The team at COAF Research have helped bring life back to the retro age, by releasing their debut title, ‘Zunius’. Described as a ‘Psychedelic, Rogue-Like Bullet Hell’, you’ll be rocketing around various alien planets, shooting your foes down until your heart’s content!

So fire up your blasters as we dive into Zunius.

GAMEPLAY

Zunius takes you on a trip back down the retro arcade, dropping you in the mid-80s era of side scrolling shooters. The distinction this time around is that Zunius really does feel like a heavily induced, acid trip ride through space. Think the wild and uncanny-ness of Adventure Time or Ren & Stimpy, and put that into a game and you have one wild, shooting ride ahead of you!

Upon starting the game, you’re given a choice of 1 of 3 different spacecraft to pilot during your upcoming shootout. Each ship has its pros and cons, along with colour schemes and special abilities. This helps increase Zunius’s replay value immensely, as a different ship will offer up new and exciting challenges each time you play through.

Your enemies appear in the form of various looking alien / out of this world style characters, who’s soul purpose it is to shoot your innocent looking ship down. There are also a few extra options and achievements to unlock and play around with, adding a flood of enemies and alternating the world around you.

CONTROLS

Thankfully, and true to form, Zunius sticks to the classic, easy to pick up and play controls of the retro age. Up, down, left, right are all used by their respective arrow keys. Utilising left click to shoot, that’s arguably most of your controls throughout. Controller support is accepted, making it an extra joy to play.

GRAPHICS + SOUND

I adore the, pardon the pun, ‘spaced’ out art style of Zunius. It really is a futuristic, hyper, acid dye wash of alien life and space worlds combined. It’s fun, fast and addictive to play.

Sadly, the audio is the real alien here. It sounds very out of place, raw and dull. It feels that the audio was either an afterthought or rushed at the last moment, which is a shame because if the audio was cleaned and repurposed, it would tie it all into a nice little package.

CONCLUSION

Zunius is fun, retro side scrolling shooter. If you enjoy the retro aspect of games, then this is a great little indie nostalgia trip for you.

Written by: Brutaleo