Разработчик: Suminell Studios
Описание
Z-Exemplar is a side-scrolling shooter in the tradition of R-Type, Gradius, Nemesis and other classic arcade games from the past. Borrowing its aesthetic from the computers of yesteryear (specifically the Sinclair ZX Spectrum) Z-Exemplar combines bright, bold, 8-bit pixel art with frantic action and an epic mission to conquer a galaxy of almost 1000 planets.
The Background
Z-Exemplar was conceived as a love letter to the ZX Spectrum. Proudly retro, the game embraces the limitations of its 8-bit inspiration to deliver a fast-action, guns-toting, laser-blasting quest with intuitive gameplay and long-lasting appeal.
But it's not just nostalgia for its own sake.
There is something hugely appealing in the 8-bit aesthetic, something that can be absent in photo-realism. There is space for interpretation, for imagination and a vague assemblage of pixels can evoke in players a different emotion from that engendered by more detailed, distinct images. With the added vibrancy of the ZX Spectrum’s colour palette, this pixellated aesthetic gives Z-Exemplar’s visuals a unique and distinctive feel.
On its surface Z-Exemplar's gameplay appears simple - shoot anything that moves and collect the booty they leave behind - but the over-arching goal of the game is anything but. You are tasked with conquering all 960 planets that make up a hostile galaxy with each planet's defenses uniquely configured. As you explore the outer reaches of the galaxy, the defenses become stronger and enemies more lethal and numerous. There is abundant challenge in Z-Exemplar, challenge that grows with your experience.
To turn the battle in your favour you can access an arsenal of over 20 upgradeable weapons that transform your basic fighter craft into a devastating war machine - selecting the right loadout for each planetary battle is essential.
Features
- 960 Unique planetary battlegrounds
- 10 Planet themes
- 21 Awesome Weapon loadouts
- 16+ Hours of gameplay
- A galaxy full of secrets
- Conquest leaderboard - who'll be first to take over the entire galaxy?
- Hundreds of enemy types
- Huge end-of-level guardians
- Authentic 8-bit pixel art style and audio
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP SP2 or later
- Processor: 1.6 GHz
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 200 MB available space
Mac
- OS: Mac OS X 10.8 or later
- Processor: 1.6 GHz
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Storage: 200 MB available space
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04 or later
- Processor: 1.6 GHz
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Storage: 200 MB available space
Отзывы пользователей
Its a smashing little pick-up-and-play vertical shmup in the style of the ZX Spectrum. I'm old enough to have played an awful lot of shoot 'em ups on the speccy such as Nemesis, Flying Shark, Xevious and R-Type (which ranged from Nemesis - awful to R-Type - incredible) back in the days when I had hair, but none are as colourful, varied, or as forgiving as this. But then, this is a lot larger than 48KB.
It's a love letter to my youth. Great stuff. And thank you.
Best horizontal shoot 'em up for the ZX Spectrum 😎
This game is amazing. The bite-size levels and in-depth upgrade system make this title much more approachable to newcomers than other shoot-em-up titles, making it a good place to introduce someone to the genre. The open-ended structure is also a welcome addition. If a level is too difficult, you can just try another one nearby and come back later. The Z-Mail adds some fun flavor text without being heavy-handed with story, which I appreciate. Despite the clear inspiration from shmup giants like Gradius and R-Type, this game offers plenty of original ideas to set itself apart. If you're new to this genre, then I'd recommend this as a good jumping-off point, before plunging your way into arcade bullet purgatory.
While game perfectly captures ZX Spectrum nostalgia (R-Type but other games are referenced in graphics and color schemes too), its' novelty quickly wears off, and the game turns into repetitive grind. Contr-intuitively, most hostile planets, that require lots of replays, have less coins, so they are less rewarding. This slows progress to a halt. Also, despite there are many different planets, planets of the same type are different combinations of same patterns, and new enemies or level elements are introduced rarely. So, while game provides several hours of Spectrum-ish fun (color clash is almost 100% perfect), I don't recommend it if you have habit of actually winning the games and don't want to grind.
You may be a bit baffled by what makes this game special if you never had a ZX-Spectrum, or you had but never played R-Type on it. If you loved the ZX version of R-Type, this is definitely the game for you. The original was a little programming miracle, and one of the best arcade ports on the Speccy; this game is structured differently, but is clearly a love letter to that game.
If you have no familiarity with the original its still a solid little retro style left-right shooter. You might have a little trouble with the movement of the ship, but there's a couple of options for that. The difficulty can be a bit old school, but the levels are fairly short, bite-sized chunks of gameplay. I am only a few hours in but love the style of it even though I suck at it. Without the nostalgia factor you may not see its value as easily, but its a little gem of a game.
