Ex-Zodiac

Ex-Zodiac PC Game Free Download. It is now available on PCFreeNow. Ex-Zodiac Full Version With the direct, Highly Compressed, and single download link.

Ex-Zodiac is primarily an homage to the original Star Fox (SNES, 1993). It has flat-shaded polygons, is only on rails, doesn’t have dogfight sections like later Star Fox games (at least not until now in Early Access), and has the nice mumbling that only later (in SF64) does turn out to be the truth of the word.

However, everything is much smoother and more refined than it was in 1993! The game runs at 60 FPS (but you can also drop it down to 20 or even 15 FPS for the ultimate FX Chip experience) and essentially has the great Star Fox 64 controls! This means true analog movement/aiming and auto-centering, as soon as you take your thumb off the stick. You can also fire multiple lockable missiles at once like in After Burner or Panzer Dragoon.

It’s just incredible how well this indie game captures the gameplay and feel of the original Star Fox titles and mashes it up with the colorful presentation and catchy music of the 90’s arcade game! It goes even further: There is a game in this game. At each stage, you can find a hidden data item that unlocks the bonus level each stage. These bonus levels are actually pretty fleshed-out Space Harrier-style stages (with their avatar and control scheme) that even include a boss at the end! So this Early Access release already has 6 Star Fox-like stages and 6 Space Harrier-like stages and 12 bosses.

The best rail shooter after many years

The gameplay

The gameplay is a love letter to a lost genre that is only now starting to make its way back thanks to a generation of indie developers who are unencumbered by shareholders and who can make spiritual successors to these games go interested as children.

Make no mistake, on its own, this game could have been a fun arcade-style shooter that could have easily found its audience, but to have it look and feel like a game from our collective childhood (for those of us born in the 80s or 90s at least) does buy it a degree of love and nostalgia. The Space Harrier-inspired bonus stages are also a nice touch and finding hidden drops to unlock often proves challenging, more than worth the music accompanying those stages.

Overall the gameplay feels solid, especially at 60 fps. The game also has fps caps as low as 15 fps available to SNES purists, though I feel the 60 fps mode is Ex-Zodiac at its best.

Shooting feels good, and hitting targets feels even better. The game offers a plethora of modern gameplay mechanics, such as scratching the screen after each kill, a well-thought-out combo system, multi-objective systems, and more much. Control-wise, the ships feel easier to maneuver. The boat can barrel-roll, which obviously deflects bullets, and lift, which feels fun and exciting.

All of this adds up to an already impressive formula, resulting in a near-perfect 3D rail shooter experience. While the game adds a lot to the formula, the mechanics never feel out of place or difficult. In this, Ex-Zodiac perfectly strikes the balance between fixing the gaffes of previous games and preserving the features that made those games great.

The soundtrack

The soundtrack is an interesting array of chiptune music that sounds like it was lifted from a 16-bit game cartridge, each stage had its own memorable song and I’m sure many of the players will be they were humming the first stage theme after longer play sessions. The sound effects also sound very similar to what you would have heard in a particular shooter using super fx and help sell the fast-paced action and sense of urgency as the levels progress.

Graphics

Graphically the game can be played anywhere between 15 fps and 60fps, it’s mostly played in the latter but if you really want to dive deeper into the nostalgia you feel that a game like this might have felt how about a true 16-bit console or you might find them some fun there.

There is also a high res filter that gives the game a sharp 32-bit console look but takes away a lot of the charm and makes it look like an old game running on a pc emulator. Each stage has its own unique style, there’s a Desert planet, and a Winter planet, all look unique and have interesting boss encounters and a diverse selection of mechs, spaceships, and well, I’m not going to spoil the stranger ones.

Overall

Overall Ex-Zodiac is an amazing game, especially considering it was created and scored by just two people. For Star Fox fans, this is a dream come true. For players in general, the game is a wonderful throwback to an era long gone. Ex-Zodiac isn’t for everyone, but those who can appreciate its value and enjoy its gameplay will uncover a game worthy of their all-time favorites. Don’t miss out on this gem! I would highly recommend that you play this on a good quality control pad that feels like the way it was meant to be played, the game is fast but the controls are responsive and natural.