Gyruss - 1988
Gyruss
NES - 1988 - Shoot 'em Up
Gyruss is a great old space shooter with a twist. You've got your top down shooters and your side scrolling shooters, but Gyruss ain't having no truck with that cliche'd shmup nonsense. You'll fly in a ring around the perimeter of the screen and you'll like it.
It's hard to capture the gameplay based on just a screen shot, but it works exactly as described above. Your ship moves in a ring around the center of the screen, with enemies approaching gradually from the center a ways away, getting progressively larger in your perspective and changing depth on the fly. For a non-3d take on 3d it's seriously well done. Playing it in a dark room is kind of trippy because the bright sprites leave trails across what is otherwise a mostly black screen. Kind of gives you the feeling of being alone in space.