Z-Warp (Playstation 4)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
5 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Pandia Indie Studio
Published by Red Art Games in 2023

Looking back at my track record, one could say I have a soft spot for shmups developed by Panda Indie Studio. What I can honestly tell is that I play them because they're really short and don't take much time to be learned - aside from the successive cryptic loops of Project Starship X. On the outside Z-Warp looks a lot like previous games from the company, but there's a crucial difference in gameplay here: this is their first title that doesn't use the roguelite approach, making it a regular arcade-like experience that should please old timers who value strict memorization above anything else.

Z-Warp definitely works as a short diversion with a few intense bullet hell moments during boss fights. After years of cooking up quick romps by perfecting and recycling the same style over and over, in a sense it's like Panda Indie Studio has delivered a culmination of everything that came before with this game. The visuals and sounds are again very familiar, just like a few gameplay aspects such as the bomb recharge, which is yet another variation of the dash / clear mechanic seen in previous offerings.

The Brain stage (5th)

Commands in Z-Warp work with buttons □ (shot), ×/∆/L2/R2 (focus shot for slower movement, tap for shot) and ○/R1/L1 (bomb activation). When triggered, the bomb destroys enemies and nullifies all bullets within its radius. After a few seconds it starts to recharge, and if triggered again prior to full recovery it will only serve to eliminate bullets. As expected, bombs are endless and during the most difficult moments against impossible bullet barrages they represent the difference between life and death. The B items you find during the game work as instant smart bombs that can also open up walls for you to get through, as seen in the barriers of the second stage.

Speaking of items, you can also come across the P for power-up (also increases the spread of the main weapon) and the H for extra life. It's not possible to have more than 5 lives in reserve, but if you're down to your last remaining ship you'll eventully regain a spare life if you survive long enough.

The scoring system requires you to kill enemies in succession to boost the multiplier. Keeping the multiplier from depleting is done by either killing more stuff, collecting those falling green skulls left behind by destroyed enemies or picking up items. Pay attention to the top of the screen, which serves as a meter to track the status of the multiplier during the level. This meter turns into a health gauge for the stage boss, and for a specific reason: right before entering the area of the boss the multiplier is frozen. If you want to maximize your results make sure that you keep it high until that point. Getting into the boss fight with no multiplier at all makes a large dent in the overall score.

Z-Warp starts out slow and does a good job of adding new hazards with every stage, evolving as if you were travelling upwards through the human body. There is some confusion between the actual game and the story shown in the intro, which hints at a sci-fi backdrop and does not mention this organic Innerspace setting at all. Finally, there are two very important gameplay details, also mentioned in the in-game text tutorial: the detonation of bombs is also capable of collecting items, and the ship can fly unharmed over bosses. This last one is essential when enemy spreads start coming from below, such as during the battle against third boss Acid Reflux. Takumi and Mars Matrix would be very proud of this much belated influence. Visual nods to Truxton are also there in the start screen and, of course, all those green skull items.

Launch trailer for Z-Warp on the PS4 and PS5
(courtesy of YouTube user and digital publisher Playstation)

The main game mode is titled Story. In this mode a true last boss awaits after you beat stage 5 on a single credit, with the selected difficulty determining the maximum multiplier you can achieve: on Medium/Normal it's ×8, with ×4 on Easy and ×16 on Hardcore. Endless mode has a variable difficulty level and keeps the game looping after stage 5, capping the multiplier at ×8. TATE orientation, screen shake and vibration can be activated/deactivated in Game Settings.

My best 1CC score on Medium/Normal is below. I played Z-Warp on the Playstation 4, but it's also available on all main platforms of the same era so there's no excuse not to try out this decent independent effort if you got it lying around.