Zenzizenzic Review (PC)

Bullet hell experiences have delighted gamers throughout the years, but only some studios are willing nowadays to jump head first into the twin-stick shooter/bullet hell/shoot'em up genre. Fortunately for fans, Ruud Koorevaar is just such a developer.

The indie creator got funding via Kickstarter for his Zenzizenzic experience and released the title as an early access game via Steam back in April.

Now, with the help of Adult Swim Games, the title is getting ready for its full-fledged debut on July 23. We were fortunate to be given access to the final version of the game to see just how it handles ahead of launch.

Does Zenzizenzic manage to delight with its bullet hell or should fans not even try to spell its name? Let's find out.

Gameplay and multiplayer

While some titles in the genre have tried to add a story or a plot to their action, Zenzizenzic doesn't try to supply any reasoning for its hectic action. This isn't a downside, however, as the game manages to easily make up for its missing narrative through the impressive modes and mechanics.

In Zenzizenzic you control  a small ship that goes up against all sorts of crazy enemies configured in a huge number of ways. You have a regular attack that shoots straight bullets, but as you pick up powerups from fallen foes, you quickly start dispensing all sorts of varied projectiles.

You can also pick two special abilities, ranging from guided missiles to lasers, charged shots, or even time manipulation ones, to slow things down. You can also pick up shields from killed enemies, which can be used defensively in order to absorb a hit, or offensively, by detonating them and eliminating most of the enemy projectiles in your vicinity.

Shoot enemies in Zenzizenzic

The game packs in a series of simple tutorials and two core modes that can be played alone or cooperatively via the local system. The first is the Classic mode that features five sprawling levels. Each has different themes and enemy types, and starts off easily with various foes. As you dispatch the regular enemies, you're taken into a bonus sequence that relies less on shooting and more on careful navigation of the tight and twisted environments. After completing or failing in the bonus section, you're taken back to the regular arena, where a boss awaits.

Throughout your battles, you earn lots of credits, which can be used to unlock more stages, a special Gauntlet that allows you to go through each of the five levels in a single go, or the bonus sequences. Of course, you can also spend the in-game currency on unlocking more special abilities.

Overall, even if five stages feel a bit lackluster, Zenzizenzic would certainly be a worthy investment. Fortunately, the second mode, Macro, adds even more fun on top of the regular Classic experience.

With Macro, developer Ruud Koorevaar delivers a roguelike experience but one that's built for bullet hell games. You're taken through procedurally generated levels with random enemies and offered access to a pretty complex upgrade system. As you vanquish the foes and explore your surroundings, you're ultimately presented with huge bosses that occupy multiple screens and require a prolonged effort to take out.

These encounters are quite impressive and add a welcome change of pace over the regular fixed-arena seen in the Classic mode. While things can get quite hectic as you progress, you'll still have plenty of fun exploring, shooting, and trying to figure out how to take down those huge bosses.

Special mention to the store in the Macro mode, as it allows to buy not just upgrades for your regular attacks but also refill on shields, lives, and other consumables. Throw in the big array of upgradeable attributes, and you have more than enough choices.

Controls are tight, especially when using a controller, and the game features quite a few different tweakable options, including settings for the dead zone and other such things. You have three lives in the two modes, but you can opt to spend right during the action 500,000 credits to get back a life.

As a rather clever mechanic, you can also speed up or slow down your ship, in order to escape or better navigate streams of enemy bullets. Changing the speed also modifies the attack patterns somewhat, but it's not that noticeable.

Even so, the difficulty in the game spikes a bit high as you progress through the levels, especially once enemies start using more advanced attack patterns and projectiles

Fight bosses in Zenzizenzic

Visuals and sound

Zenzizenzic features a fantastic visual style with blocky designs and vibrant colors. The performance is extremely smooth, and no matter how many bullets, enemies, and other things are on the screen, there is no slowdown in terms of framerate. The only slight downside is that it takes a bit of time before you can easily distinguish between actual bullets or projectiles from foes and enemies that you can destroy. Both use vibrant colors and have similar sizes, so you'll have to spend a bit of time with the game until you can easily figure out what you can and cannot shoot down.

The soundtrack is also fantastic, delivering great songs that complement the action of the screen quite well. The Classic tunes are fast-paced while the Macro songs slowly increase their pace as you get closer to the bosses.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion