VARYZNEX

Expected zakichi quality shmup. You'll have to deploy your memorization and energy management skills in this one, in order to achieve big chains and score, in hyper or preferably, double hyper mode. The ship's energy is tied to your health when not in hyper modes, so there's also a little risk and reward involved as well. Normal and hard modes are available, featuring separate online leaderboards. Recommended! (9/10)

great little game to score, highly recommend this alongside kaikan. the survival play is very minimal, it's nearly impossible to die with the shielding, but you give it up to score, which feels like good risk reward. i enjoy the laser clashes and quick kills a lot. try to beat my record, at the very least 23,000,000 is possible from my testing, would be cool to see someone go for it. EDIT: got 23,132,930 the same day because i kept playing, whoops!

[i]---see where this game landed on my SHMUP tier list beneath this review!---[/i] I picked up the first 3 Steam games by this dev; [b]Kaikan[/b], [b]Zakesta-Z[/b] and [b]Varyznex[/b] in a bundle on sale for about $12 and played through them all. Compared to your typical unknown indie shmup, these are very well made. Audio is good, bullet hell gets chaotic and fun. The dev has put effort into making all sorts of fun occurances happen on each stage. I wish your ships hitbox stood out more though. My main complaint with these games is one I have with a lot of indie shmups, where you're expected to play a full run whenever you load the game. In this one you have unlimited continues, so it's easy to play through the whole thing in 20 minutes and call it a day. I wish more indie shmups would learn from some of the popular games in the genre like [b]Tyrian[/b] or [b]ZeroRanger[/b] and save your progress between the levels while also making them a little harder, so there's some actual challenge inserted into the game. No more of this dated arcade style "would you like to continue?" BS. You can always add a 'full game run' as an additional mode for retro purists. If you can save between stages though, this of course comes with the caveat that you need more than 5 levels to play as well. [b]Jamestown[/b]s method of progress is the best one I've encountered in shmups; You have a level select screen and it shows which difficulties you've beaten each stage on, as well as giving you things to unlock. This makes me much more motivated and interested to keep replaying levels on the harder difficulties. When I begin a stage in Jamestown, i'm just trying to master one tricky level as opposed to having to play a full game run where I go through the first 10 minutes of fluff I've already solved until I get to the bit I actually need to practice on. That said, if you are a retro purist, then depending on how irritated you are by the ships hitbox visibility, you may well end up considering these games as hidden gems. ===================== [b]My SHMUP Tier List[/b] ===================== [i]-Simply personal taste. I’m excluding roguelikes, boss rushes and genre mashups-[/i] [b]Loved:[/b] Jamestown | ZeroRanger | Super Hydorah | Tyrian 2000 | [b]Great:[/b] Drainus | Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo# | [b]Decent enough:[/b] Steel Empire | G-Darius | [b]Kaikan#[/b] | [b]Zakesta-Z#[/b] | [b]Varyznex#[/b] | Ganablade | Dogfight | Angel at Dusk* | Space Elite Force# | Space Elite Force 2 | [b]Meh:[/b] Nanoforce | Steel Rain | Eigengrau* | Zenzizenzic* | Steel Vampire | Natsuki Chronicles | Wolflame | Satazius | Zangeki Warp | Cycle Chaser H-5# | Armed Seven | Counterattack: Uprising | Burst Fighter | Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser^ | Valfaris: Mecha Therion | [b]Awful:[/b] Ginga Force^ | Nebula Fighter^ | ===================== [i]-Probably played another 100+ Shmups, but I only started this list recently and am sticking mostly to modern releases[/i] [i]-Not including any 'flying anime girl shmups' as they don't appeal to me. Believe me, I've tried.[/i] * = Felt like I was on the same screen the entire time, which I dislike. ^ = Encountered some jank. # = Too short, even for a SHMUP.

Varyznex is a horizontal shmup that gives me some darius vibes. You got your laser to clash with the bosses and you have Taito lasers every now and then. This game has about 5 stages with banging music. There's more to explain about the game's mechanics but to summarize you are essentially building a meter by killing enemies, using that meter to have both a shield and a laser to be able to farm even more energy off enemies and bosses. If you are able to collect more energy while using the laser you will be able to enter a double hyper mode. The game has a setting to be able to change the way you switch your options and I honestly recommend changing it to something else other than the default. The reason I mention that is because switching between options in order will kinda punish you as some stages have enemies coming from behind and in front causing you to switch fairly quickly. The game has its own practice option once you are able to reach the stage and also has replay options. The game is fairly easy to clear as you have a shield helping you out and can easily recover if you build enough meter. My only gripe with the game is that whenever I wanted to restart a run the only option was to exit the game or kill myself over and over. I’m probably blind and missing something. All of Zakichi’s shmups are awesome and truthfully I don’t know if I ever disliked one. The game looks like something from the PSX era, feels smooth to play and has great music and has leaderboards. I really enjoyed clearing this shmup. Please check out Zakichi’s other games as well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrRIZRStSVY

