Launched on Kickstarter in June of 2020, EX-Zodiac at first glance appeared to be directly inspired by Nintendo’s venerable(?) space fantasy. With a large polygonal ship, enemies and stages, and a very familiar set of power-ups, it was easy to think so. However, with it’s release into public early access, it appears developer MNKY wants to pay tribute to the breadth of rail shooters, like Sega’s Space Harrier, and Atari’s long forgotten Road Blasters. The texture mapped graphics are bright and colorful, controls are pretty solid. For $9 on Steam, why not give it a try?
Hi, I’m Daniel Thurman
Daniel reviews cyberpunk books, games, and more.
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Whisker Squadron Channels Star Fox and Other Aerial Shooters
There have been a slew of Star Fox-inspired games of late, including the wonderful looking Ex-Zodiac which was quickly funded back in July, 2020 on Kickstarter. Now, Whisker Squadron is set to do the same. The Kickstarter which went live just yesterday, as of the writing of this article, has already reached over 70% of it’s $30,000 goal.
Whisker Squadron is being developed by Madison, WI based development studio Flippfly. The game is a forward-moving on-rails aerial combat game similar to Star Fox. And like Star Fox and the aforementioned Ex-Zodiac, Whisker Squadron features a charming low-poly graphical style and smooth-as-butter motion. One unique thing about this Star Fox-like though is that it features procedurally-generated environments and bosses.
Another similarity to Star Fox is the fact that the games heroes are all animals. Specifically cats, in this case. This backs up my idea that if you want your aerial combat game to be a success, you really have to have adorable cat pilots. You can’t go wrong with this. If you’re developing your own aerial combat game, please do keep this in mind.
Whisker Squadron is the culmination of a creative spark that was lit over 20 years ago, and that has burned in us through our careers, and strengthened by modern indie games. When we created Race The Sun in 2013, we took aesthetic cues from classic low-poly games like Star Fox for the Super Nintendo, and created something with a uniquely minimalist feeling that was loved by our fans. Ever since that project shipped, we’ve talked about creating a follow up that was more combat-focused, and that pushed the procedurally generated elements even further.
-Whisker Squadron KickstarterLike Metroid, fans will do what “Nintendon’t.” Nintendo’s strange, years-long desertion of the Metroid franchise is what arguably led to the explosion of metroidvania games over the last decade. And while Nintendo has made a Star Fox game fairly recently in the form of Star Fox Zero, it’s cumbersome control scheme that forced players to utilize the Wii U gamepad as it’s main targeting and steering mechanism unfortunately led to its commercial failure. That and the fact it was released on Wii U which not many people owned in spite of it being actually a really great console.
Whisker Squadron, an upcoming Star Fox-like is live on Kickstarter now. The Kickstarter has 28 more days to go, but you can go ahead and wishlist it right now on Steam. It seems fairly certain it will reach it’s goal very soon but you still have time to get in on the action and help it meet some if not all of its stretch goals. You know, if you want. I mean, the game’s adorably cat pilots would definitely appreciate it. They’re kind of hard to say no to.