ZunderFury
ZunderFury! The very name sends a shiver down your spine. The adrenaline runs spicy through your veins as you crack your knuckles and chug down a quadruple latte, preparing for blood. ZunderFury! With a name like that, you know it's not gonna be about Mahjong. No! It's going to be a blast-a-thon. A bullet-fest. A slaughter of thousands. A 90-mile per hour trip through the Carpal Tunnel. ZunderFury! Lock and load, ladies and gents, we're going to Painville. Population: everybody that's not you. (Cue "Eye of the Tiger".)
Following in the well-trod footsteps of games like Geometry Wars and Robotron 2084, developer Doogog's ZunderFury is a hardcore arena shooter that is happiest when it's overwhelming you with throngs of spiky blob-things. Control your tank's movement with the arrow keys or WASD, and aim with the mouse. Auto-fire is included — just click once to turn your gun on full blast, and once more to turn it off if you're in the mood to get summarily blown up. Use one of your stock of bombs by pressing [space] or [ctrl], while [Esc] or [P] get you the pause menu, where you can take a break or turn off the incongruous but harmless trance music.
Choose between two fighters — Zunder, who is equipped with your standard machine gun, and Fury, who packs a short-range flame-thrower. It's generally easier to play with Zunder, but when there's a mob of 50 death orbs outracing you, it's sometimes nice to have twin streams of fire at your disposal.
Leader boards for both fighters are, of course, included. The key to high scores is to keep your score multiplier up, and the only way to do that is to not die. Good luck with that. The odds are against you.
Analysis: ZunderFury took some time to grow on me. The pure thrill of facing dozens and dozens of enemies simultaneously is undeniable (though it takes about 12 levels before the game really starts to throw down), but in order to maximize the number of active threats, the game cuts way back on the special effects. The background is a single-color wash, and the bad guys explode in unconvincing yellow poofs. In fact, the whole audio/visual package comes off as artless and forgettable. This is a tale told by a programmer, full of ZunderFury, signifying nothing.
An undocumented contract has evolved in modern arena shooters: in exchange for what is essentially brainless gameplay, the screen will blow your mind with pretty colors. Most games in this genre are either abstract neon trance sessions or semi-realistic, blood-spattering gut-wrenchers. It's kind of strange to play a shooter content simply to generate hundreds of generic enemies and kill you honestly.
But that's what Zunderfury is, and for a game with so little personality, it's surprisingly compelling. You can spend money in between rounds to upgrade your ship, and the game comes with a full set of Xbox Live-style achievements, called "Feats", which is a smart way to personalize and flesh out the experience.
Due to the creeping speed of your main ship, ZunderFury plays as more grueling than manic, but it really keeps the pressure on, with relentless waves of cannon fodder and a decent level of tactical variety. Some of the enemies have shields, which force you to sidestep and attack from behind, and others sit heavily armored and motionless, pumping out homing missiles. Some ships can leave the screen and return in unpredictable places, so if your usual strategy in this type of game is to cower in the corner and lay down suppressing fire, you're out of luck this time. Although it is pretty annoying to get blind-sided by an enemy coming in from off-screen, and I'm not sure why some ships can pass through the boundaries of the play field while others bounce off them.
Short on pizzazz but long on intensity, ZunderFury is overall a pretty satisfying way to scratch your trigger finger itch, especially for a Flash creation. It's unpretentious, unapologetic, and extremely challenging. The best thing about it might be its title, but you must admit, that's one fantastic title.
Yay First Post!
Aewsome Game, Though I don't think "It was Lag"
was worth a legendary award.
Arg. This game suffers from a problem that has been croping up in fash games for me resently.
Basicly, the problem is that the game randomly thinks that I'm holding down a button when I've only pressed it for a second or so.
For instance: If I were to tap left, there's something like a one in three chance that my ship will keep flying to the left even after I've let go. This will continue until I press left again.
I do't think it's a prolem with the game itself, as it has happened to me in several different games.
Anyone know what might be causing it?
I think it just might be your keyboard. It happes to me all the time while typing - i'm trying to type something, and suddenly 20 dots start automaticly typing themselves, until i press another key. It's a keyboard/computer problem.
I love this game! it's fast pasted, and it just feels like it's not your average shooter. I find that it can have the same feel as games suchas Ragdoll Avalanche. You are often in tight situations, and only your slightly random peice of luck can save you, with a quick move or a quick shoot.
Really cool game, I think!
-On a side note, where do you post new games on Jayisgames?
What do you mean by "where do you post new games"?
Are you asking how to suggest a game to us, or how to write a reader review?
If so, then please use the "Suggest a game" form for submitting all game suggestions and reader reviews.
Thanks for the link, Jay. (That is what I meant)
Quick reply, too.
Oh, and guys, maybe you have "stickykeys" on? To turn it off, hit "shift" 5 or 6 times.
