Spotlight on: Zen-Ichi

Today we're going to take a look at another fine doujin shmup, Zen-Ichi from Equinox Development. Here's the setup: along with some of the regular features shown in doujin shmups today such as a replay option, choice of different ships with different abilities, and a crazy scoring system, ZI also is one of the rare titles that has two player simultaneous action! That should be enough to generate interest from any shooter fan, but when you dig deeper into what Zen-Ichi has to offer, you'll find an excellent manic shmup that lures you into improving "fever mode" combos and defeating a completely EVIL final boss......

I have to admit that I don't fully understand the game's play system. All of the factors seem to be related, but I can't piece together the connection, and the status icons at the bottom left of the screen have two bars and two "icon trays" to fill. Enemies drop insane amounts of gems when defeated, and collecting them fills the top bar until it turns a nice pink color. Bombing before earning enough gems give you a black hole effect as in Darius Gaiden, but bombing while fully charged opens "fever mode" (shown in picture). Fever mode give you x16 bonues, and if you can survive the fever time without getting hit, you carry the chain over for next fever time, increasing score even more! Your ship has some kind of defensive system which I think is tied into the amount of gems collected, becuase sometimes I can survive up to three hits, and sometimes one hit destroys me. But then again, each ship has a varying defense level, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I love a long, drawn out boss fight, and I think this is one reason that Radient Silvergun and Perfect Cherry Blossom are so popular. ZI doesn't disappoint in that area, as most bosses start out in one form, and then break off into pieces or change into another form completely. Notice the large boss health meter at the top - each color bar represents either a new attack mode or a different section of the boss to fight. Some even force the player to jump up ahead of the boss towards the top of the screen and just helplessly dodge a bullet storm, another innovative feature of ZI.


Now to comment on the heart of soul of any shmup: the bullet patterns. Zen Ichi incorporates two styles of attack patterns that will keep even the shmup veterans on their toes. One I like to call "bullet herding" - this is streaming a solid line of bullets around the player, forcing him to stay inbetween the lines or be destroyed. This is used frequently in the game, and if you can see it coming you can adapt and dodge without much problem - though there is a memoriztion factor if you really want to 1CC this game. The second technique is what I call "duel layer patterning". Bosses will spew out a certain spreadshot of....let's say a slow moving, large yellow bullet, and while that is headed for you, a second fast moving purple stream will fire your way. This forces you to simultaneously see both patterns in your mind, and make sure the ship doesn't intersect with either of them. Very cool concept.


The game really picks up around level three, the train level. Oh, and it seems that now the shooter snake has been dethroned as the "must have" feature in a shmup, the manditory train level has taken over. Here is also where my first complaint of the game takes shape: enemies coming out from behind you, or flying in from the lower sides too fast for you to react. Be sure to stay near the bottom center of the screen if you want to survive - unless in the case on the right, where the enemy is bullet herding you.



After trying the demo of Zen-Ichi, I was turned off by the very large sprites used in the game. But after playing for a while, I realized that Equinox managed to keep a small hit box on the player, which is a MUST in games that get this flat-out manic, and pretty much adjusted to the sprite size. This style does make for some huge bosses though, like the rock diamond spinner from level four.

Zen-Ichi is good for a challenge, and features three modes: training (no enemy bullets are even fired!), basic (your standard game), and expert (one hit kills you!). The last level really throws you a curve though - no continues allowed! And be prepared to face one of the most evil final bosses you've seen in a while: This ain't no Gradius last boss!! I can only warn that if you try to bomb in his last form, he'll use it against you. So head on over to the pc database and give the ZI trial a spin, you'll be glad you did.