Zenzizenzic Review

Zenzizenzic is a hellish twin-stick shooter developed by first-time game creator Ruud Koorevaar, but you would never know. The amount of joy, polish and challenge that this game presents have been long awaited by fans of the genre. If I had to summarize my experience of the game in a sentence I’d say that I felt more powerful than I have in a long-time while playing this game, but never have I been more overwhelmed.

Zenzizenzic
Developer: bitHuffel
Price: $9.99
Platform: PC
A review copy of Zenzizenzic was supplied to us by bitHuffel

The only thing more difficult than Zenzizenzic’s gameplay would probably be pronouncing its name, although this title is fitting for more than difficulty alone. The word “Zenzizenzic” means “a number is its fourth power,” and after you witness all the crap that can hit the fan in this game, you’ll understand why this name is appropriate.

You start Zenzizenzic with tutorial that makes the rest of the game seem quite simple. You move with the ‘WASD’ keys, you shoot your primary with the left-click and your other two weapons with the right-click and space bar. A nice addition to a game of this genre is the ability to both speed-up your ships movement in a sort-of sprint as well as slow it down, both of which become incredibly useful during the game’s bonus rounds in which the player navigates through a quickly moving maze of flying pieces as long as they can. After shooting enemies they will drop energy, which is used as a sort of ammo for your secondary weapons, or shield or weapon upgrades. That’s the end of the tutorial, but fortunately for us the game is not that simple.

Aside from stating the obvious difficulties of an absolute ton of enemies firing at you at once, the pure number of enemies becomes visually overwhelming (in a good way)! The entire game has this techno-rave theme, both in music and art style, which go perfectly with brightly colored polygonal enemies that shoot brightly colored rectangular bullets at you. As you progress further in the somewhat randomized levels the entropy only intensifies. Eventually you will be firing a ridiculous amount of powerful weaponry into a screen of bizarre pink and orange shapes, and it is fantastic.

There are currently a total of 5 levels in Zenzizenzic, with immediate plans for a 6th. Every level seems to be procedurally generated, so it’s never the exact same level twice, but the enemies and types of encounters you’ll experience in that level remain the same. In each of these levels you go through about 5 minutes of intensifying hell, where you simply try to stay alive and shoot as much as you possibly can. Then, you’ll be presented with a bonus level which as I mentioned earlier is sort of a blindingly fast maze that you have to move through as far as you can. Finally, every level culminates in a boss battle, which entails a lot of survivalist thinking (and puzzle-solving later on) as you avoid enemy shots and very slowly whittle an unknown amount of health away. The great part of the level design is that each level in Zenzizenzic is a lesson. In every level a new enemy trait is gained. In level 2 enemies can now have shields, in later levels bullets can track you and so on. The first level just has you familiarize yourself with the controls and concepts of a twin-stick shooter, the second has you focused on enemies, and I won’t spoil the rest for you but the progression you will see is amazing.

What is even more surprising about an indie game created by a first-time developer is the sheer amount of extras in Zenzizenzic. There are 3 modes: Classic,  which I have described above; Boss mode in which you simply practice against the game’s many bosses; and Macro mode, which converts the entire game into a continual, rogue-like, procedural experience. In Macro Mode you can upgrade as you progress, and every 5 minutes you survive you will be faced with one of the aforementioned bosses. This is the standout mode here, and after beating all 5 classic level it’s easy to get lost in Macro mode. Aside from the three distinct gameplay options there are also achievements, leaderboards and statistics that all help track your progress and get connected. To top it all off, the Zenzizenzic supports local co-op for classic arcade experiences.

There are only a few issues in play that keep this title from being perfect. Zenzizenzic was clearly developed with the classic arcade experience in mind, but sadly many computer/keyboard combos can’t support as many keys at once as the game often demands, which sadly transfers to the otherwise stellar gamepad experience. This likely won’t be an issue when Zenzizenzic hits consoles in the future, but there are noticeable moments when you’re cut short by over-multi-tasking. As with any game there are occasional bugs here and there, mostly with aiming or hit-detection, but the developer is actively fixing things quickly, and nothing here is game breaking.

The Final Word
Zenzizenzic is a must-buy for any fans of the twin-stick shooter genre. Its techno style, intense game play, powerful weapons and unique features have successfully revitalized my interest in the category. With almost nothing wrong aside from some slight control issues, I recommend you try out Zenzizenzic today.

– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great