Ex-Zodiac (2022) [Steam]

“All aircraft report!”
-Fox McCloud, StarFox

Indies have been instrumental in catering to gamers’ craving niche, retro experiences that triple A studios cannot provide. The Castlevania–inspired Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon, the Harvest Moon-like darling Stardew Valley, and even the Zelda–inspired Tunic have provided players with new, fresh takes on the games that they grew up with. The same can be said for Ex-Zodiac, developed by MKNY and published by Pixeljam. 

Ex-Zodiac is a fast-paced, 3D rail shooter heavily inspired by games such as StarFox and Space Harrier. With the Sanzaru Star System overrun by a terrorist threat known as Zodiac, hot-shot pilot Kyuu, her ship, and her rag-tag crewmate Niko gear up to liberate the system from their clutches.

Ben Hickling – the one-person team at MKNY, has been developing the code, art, and design of Ex-Zodiac for the last four years. Additionally, the game had a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2020. The Pixels received an early access copy of the game from the developer for this review.

A Throwback to Earlier Times

Right out of the gate, Ex-Zodiac’s visuals harken back to the days when Nintendo’s Super FX chip was the hottest gaming thing in the nineties. Visually, the game looks like StarFox. The ship and enemies are rendered with simple polygons with grainy textures. Meanwhile, the backgrounds and level elements are inspired heavily by Space Harrier II. These include the checkerboard ground elements, flying columns, and enemy patterns.

The current build consists of six planets to visit, with an additional six bonus levels. Kyuu zooms through cities, caverns, ancient ruins, and even a highway throughout these six levels. The environments are colourful and the level design feels streamlined and smooth. I found that I could take in the environment around me despite how fast everything was going.

Speaking of speed, what’s neat about the game’s visual aesthetic is that players can adjust the frame rate and resolution to their liking. Want an authentic StarFox experience? Set the frame rate to 15 and resolution to Retro on the options menu. Looking for a more buttery-smooth experience? Increase the frames to 30 or even 60. However, be advised if you use the Hi-Res option for the game alongside a high frame rate. I’ve noticed some stuttering and frame rate drops when I’ve set the display options to the maximum.

Do A Barrel Roll!

Ex-Zodiac is an admixture of the visuals of StarFox and gameplay elements of Star Fox 64. In each stage, Kyuu’s fighter comes equipped with a standard laser and three bombs. She can power up to a twin laser by grabbing a Laser pickups. Holding the fire button activates a reticule that locks onto targets. Releasing the button will fire a set of homing micro missiles to their targets. Initially, Kyuu’s fighter can lock onto three targets but can increase that number by collecting Extra Missile pickups. Similarly, Bomb pickups increase her bomb count by one.

Collecting a Data pickup and finishing the mission unlocks a bonus cyberspace level that pays direct homage to Space Harrier. In the level, Kyuu runs and flies around a virtual landscape while blasting enemies with a large gun/jetpack.

Later in the game, Kyuu gains access to a hoverbike. It’s used for the highway chase mission on Xenon, the final planet in the Early Access release. The controls feel similar to a Landmaster except the bike is much faster than the slow-moving tank.

A Tough Nut to Crack

One thing I’ve noticed from my playthrough is how much harder this game is compared to StarFox. The enemies take a lot of punishment and there are plenty of obstacles to avoid whilst shooting down adversaries. To me, the game’s difficulty felt like a mix of Route 2 and 3 from StarFox. For a veteran like myself though, I didn’t have too many problems clearing the levels. The real challenge lay with the ranking system.

After each level, your score is tallied up. Additional points are earned by destroying enough enemies, taking as little damage as possible, and clearing the boss quickly. Despite my skill, I averaged around a B or C ranking in all six levels. I did get lucky though and got an S ranking in one of the bonus levels.

Additionally, players don’t keep the upgrades they’ve collected in previous levels. However, that might be due to the nature of the game being in Early Access. Once the game is complete, there will be over 12 worlds accessible through branching paths.

Final Thoughts on Ex-Zodiac

Due to it being an early access build, there’s very little story exposition beyond Kyuu and her crewmate Miko needing to stop Zodiac’s reign of terror. Speaking of the two, the banter between them is great! I’d be very interested to see how the entire narrative plays out when the full game releases in 2023 or 2024.

I’ve really enjoyed my time with Ex-Zodiac. I’m a big fan of StarFox-esque games and this title is as close to a spiritual successor of the series as I’ve seen thus far. While it’s a touch more on the difficult side of things, fans of classic rail shooter series will definitely enjoy this game.

PIXEL PERFECT

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Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Twitter as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.