"Varzynex" sounds like the name of a prescription medication, but it's actually a retro throwback flying shooter made in game making software. The music is excellent and the best part of the game. The graphics are generally great, but the interface reveals its game making software origins and some of the backgrounds look really cheap and bad. The normal difficulty is a joke, I beat the entire thing without dying a single time. Every other difficulty ranges from hard to near-impossible, including the "X hard" mode which is one of the most nightmarish things I have ever seen in any video game ever. The regular normal and hard aren't so bad because you have constantly replenishing health. Every time you kill an enemy the game floods you with blue orbs you can use to replenish your health or use a special attack. The special attack is super powerful, especially since if you use it up close it obliterates the bosses. When you play on "X normal" or "X hard" difficulty the game quickly becomes impossible because you now have 1-2 bars of health that can only be replenished by using up your special attack and refilling with blue orbs. Basically, if you make a mistake, the game is over. You can continue but it will disable the achievements for completion. The game feels like it was made by Treasure Software if they released a flying shooter on the Gameboy Advance. I sadly can't say it's a great game because the difficulty is horribly uneven and completing the harder difficulty just comes down to exploitation and tedious memorization. Also, the enemy attacks and the hitboxes are very confusing. You usually know when you will die, but sometimes you inevitably have to take hits because there are a hundred projectiles flooding the screen and you just have to pray one doesn't damage you. I would say casual players can blow through normal without even thinking twice. Hardcore flying shooter enthusiasts can try this game, but you might get infuriated trying to 100% complete it because it's exasperatingly broken and difficult at its hardest difficulty.

Very fun. The levels remind me of Thunder Force V but have many new ideas and a lot of enemies to deal with.

Techincally this is "Thunderforce 4.5: Varyznex" with some advanced mechanics to the fighter, and a distractingly good OST by ShimaJiro & ShimTone. Stage 2.0: City Raid pretty much has one of the best songs as good as the stage itself looks in the game (you can even see the City throwing you a rave party at night!) and you can see the example for yourself on the trailer showing one of that fighter's advanced weapons beyond the "Neo Weapon/ Overweapon: Sword Prototype". The Timeline (?) even has a very similar case between Thunderforce 4 & 5 such as fighting a giant enemy Dreadnought, using a Brigande Armor Prototype for a while to catch up with it, and even an Evil Fighter trying to counter you, up to Another Fatherless Baby hidden deep in Digital Space behind enemy lines. Watch out for that Flipping Tank before then, no really (a Tank that can flip and attack from the floor or ceiling lol!) "Why can't I switch weapons!?" Oh don't be decieved, this little fighter can fire multiple at once and has high CRAW control (maybe almost like Thunderforce 6, where the Options are not able to be damaged/stolen), maybe not all previous weapons from familiar series but the mixing really is enough, let alone the Hyper Mode for it serves both for defense and offense; play with it well and you might be unstoppable. At first, I complained "banger soundtrack, fun game, but where's the Sound Test?". Devs must've heard that and added a Music Room in a not-so-later update. The game may be short but it's very intense and worth the go.

Sabe aquela comida de vó que a sua esposa faz com mais coisas e deixa ela ainda melhor? Então, lamento quem não tem uma esposa como essa (mas eu tenho), porém Varyznex é EXATAMENTE isso. Zakichi, grande desenvolvedor de shmups indie fez mais um jogo e dessa vez fugindo da sua ideia que são os verticais, criando um jogo horizontal, com 3 formas de se atirar, usando um laser e essa barra do laser serve como um escudo que temporariamente vai te ajudando, seja como escudo ou com alto dano. Confesso que na primeira zerada, terminei sem sequer usar, mas no Hard me senti inclinado a usar, gostei demais de tudo que o jogo entrega. Em vista do preço, que é baixo, principalmente pra quem já tinha os 2 anteriores como eu, saiu barato e me diverti horrores. E agora continuarei no Hard pra expandir a experiência. O jogo é desafiador na medida certa, sem desafios escabrosos ou facilidades extremas, só ir jogando e curtindo a ideia do jogo que é muito massa. Música boa, gameplay boa, chefes criativos e o toque meio estranho e inconfundível do Zakichi. Nota 9/10.

Congratulations Zakichi, Varyznex compliments your portfolio of game releases on Steam perfectly. Gameplay, art style and of course the Excellent soundtrack all combine to offer the player a sense of satisfaction well beyond the price of entry. I'd even go so far as to suggest you should be in line for the Nobel Peace Prize for you contributions to World Happiness over the past few years. Those Wings Are Forever :-)