The Best Retro Zelda-Like This Year Looks More Like Geometry Wars
The enduring popularity of The Legend of Zelda has led to no shortage of imitators. For those lamenting the lack of a new top-down 2D Zelda from Nintendo, Steam is rife with homages that approximate the feeling of delving into forests, caves, and dungeons armed only with a plucky attitude and your uncle's sword. Minishoot Adventures, the sophomore game from indie studio SoulGame, is different, but no less reverent as an homage. Rather than crib from Zelda in a very literal sense, this one reimagines and recaptures the same sensation of classic Zelda by recontextualizing it as a bullet hell shooter.Instead of an elven tween, you're a sentient spaceship. Your allies and enemies, also spaceships. The world is open and free roaming with item gating, like classic Zelda and metroidvania games. Movement feels sharp and snappy immediately, like picking up a game of PixelJunk Shooter or Geometry Wars. It even has a series of dungeons with clever traps, environmental puzzles, game-changing powers, and tough boss battles.In short, it has everything that defines the classic Zelda experience, but it plays very differently. You're making the kinds of split-second decisions you might expect from a bullet-hell game and shooting down enemy craft, while also freely exploring the environment and making ah-ha discoveries. It feels just like sitting on the couch inches from your CRT as you navigate a poisonous swamp, and at the same time completely different and modern. It's a heck of a trick.Continue Reading at GameSpot
The enduring popularity of The Legend of Zelda has led to no shortage of imitators. For those lamenting the lack of a new top-down 2D Zelda from Nintendo, Steam is rife with homages that approximate the feeling of delving into forests, caves, and dungeons armed only with a plucky attitude and your uncle's sword. Minishoot Adventures, the sophomore game from indie studio SoulGame, is different, but no less reverent as an homage. Rather than crib from Zelda in a very literal sense, this one reimagines and recaptures the same sensation of classic Zelda by recontextualizing it as a bullet hell shooter.
Instead of an elven tween, you're a sentient spaceship. Your allies and enemies, also spaceships. The world is open and free roaming with item gating, like classic Zelda and metroidvania games. Movement feels sharp and snappy immediately, like picking up a game of PixelJunk Shooter or Geometry Wars. It even has a series of dungeons with clever traps, environmental puzzles, game-changing powers, and tough boss battles.
In short, it has everything that defines the classic Zelda experience, but it plays very differently. You're making the kinds of split-second decisions you might expect from a bullet-hell game and shooting down enemy craft, while also freely exploring the environment and making ah-ha discoveries. It feels just like sitting on the couch inches from your CRT as you navigate a poisonous swamp, and at the same time completely different and modern. It's a heck of a trick.
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