Hah. I play as Fury, all the way. I tend to like shortranged fighters, I also like to play as Scout and Pyro on TF2.
I guess that this is made much easier by the way that my main weapon also serves as a shield.
First death was on level 7, when I just got overwhelmed.
Interestingly, I didn't die at all on level 12...
and then I remembered that I can use bombs.
I died on level 14 or 15, not sure which. Probably 14.
I kept on running into those enemies with shields on their fronts.
I'm not very good at these sorts of games, and am not really a big fan of them, but I just wanted to say: great review!
I particularly liked these lines:
"...the adrenaline runs spicy through your veins..."
Adrenaline runs spicy? So odd it's wonderful.
"This is a tale told by a programmer, full of ZunderFury, signifying nothing."
Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play. :)
@Hidden:
Assuming your using windows; Have you tried looking into the accessibility settings in control panel? There is an option there for sticky keys you may have inadvertantly turned on the 'feature'.
Cheers
Luke
I think it may be the game in this case. I'm having the same problem as Hidden and I don't have the keyboard set to cause anything of the sort. And it unfortunately makes the game almost unplayable for me.
the game itself is easy, the only time i died was when i was trying to get stonewall. mabey the game is hard, but im really awesome? anyway tip for later levels, speed is really important, neglect it, and you die. but dont overdo it!
I'm normally a fan of shmups, but this one isn't that great, to be honest. I actually have lots of gripes with this one.
1. The score multiplier isn't explained at ALL, nor does it follow any recognizable pattern. Assuming you don't die, you get to 2x by the end of the first level, and 3x doesn't appear until near the end of level 3. Maybe a little meter would help. There's certainly enough room on the status bar for one.
2. Upgrading your speed does NOTHING. At level 4 speed, I was still being outrun by the squarish splitter ships.
3. The levels seem a bit... unfair. The levels get pretty intense very quickly, with about 15 splitter ships spawning and chasing you at any given time by wave 6, then wave 8 happens. Wave 8, for those who can't get to it, is complete and utter cake. Very soft, mushy cake, for that matter. After that, the levels ramp up in difficulty faster than you can say "Treasure Studios." Sorry if you don't get the reference.
Overall, the game is completely unbalanced and thoroughly infuriating. This is why I can't stop playing it.
A lot of gripes but you can't stop playing?
o_O
Um... (*scratches head*)
What part of that featured sarcasm? xD
What can I say, Jay, I'm a masochist :P
But I was completely serious. I actually can't stop playing this game, and I don't know why.
I love both ships, they should make a third. I don't however, see how the flamethrower has any redeeming qualities to make up for its lack of range.
JackIsGames, its projectiles are larger and thusly provide more area for hitting enemies. Its range also increases with upgrades.
Just some stuff I want to say, only it's long. The first one is about how Fury totally rules over Zunder, the second is about why some enemy's bounce, and other's go through the sides, and the third is about how you can shoot past some of those shielded one's sheilds when being chased down by one.
I perfer Fury over Zunder. Although in the beginning you may find that Zunder's quick lazers can bring down a plethera of enemies at a incredibly distant range, it does not help in later levels where you can be sarounded by hundred of bouncing blue starish shaped blobs. Here, Fury's large flamethrowers come quite in handy, where you can spin the mouse around and make a wall of fire around you. Fury creates bunches of long lasting, large blobs of fire, where Zunder quickly blasts it's thin rays willy nilly and leaves you unguarded. Another thing I've noticed is that Zunder has some problem turning is shots around, where as Fury can shoot, spin 180 degrees, and shoot another shot. Perhaps that's just me though.
I think some shaps pass by the boundaries because they can't truly bounce of them. Like those quick moving, purple dimond shaped guys that zoom at you? Most of the circular or slow moving ones can bounce off though.
Normally, you allow it to come close, then go to the side of it and shoot it down. It works, because their ability to turn is incredibly low. But an odd thing is, if you are being chased down by one can't turn to the side, and are a pixel away, keep shooting at it and it will die. It's possible that this only work for Fury,because the shots sort of start a little bit in front of Fury.
Sigh. I hate how levels 1-5 are cake, and 6+ are death.
Ainegue: I just caught your Eddie Izzard reference :D
level 22+ is plain impossible. i already have weapons on fury maxed out and speed on 5 or somethin, but you cant afford buying anything else than lives and bombsl. The problem is bombs and lives are getting too expensive on a too fast pace, you cant even afford them on 20+ anymore. its like 1000 3000 9000 baem youre dead.
Its plethora ainegue. And also, I need help with the stone badge. It does not register when I fulfil the requirements. :( It does not say that I got it
*blinks*
Who's Eddie Izzard?
And I really can't spell. Luckily, I now use Firefox, with a built in spellchecker.
:D
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