Ex-Zodiac

I grew up in arcades long past closing time, so when a one-person studio quietly produces the most convincing Star Fox-adjacent game since the N64 era, I pay attention. Ex-Zodiac is built by solo developer Ben Hickling under the MNKY banner, and the craftsmanship on display across every level, every boss arena, every dithered low-poly horizon is the kind of thing that makes you grateful small studios still take swings at nearly-extinct genres. The core loop is pure arcade muscle memory: you pilot Kyuu, a former Zodiac operative turned rebel, through a series of corridors that are constantly trying to kill you. Walls rise. Lava bombs drop. Buildings lunge out of the geometry. Your toolkit is deliberately lean: a primary laser, a lock-on mechanic lifted from Rez that lets you hold and charge targets then release a burst to chain multiple kills for bigger score multipliers, homing missiles for crowd control, and a boost-and-brake system that replaces the classic barrel roll. The brevity of that toolkit is a choice, not a limitation. The game substitutes weapon variety with set-piece variety, and the levels deliver. Each stage reads as its own ecosystem: ice worlds, cityscape runs, desert canyons, and even a motorcycle mission that trades your ship for something lower to the ground. None of it feels like padding. The bosses are where the zodiac theming pays off most. Each one is piloted by a member of the Zodiac organization, themed around the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac. A giant mechanical crab with grab claws and laser scatter. An ice-element crane that rearranges the arena mid-fight. They are gymnastic encounters that demand you read patterns while still managing stray enemy fire, and they land as the best arguments for replaying individual stages after you clear them the first time. The end-of-level grading system, running from D up to S rank, creates a quiet pull toward replayability that the story alone would not sustain. Hidden data discs in each level unlock bonus missions that strip away the ship entirely and go full Space Harrier tribute, which is either a joy or a curiosity depending on your vintage. The soundtrack by +TEK deserves its own paragraph. It combines FM synthesis and wavetable techniques to produce something that sounds authentically rooted in early-90s Konami hardware, while still feeling authored rather than nostalgic-by-committee. Paired with the bright, blocky color palette and the minimalist low-poly models, the audiovisual package has a coherence that many larger productions miss. One note of caution: the story is genuinely thin. Dialogue runs as text over character portraits during active play, and you will be too busy dodging to read it. The Zodiac antagonists have personality on paper but little room to breathe in practice. For the audience this game is speaking to, that is probably fine. For players expecting any narrative weight alongside the arcade action, it is worth knowing upfront. Being in Early Access since 2022, the question of content completeness is fair. At time of writing, twelve main levels and six bonus stages are in, with branching paths planned for the final release, a structure that would meaningfully address the one criticism even enthusiastic players share: the linear route through the current build makes the run feel predetermined on replays. The controls are responsive enough that the ceiling for score-chasing is high, but the lack of leaderboards and alternate paths currently caps the depth. Even so, what is already here is a remarkable proof of focused, intentional design from a solo creator who clearly understood what he wanted to make and made it without compromise.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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