Z-Exemplar Reviews

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!)

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.

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.

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 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?

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.

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.

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.