Basically R-Type on the Speccy on steroids. The levels are a bit short, and sometimes a bit tight to move around in, but those powerups more than make up for it. A lovely little retro looking blaster.
It's a tough as nails shmup done in the aesthetics of R-Type (ZX Spectrum version). It has tons of little short levels that make you swear (in a good way). You will die a lot, but each and every level is achievable. One for the retro fans, for sure, but shmup fans should give this a chance beyond a cursory glance. It has some really great levels.
Z-Exemplar is a oldschool with new tech horizontal shumup, that is a facinating game with oldschool graphics, so lets start, ui is amazing, controls feels natural as living, main menu? the best, loading screens that take a split second are also incredible, probably a r-type game in gameplay perspective, there is a progressive system, I'm not the biggest fan of that, but its just so great finishing a map and adding a conquest flag in a new planet, there is something satisfying about hearing the awesome z-exemplar win sound gfx that is just perfect, I have no clue why I like all that much oldschool games mixed wiith new technology, but if you are looking for that, this is a absolutely must have, it also includes the option to disable oldschool special effects if you are looking for that, but for me, it seems its a better experience playing with the oldschool mode activated.
+hard
+awesome soundtrack
+amazing controls
+outstanding pixel art graphics
+great main menu
10/10
If you love games such as R-type, Gradius and other old school shooters this one is right up your alley. This game has me in awe. Congratulations to Suminell Studios. I will certainly keep my eyes peeled for their past and future work!
A game that feels like it came straight from the Speccy, including loading times.
It is, infact, a re-creation, or continuation, of R-Type for ZX Spectrum, an acclaimed port of the Arcade classic.
If you like trully retro-looking SHMUPS with "balls hard" difficulty (it's actually not all that hard), this is for you.
Great game in the in Sinclair ZX Spectrum style. Lot's of references that only those who were there back in the day will get. My only complaint is that I wish I could reduce the volume of the sound effects so I could hear the music.
This game is difficult.
Your hand will cramp up.
You have to continually press the fire button old school.
You can't redefine the keys despite it being a Unity game which has a facility to add that really easily in the launcher.
Some of the sound effects are too loud and really grate.
You will see the option for chunky vs. smooth movement in the menu and breathe a sigh of relief...
Until you realise it was already on smooth.
I like this game, but it can't actually compare to an R-Type title, though the action is similar.
The most interesting thing is the variety of power ups, but you do have to save gold in the game to obtain them.
The graphics are interestingly retro, but they are in some places so crude that gameplay becomes difficult.
Exploring the map is not obvious, and most levels don't end with a boss.
You may wonder "what's going on here"?
I'm not totally satisfied with this purchase, but I do like what they've done, so I would not downvote it.
Perhaps a straight forward "arcade" mode that we can just play without dealing with a map and upgrades?
I've spent about 14 hours playing the game and now I'm ready to share an opinion on it. I'm a die-hard fan on R-Type and I've played it on literally every platform it came out (there are more than you think) and I've played it a LOT on ZX Spectrum, which was my 8bit machine of the childhood. I must say - Z-Exemplar is really, really close to ZX Spectrum's R-Type. So, spend your bucks and get one if you loved R-Type on ZX.
There are some cons and pros though:
+ The game plays and feels like R-Type really
- The graphics are good, but could benefit from some pixelart polishing
+ The stages, monsters and setting are original
- Irem's ones had a bit more style in them (no suprise, that's legendary Irem after all)
+ Music is perfect
- Sound effects sometimes don't fit the theme and fill all channels with nasty repetitive waveforms
+ The game is really fun to play in the beginning, grinding levels for money for upgrades...
- ...until you realise that you've beaten just 14% of game and mad grinding is all that awaits you in the rest 86%, with slight variations.
Thanks to developer, the game is totally worth the money, but completing it is not THAT rewarding process. May be later, who knows.
Now that I've given this game a full go through, let me give you guys a rundown on it.
It's a retro inspired, slightly more archaic R-Type, where you control a pilot in a ship with customizable weapons, be it support drones, a large force-like probe that assists in shooting stuff (which can be controlled remotely away from your ship) and various support missiles. The game makes no effort to impede your creativity, as you can choose so many different options in many different ways. Level-wise, there's a good variety to choose from, and the map you start out with can be imposing. Expect some repetition as the levels start out easy, and then get much harder. By the end of this game, you'll be feeling like you're on the hardest difficulty setting of Touhou. Overall, the journey through the game was something I'd consider unique and worth the time I put in.
