[Playing…] Gaurodan

Classic arcades were a well-thought-out business because they hooked the player with addictive gameplay that made them want to stretch the coin that the game had cost them to the maximum. Being a business, the games used to have a fairly high difficulty (in some arcades the machines were directly at the maximum difficulty level) causing the player to have to invest more coins to be able to see beyond where they had left off.

Although that era (for better or worse) has passed away, there are still games that can hook you in the simplest way and at the same time offer you a challenge that makes you want to play more and more. Today I am going to talk about one of those games, Gaurodan, of Locomalito (independent game developer that publishes its games free on their website).

Gaurodan is a tribute to giant monster cinema (especially to Rodan) and also some old games like Choplifter either Defend (although unlike what happened in those games, here we won't have to save anyone). Everything in the game It is made in a way that is reminiscent of an arcade from the mid 80s, so we will enjoy pixelated graphics and chiptune music.

The story places us in the Canary Islands where, after an earthquake, a strange egg has appeared that contains the monster Guayota. Shortly after, an egg will appear containing Gaurodan, a type of flying dinosaur or prehistoric bird that will destroy everything it finds until it meets Guayota, since according to local legends, They are both natural enemies.

At each level we will have a certain number of objectives to destroy (they mark it for us on the left side of the screen) but usually there are more objectives, so we can get extra points and have a little more fun. Among our objectives are the army (tanks, planes, battleships, bombardments) and buildings (which will sometimes give us a power up to increase Gaurodan's firepower or restore part of his life). In certain levels we will also have to face giant monsters that will act as bosses and test our reflexes and nerves.

Gaurodan can attack with two types of shot, one of them always goes in a straight line (and is ideal for flying enemies that are coming towards us) and the other diagonally downwards. If we turn from left to right and use the diagonal shot, Gaurodan will be able to shoot directly downwards, something useful to finish destroying buildings, but risky if we want to attack the army artillery.

The game is not very long (once you have mastered it, it will last about 30 minutes) but to complete it you have to spend hours and hours, because you have to complete it in one sitting and we only have one life bar (which will not be refilled at the end of each level). The first levels will be relatively easy, but as soon as we have taken control the game will begin to increase the difficulty and we will see our character surrounded by enemy shots that we will have to avoid so that they do not scratch a single scratch on our sacred life bar.

The gameplay is addictive, but since we are going to have to continually press the shooting buttons (we will end up exhausted after an intense game) It is advisable to use a controller instead of the keyboard. Some controllers I have tried are not compatible with the game, however the Xbox 360 wired controllers work without problems.

After 11 levels where we will destroy cities, eliminate giant monsters and develop a nervous tic to look at our life bar when it is very low, we will be able to contemplate the end of the game. If we have found all the hidden bananas (in clear reference to the famous Canary Islands bananas) we can enjoy the Banana Ending, which is a small addition at the end with the song “Mojo Picón” in a classic video game version.

Initially it only has the main game mode, but once we exceed a specific number of points we can play the survival mode, thus extending the life of this interesting game that I recommend to everyone who wants to live an experience like that of the eighties arcades, but without the economic wear and tear of yesteryear.