Zenzizenzic Review

Zenzizenzic is definitely a game that is as hard to play as it is to say. I’m not the biggest fan of shooters and less so for shoot ‘em ups, so I didn’t know what to think going into it. I was pleasantly surprised.

There isn’t any kind of background story to say why the seemingly endless fleet of baddies want you dead, but I can roll with that in this kind of game. Zenzizenzic has the familiar-feeling stage levels as well as practice levels for the bosses and hidden stages within the regular levels. The stage levels are typical for shoot ‘em ups meaning that you try and dodge walls of bullets while trying your best to keep your endless stream of bullets pointed at an enemy. Eventually a boss comes out and you have to learn the pattern of its attacks and hope to survive (although you can spend points to get back lives).

I don’t really see anything about this mode that sets it apart from other shoot ‘em ups. You can switch up your weapons once you purchase new ones, but each weapon has their own unique style that takes getting used to. To be honest, I found that the first two weapons were the easiest to use and the most effective at killing the Bad Guy Ship Horde. It is just shooting/dodging with some modicum of skill to build points and reach the next stage.

There is an entirely different mode called Macro mode. This more resembles a 2D open world for your Pew Pew ship. Stats like speed and fire rate drop at the beginning and you need to kill and survive in order to buy upgrades to stats and weapons. I think this is very unique to this genre and found myself having a lot of fun in it. There are obstacles to fly around, treasure and points to gain, items to collect, and still endless waves of bad guys.

Normally, I don’t care much for how a game looks, but it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t mention the visuals in this game. Something between the trippy background and the chaos of mutual fire and “explosions” make just watching the game appealing. I have died more times than I’m willing to admit by being distracted by the visuals of it.

I was not expecting much going into this game, but this game is definitely above the norm. It offers more than other shoot ‘em ups I have played, especially with Macro mode. Zenzizenzic is a game that you should grab a friend and try not to die with together.