With that said, there are issues. To level up your ship and weapons, you need currency called zogs, which you can find in levels. However, they're limited in number and you can't grind for them. Once you beat a level, you gotta hope you had a good haul going through it. Eventually you will have to choose some weapons and stick with them when you upgrade them. With that said, there's also a bug that sometimes prevents players from seeing the ending of the game despite conquering the galaxy. I just wanna bring that up for those unaware. Why do I still recommend the game despite such issues? Because it hit the mark for this genre of shooter so close. And the dev is friendly enough, so i give it a pass. But if he fixes it in the future, that would be even better, and I'll alter my review to reflect that should he do that.
Taking its aesthetic from the much admir'd ZX Spectrum port of R-Type this nonetheless steers its own path away from long, scrolling levels and instead presents the player with a hexagonal "board" to be conquered bite-sized level by bite-sized level, starting almost "casual" and heading towards "hardcore" with the player able to upgrade in-game weapon options as they go. A brilliant, entertaining shooter and seemingly more than just a "retro" feel.
EDIT: I posted my original review after an hour of play. It's now 13 hours later... JUST BUY IT!
As a kid who owned a Spectrum 48k in the early to mid 80s, and the fact that I love R-Type, this game felt like it was designed for me. I dropped a few $ expecting a little shoot-em-up that would get my nostalgic juices flowing, and found a schmup that has all of that including a depth and a difficulty scale that is going to have me coming back for more and more. I can't recommend this game enough. Even if the Speccy vibe doesn't interest you, if you love schmups there is a lot to recommend here. (P.S. Loved the Horace, Willy and Jetman in the tutorial!)
Where do I start? Why don't we start by saying that this game calls back to several classic games, as well as a classic system that passed the test of time in the 80s. No knowledge of the ZX-Spectrum (yes, Z as in proper british Zed) is required to play the game, but the colour scheme and pacing as well as the audio draws (and screams) authenticity as if you're using it to play this game.
Control schema is very simple. Two keyboard setups, SPACE as a command button, along with simplistic gamepad support (directional buttons + A on a XBox controller - or in ZX terms, FIRE). The tutorial is simple enough explaining how to use the controls.
Audio sounds just like it's coming from the audio chip in a ZX-Spectrum; the graphics also the same, with the intricate shading.
Gameplay? A mix of the firing and option mechanics from R-Type with the powerup selection akin to Gradius/Nemesis. You collect Zogs (the game's currency) during a mission to activate powerups as well as to purchase upgrades between missions -- any powerup selections during a mission don't subtract from the Zogs you bank -- but you do lose Zogs you carry if you get destroyed during a mission as well as activated powerups -- just like those old shooters.
Difficulty is dynamic and is based on the hostility level as well as the type of planet. Several ingame achievements can be earned for pulling off specific feats during a mission or throughout the course of a game. And with so much to explore -- and CONQUER -- it will be likely that the game will take many hours to complete.
Interestingly recommended.
I just completed this game, and I have to say it was a lot of fun! This game is made as a homage to those of us who grew up in the 8bit computer era (and specifically to those having a ZX Spectrum) playing titles such as R-type. The game visual style is done in the style of ZX spectrum games with its original palette and respecting some of the original constraints (although I wish an original ZX Spectrum could run a game as complex as this!).
The gameplay combines elements of classic arcade shooter-em-ups (and again, specifically R-Type), with modern elements such as collecting coins ("Zogs") for buying upgrades, getting your ship to be more and more powerful every time. The game features a very extensive collection of upgrades, and I did not manage to buy all the different weapon types in a single play through, so, there is definitively a lot of replayability value here, trying to play with different weapon configuartions.
Concerning the difficulty: the game starts easy, but bit by bit levels start getting longer and logner and harder and harder, to the point that I was about to give up in some of the last levels (there is one ocean level in particular that the only way I found to beat it is by using the "shield" upgrade and just sacrificing "one shield" to directly go through a wall!!). At some point through the middle of the game I thought the difficulty was unfair, but the more you learn the inner details of the game, the more fair it seems. Some times you will just die because an enemy materialized right on top of your ship and you might have the feeling that there was nothing you could do about it. But the more you play, you will realize that those instances are predictable, and the more you play certain level types, you will learn where traps will pop up, and get better and better at those levels, giving a very nice feeling of "getting better at this game".
So, in sumary, I really recommend this game: took me about 16 hours to beat it. 16 hours of good old-fashioned fun!
What an excelent game this is.
If you ever had a ZX Spectrum and loved R-Type then you really should get this as all the graphics and music recreate that and so much more.
There was a bug concerning the controllers but thats been fix with in 1 day of me pointing it out so the service is top dog.
Well worth the money and your time.
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Suminell Studios |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 23.01.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 96% положительных (26) |