Similar to with Hades, I’ve loved revisiting an previous favourite of mine in Katana Zero (Free) from Askiisoft and Devolver Digital with its new cellular launch by way of Netflix Video games. Katana Zero did gentle launch lately on cellular already, however the full worldwide rollout ought to now be reside as of this writing. I’ve been taking part in it early by way of a pre-release construct from Netflix, and I’m shocked at how good it performs with contact controls, however there are a number of points. Earlier than entering into the evaluation, for these new to Katana Zero, the title is a reference to a line used within the recreation whenever you end a piece of a stage.
Having loved and crushed Katana Zero a number of instances earlier than on Swap and PC, I used to be properly conscious of how troublesome some phases are, and in addition how irritated I used to be for particular bosses. Within the translation to iOS, Katana Zero has misplaced nothing, and I’m fairly shocked by that. It virtually makes me desire a port of Hotline Miami from Devolver, however I digress. As with my different port opinions, I’m going to additionally cowl how the sport on cellular compares to different platforms I’ve performed mentioned recreation on, and enable you to resolve which one you must get.
Katana Zero is a classy action-platformer with gorgeous pixel artwork, mesmerizing animations, and excellent music. Whereas most video games within the style have a narrative that will get the job accomplished with a deal with gameplay, Katana Zero is the uncommon recreation that punches (slices?) properly above its weight in each single class. It is vitally a lot a as soon as in a technology expertise, and I don’t say that evenly. After each few stage sections whenever you get used to a brand new mechanic or enemy kind, Katana Zero throws one thing new at you. This might be with a brand-new stage kind, boss struggle, story second, and extra. Count on to take about 5 hours or so to see Katana Zero to its finish, but it surely took me much more throughout my first run by way of it on Swap again within the day.
The core gameplay in Katana Zero includes platforming, attacking, dodging, leaping, stopping time, and extra. You find yourself utilizing a mixture of all of this to make it by way of a stage part. You’ll be able to preserve taking part in by way of a selected part if you happen to die till you handle to clear it. In case you hadn’t caught on from the title display and the opening, Katana Zero wears its synthwave and VHS vibe proudly. If you die, you get a VHS-like rewind impact. The truth is clearing a piece additionally has you ejecting a tape.
Talking of the size, Katana Zero appears like it’s constructed for speedrunning. It has a number of settings that save your time, like having the ability to skip the VHS rewind animation on demise and virtually immediately restart. I like to recommend enabling this as a result of it does get annoying whenever you make a mistake a number of instances in a row on a selected stage and see the identical animation play out.
Given the construction and issue, there may be loads of trial and error as you study a selected stage section earlier than transferring to the following one. This will likely or will not be an annoyance for you. I anticipated it given the style, however there are a number of bits that annoy me to at the present time. When watching Katana Zero trailers or gameplay, you’d suppose it is a very fast-paced recreation, and also you’re proper, however there’s much more to it. Whereas the opening ranges really feel fairly simple, there may be loads of depth and technique at play in Katana Zero. Every stage, enemy placement, focal point, object, and extra work collectively to make you are feeling like a puzzle fixing samurai genius with top-of-the-line soundtracks in gaming.
In case you performed Hotline Miami, the addictive yet another likelihood fashion motion is at play right here. You’ll die typically, however each demise is a studying expertise. This side may flip some gamers off, however exterior of possibly a handful of deaths, I’ve by no means felt like my time was being wasted in any stage of scenario. I’ll say that a number of the boss battles are irritating, and that’s actually my solely criticism with the core recreation. It’s a elegant expertise, however I by no means actually loved some particular moments in my Swap or Steam playthroughs. These aren’t enjoyable when skilled on cellular both as you may anticipate.
On Swap and PC, Katana Zero performs completely with a controller. On iOS, you may after all use a controller, however I used to be extra enthusiastic about seeing how the builders tailored the sport for contact controls. On the controller aspect, I examined utilizing a Spine One on an iPhone 14 Plus and my 8BitDo Professional 2 on iPad Professional. All of it works properly. On my iPhone 15 Professional, I used contact controls, and located them to be excellent exterior one situation. The motion buttons and interplay button can all be resized and moved round. The analog stick for motion has three settings, however none of them allow you to correctly repair the joystick together with the fastened setting. I’ve to think about it is a bug or a mislabelled setting. In case you aren’t used to taking part in platformers on contact controls, it will take you a while to get used to, however I believe the crew has accomplished a implausible job with the controls on iOS.
Katana Zero seems to be good on iOS. It has some border paintings on iPhone 15 Professional throughout gameplay, and has black bars in menus and interfaces. On iPad Professional, there are simply black bars across the 16:9 gameplay. It seems to be crisp although, and efficiency has been excellent on my gadgets. Katana Zero is capped at 60fps on PC so I didn’t anticipate help for extra on iOS. I did discover a variable body fee in some elements on iPad Professional (2020), however efficiency was glorious on my iPhone 15 Professional.
In case you’re new to Katana Zero and have a Netflix subscription, I’d undoubtedly attempt it out on cellular earlier than shopping for it on one other platform. In case you don’t have a Netflix subscription, I’d advocate getting Katana Zero on Swap or Steam Deck to play on the go together with the latter being the most effective model with no efficiency points in any respect.
I discussed the soundtrack being nice, but it surely actually is among the greatest recreation soundtracks in a few years with it touching fairly a number of genres by way of its runtime. That is undoubtedly one to personal on vinyl. In case you have no real interest in the sport and have by some means made it this far right into a evaluation of mentioned recreation, at the least take heed to the soundtrack. You’ll not remorse it.
Whereas I’m unsure I’d say Katana Zero justifies subscribing to Netflix if you happen to don’t have an energetic subscription, it’s instantly top-of-the-line video games on the service, and a implausible, and near-perfect, conversion of an impressive recreation. In case you have a Netflix subscription, drop every part else and play Katana Zero proper now. It’s that good. Replaying it has not made the look ahead to Katana Zero DLC simpler.
