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Retro Revival: Gyromite - Published by N-Philes, Sept 22, 2005

The Scoop

What happens when you combine two wacky scientists, a lab filled with lit dynamite, and one of the earliest and most bizarre console peripherals?

Gyromite, well... doesn't have much of a story. But it takes place in a science lab where Doctors Hector and Vector discover that bundles of dynamite have been set up all over the place. They decide that it's a good idea to collect all the bombs before time runs out, and set out to do just that. However, there are pillar-like doors and bio experiments-gone-wrong called smicks slowing down their progress.

The Robotic Operating Buddy, the aptly nicknamed R.O.B. peripheral, controls the red and blue doors onscreen by spinning a pair of gyros. He was rather slow and inaccurate with his tasks. Single players could use a second controller's A and B buttons to perform the same action, but that takes away the major purpose of the game, which was to work with R.O.B.

Iterations

Gyromite, NES, October 1985

Notable Appearances

Stack-Up (NES): Launched around the same time as Gyromite, Stack-Up lets the player control Hector, who controls R.O.B.

Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES): Disassemble? Dead? Kirby can collect R.O.B. pieces, which leads to a brief cameo by Hector, and the receipt of Hector's Heart Star.

Pikmin 2 (GC): Professor Hector wasn't in the game, but the little Pikmin can salvage a Remembered Old Buddy, as well as some of the gyro blocks that came with Gyromite.

411

Gyromite wasn't only one of the first NES games, it was also one of two "Robot Series" games that was compatible with the collectable R.O.B. robot peripheral. R.O.B. was a little expensive when it came out, but Gyromite came packed with it.

Gyromite features two main game modes. The first one has Hector collecting dynamite before it explodes, then moving onto the next level. When playing with two players, Player 2 gets to control Professor Vector. The second game mode has players controlling the doors to protect a slow moving, sleepwalking Hector as he moves from one end of the stage to the other.

Interestingly, the Gyromite game casing for the NES housed the Famicom version of the game. Because the NES and Famicom systems weren't compatible, an adapter allowed the 60-pin Famicom connector to work on the 72-pin NES. It's for this reason that the start-up screen says "Robot Gyro" and not "Gyromite".

Revival Potential

While Hector and Vector may look like aged Mario in an 8-bit style, they've hardly had the same fame and success as the portly plumber. What is even more disappointing is that neither Hector, Vector, nor R.O.B. were unlockable trophies in the Nintendo museum found in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

While Gyromite is pretty dated by today's standards, that isn't to say that it can't be adapted to today's action puzzle genre. In fact, if done correctly, Gyromite could easily be an addictive budget title for the Revolution. Hector and Vector could become Spy Vs. Spy-like nemeses of each other, both wanting to create the ultimate experiment. Each level puts either Hector or Vector (depending on who the player chooses) smack dab in the middle of a lab with a malfunctioning contraption and various seemingly unrelated objects that can be creatively used to repair it. Racing against the clock to solve these puzzles, players would also have to deal with the other scientist, who is sabotaging the lab by placing explosives with their own independent timers. Do you use up 10 seconds or more of your time to difuse the bomb, or finish what you're working on before the bomb explodes? Who knows, maybe these bombs contain parts needed to solve the puzzle! Boss battles would feature you trying to deactivate (or destroy, for less points) hazardous creations unleashed upon you by your rival. What would make a better final boss that a giant, laser-equipped R.O.B. trying to get medieval on your ass? Think The Incredible Machine with a clock and lots of action.

Being realistic however, the uncanny heroes would probably make it into an expanded trophy room in an upcoming Smash Bros. game at best, assuming that such a mode will exist. If any new game centred around a scientist lab, Nintendo would probably push for more star power and cast E. Gadd, that crazy inventor who created Luigi's Poltergust 3000 and Mario's FLUDD.

Lineage

Introducing a new feature to the Retro Revival series, Lineage connects the featured game to other titles with similar concepts, characters, scenarios, and more. What exactly does this 15-year old game have in common with a new PSP game... other than them both being terrible?

sources: Wikipedia, Hazards Labs, Nintendo Database

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