and you turn the wheel to match the color of the ball, then watch as the wheel absorbs the hit.
If you mismatch the colors — letting a red ball hit the blue part of the wheel, for example — you lose life. See what I mean about simple? The game has power ups and the speed increases over time, as multiple color balls start diving toward the circle dial. Faster and faster from all directions, until it’s totally insane.
This is a great game if you have a few minutes to kill and want to give your brain a workout while you wait. Once your pattern-recognizing brain gets into the rhythm of matching the colored balls to the colors on the wheel, the game really becomes addictive. At this point, there’s no turning back and you’re instantly immersed in a world where you are the wheel and you must absorb your balls back into you round and awesomely colored body.
Save the day. Be the hero.
Okay, so there isn’t a hero and there’s no day to save. It’s an awesome puzzle game, though.
Competition and Modes
If you login with Swarm you can compete against other players to try to reach the highest score. There are a few different game modes to unlock, though you have to opt for the paid version of the app to access them. The in-app purchases as of the time of this writing range from $0.99-$1.99 per item — which is a pretty good deal if you like the game and want to remove ads, unlock color schemes and master the Hardcore and Time Attack modes. There are also in-game challenges to attempt.
If you don’t want to pay, you could opt to unlock the game modes for free using Tapjoy — i.e., sharing and liking the app on Facebook, rating the game, inviting people to the game via email and other social methods. Personally, I’m a fan of the method at the bottom: do 50 push-ups. Can I send in a video or what?
Gyro is available free for Android on Google Play. You can also check out the old game trailer here on the Submachine Factory YouTube channel.
For aNewDomain, I’m Mat Lee.
Ed: The original version of this review ran on aNewDomain’s BreakingModern. Read it here.
All screenshots: Mat Lee
Featured image: Puzzle by Kevin Dooley via Flickr
