Approach again within the mists of time, there was a fantastic little console known as the Tremendous Nintendo Leisure System, or SNES for brief. After all, being a youngster at Uni, we named it the Sneeze and I spent all of my scholar mortgage within the Virgin Megastore shopping for video games for it. Quite a lot of my favourites appeared to come back from Konami – Pop n’ Twinbee, Parodious, Contra III – all Konami.
Nicely, they’re again now, publishing a sport from a 3 man studio in Scotland known as KeelWorks. That sport? That will be CYGNI: All Weapons Blazing; a shoot ‘em up. So, can KeelWorks and Konami come collectively and seize a few of the magic from again within the day?
The very first thing I’ve to concentrate on with CYGNI are the visuals, as they’re completely beautiful. There’s a actual sense of depth to the phases that we fly over, and that is mirrored within the fight – extra about that afterward. Bosses and enemies rear up from the bottom to face you within the sky, and all of it seems to be nice. There’s a improbable sensation of pace and hazard, as this sport positively places the “hell” in “bullet hell”. In reality, the sheer quantity of enemies and bullets on the display directly is breathtaking, and if you pipe within the music rating, which is superb certainly, and the same old boombastic explosions and capturing noises, it truly is rather a lot to absorb. However in a great way! There may be nothing to complain about with the visuals or sound of this sport, and it’ll go away you reeling if you get to the later phases, imagine me.
So, story then. Is there one, or is it the same old case of baddies plus bullets equals sport? Nicely, no, as there was an try made at telling a narrative, so right here we go.
CYGNI is a planet, and the primary individuals to go to it discovered the stays of an alien race. Or reasonably, the machines they left behind. And naturally, people being people, they have been quickly stripping these machines in an try to grasp how they work after which to utilize the bits they discovered. Whereas this was taking place, it seems that the machines that have been being stripped weren’t as useless as was first thought, and after they awoke, they proceeded to destroy the vast majority of the people on the planet. We’re “one of many final pilots, on one of many final carriers” and so I suppose it’s as much as us to place these biomechanical dangerous guys again to sleep, isn’t it?
Having performed numerous vertically scrolling shooters in my time, it’s uncommon for me to search out one thing new in a shooter, however with out too many spoilers, I discovered it right here with CYGNI: All Weapons Blazing. I’ll pause at this level and advocate that you simply play the tutorial, reasonably than diving straight in like I did, because the methods at play are fairly complicated.
The primary new bit that I loved was the flexibility to shoot enemies on the bottom – by pulling LT as an alternative of RT, you’ll be able to fireplace a laser on the floor primarily based enemies that you may see scurrying about beneath you. And whilst you’re doing this, they’re firing at you, so it’s completely truthful! You possibly can’t fireplace on the floor and at aerial targets on the similar time, so selecting when to make use of which firing technique turns into important – in any other case you’ll be shot to items by the one you aren’t presently killing. Clear to date?
One other aspect of CYGNI that excels is the protect/firepower balancing act that it’s a must to carry out. As you kill waves of enemies, as per normal, there are objects that you may accumulate. This stuff can be utilized to energy up your protect, making certain you’ll be able to take extra hits, or they can be utilized to energy up your arsenal of weapons – however not each. With the ability to take extra hits is ineffective if the enemy is just tickled by your weapons, in spite of everything, and once more the entire threat and reward mechanic right here is superb certainly.
Every degree is distinct, with completely different enemies and backdrops to absorb. Additional, the tip of degree bosses are nothing in need of spectacular, arising from the earth as a way to try to destroy your complete day.
All the things is superior, apart from one factor – CYGNI is flipping exhausting! Somebody must take KeelWorks a dictionary and present them the which means of “Simple”, as even on this degree, the sport isn’t. After round 4 ranges, I had run out of expertise, however fortunately there may be additionally a method to improve your ship utilizing a few of these objects you collected within the ranges – and this comes as an actual aid.
All in all, CYGNI: All Weapons Blazing is a cracking sport, full with excellent graphics and a correct problem. This is without doubt one of the greatest shoot ‘em ups you’ll have performed lately.