Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Typhoon starts in the most direct way possible: you pilot a ship upward through a vertically scrolling alien assault and try to survive long enough for the score to matter. That simplicity is its strength. You can understand the goal immediately, but the action asks for more care than a casual blast-’em-up. You are not merely clearing enemies; you are managing space as the stage keeps moving and danger arrives from above.

The special symbols placed at the beginning of each level create a useful opening decision. An extra life is always tempting, while the three temporary upgrades—such as improved weaponry or a shield—can make the next stretch feel much more manageable. Because they do not last, they encourage you to capitalize on the breathing room instead of assuming you have solved the level. The changing environments also help the long run avoid becoming visually and rhythmically flat.

Its most memorable twist is also its most frustrating one. Rotating plates cannot be destroyed, while skulls punish you with instant death if you shoot them. That makes indiscriminate firing a liability, an unusual demand in a shooter built around constant attacks. Once this starts to click, Typhoon becomes a test of restraint and positioning; before it does, the game can feel punishing in a way that borders on perverse. Give it a little patience, because learning when not to fire is central to doing well.

The rank target displayed alongside your score is a smart piece of arcade motivation. Instead of treating each run as an isolated failure or success, Typhoon tells you exactly how far you are from improving your high-score standing. That small nudge suits a game with about 50 levels and repeat-run appeal: even a short session can leave you with a concrete reason to go back and shave off a few more mistakes.

Graphics

Typhoon uses a top-down scrolling view that keeps your ship, incoming aliens, and hazards in the same tight field of action. The journey moves through recognizably different locations, including an asteroid belt, jungle, and futuristic city, so the screen does not remain locked to one kind of sci-fi scenery for the whole game.

The rotating plates and skulls matter visually because you need to spot them amid the fighting and react correctly: avoid the indestructible plates, and do not fire at the skulls. That immediate hazard recognition is more important here than decorative detail.

Story

Typhoon frames its action as a spaceship’s fight against aliens across a succession of hostile environments. It is an arcade setup, not a tale that asks you to linger over characters or plot turns. The focus stays on the next stretch of scrolling danger.

That light framing works with the structure. Moving from space through a jungle and into a futuristic city gives the campaign a sense of travel, even though the narrative purpose is chiefly to send you into another combat zone. Each location is a new arena for the same escalating survival test.

If you want a shooter with an elaborate science-fiction yarn, Typhoon’s attraction lies elsewhere. Its story is the one you create through a run: the upgrade you grab, the skull shot that ends a promising score, and the eventual push toward a better rank.

Overall Experience

Typhoon is a sturdy 1987 shooter built for gamers who enjoy learning a game’s nasty rules and gradually turning them to their advantage. The temporary power-ups give it flashes of empowerment, but the instant-death skull rule makes every trigger pull carry a little tension. That is a sharper idea than the usual hold-fire-and-sweep approach, even if it can produce abrupt frustration.

The varied environments and substantial level count give the game more runway than its straightforward premise suggests. Still, the payoff depends on your appetite for old-school severity. If a sudden death caused by one wrong shot sounds aggravating rather than enticing, the central gimmick may wear thin fast. If you enjoy score-chasing games that insist on precision, it gives you a meaningful skill to master.

The high-score rank progress is the detail that ties the experience together. It turns survival into a measurable pursuit rather than a vague hope of lasting longer, and it makes improvement feel visible from run to run. Typhoon does not reinvent the vertical shooter, but it earns its 6.8 with a good sense of momentum, worthwhile stage variety, and a hazard system that makes you think before you spray bullets everywhere.

Retro Replay Score

6.8/10