The PAXAus Indie pavilion showcased a lot of local talent, and it was great to see Australian indie developers exhibit some of their projects. Zombitsu, created by Melbourne dev team Ruma Games, was one of the games that really stood out on the show floor, and I had the chance to try it out on the Ouya. You take control of Zombitsu expert, Hiro, as he journeys through the streets of his Japanese village, lava worlds and floating kingdoms, fighting zombies and collecting power-ups.
Zombitsu is a 3D Endless Combat Runner, that lets you jump, hack and slash your way through zombies, as well as collect coins and power-ups to upgrade Hiro to become a better warrior. Each of the stages differ in gameplay, The Village streets are filled with buildings where you can run between them or jump on them, the lava world contains a limited amount of islands/platforms, making it difficult for jumping, and the floating world includes a lot of vertical gameplay, adding taller buildings and wires to walk on.
The game is for mobile devices, but was showcased at PAX on the OUYA, the game uses three main controls, the left thumbstick moves Hiro left and right, and two buttons, one to attack, the other to jump. The feel of the game is similar to Temple Run, in terms of your character continuously running forward, but with the two buttons, you are able to attack-dash forward, double jump and down slice your way through. The jump height is really high so you can easily overshoot the buildings, I would always find myself losing at the lava levels.
The visuals are amazing in terms of the cell shading and art-style, I hope to see more concept art of the game, especially the development of the characters and stages. Ruma Studios aims to add more features in the game, most importantly, a story mode that gets into the story of Hiro.
Zombitsu is currently in development and will be coming soon to the App Store and Google Play. In the meantime, check out Ruma Studios’ Website for more information on Zombitsu and other projects they are working on.
