After nearly ten years of treading water, Konami is slowly rebuilding itself. The legendary publisher will release remakes of both Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, both of which will launch Konami back into the world of big-budget console gaming. These projects join a collection of retro revivals, including this year’s Against: Operation Galuga, showing that the company is willing to return to its most popular franchises. It’s not just digging up an old IP, though. His publishing endeavors still look to the future, albeit through nostalgically tinged hues.
In this sense, his most interesting game is not one of his mega remakes, but something much smaller. Cygni: All Guns Blazing, a new space shooter launched on August 6th, is the debut game from developer KeelWorks, published by Konami. It’s a callback to one of the game’s staple genres, where players throw waves of enemies from a top-down perspective. I recently tried a demo game of the upcoming game for the first few levels. It’s a familiar yet wild swing to the genre, bringing more complex mechanics and a cinematic art style. Call it modern nostalgia – a phrase that might just about describe what to expect from a relaunched Konami in 2024.
Shoot them, they evolved
When I say “space shooter” you probably already have a strong visual effect in your head. I imagine you’re picturing a vertical scrolling screen with a small ship at the bottom that fires energy shots at enemies dancing in patterned waves. You would be halfway to understanding Swans at the time, but you’d still be surprised once you booted it up. It starts with a fully animated cutscene that looks like it was pulled from a Pixar movie. We see our plucky pilot jumping out of bed and getting ready for a mission while some energetic music plays. Once I set up the story and jump into my plane, the camera smoothly flies out of the cockpit and locks into a familiar top-down perspective. It’s the first sign of it Swans it’s not just about doing something retro; wants to develop the shoot ’em up genre.
This is immediately apparent as soon as I start shooting. I suppose I can just jump in without a guide and start shooting, but I can tell right away that I’m missing nothing when I’m ripped. Sure, I am. Swans it’s much closer to a modern space shooter Ikaruga than pick-and-play retro. The tutorial teaches me that I have a certain amount of energy around my ship represented by rods. I can allocate this energy to my shield or weapons. If I point it at my weapons my blows will be stronger but I will be defenseless and vice versa. I can juggle these dynamics on the fly with the mouse wheel, which instantly brings a more active layer of ship management to the genre.
That’s not the only twist. In addition to my standard shots, I can drop ground attacks by holding the button. I’ll have to pay attention to where the enemies are on the screen to make sure I hit them with the right weapon. And even then, there’s still a lot to learn: auto-launch toggles, lock-on, RPG progression, and even a pattern maker that lets me shape the spread of the projectile. There’s a lot going on, making it clear that KeelWorks aims to bring more depth to the straightforward genre.
With better knowledge of what Swans im about to jump back into level one and figure out how to play. The basics are simple: click a button to shoot approaching enemies. When I start dealing with the rest of my tool kit, I start to feel more like a conductor. When some weak enemies get close, I put my energy into my weapons and lock on to take them out easily. When I hit a big boss, I dial up my shields and start planning my hits a little more carefully.
What I appreciate here is that this isn’t a bullet hell game where one or two hits will tear my ship to shreds. Players are expected to get hit — a lot. The action is chaotic with enemy shots coming in thick waves. My shield helps me tank those hits when I need it and gives me some flexibility in the tough parts of the level. It is an art to know when to play attack and defense.
It can all be overwhelming at times. KeelWorks is going for a visual spectacle not often seen in the genre, and this creates some readability issues. The screen is multi-layered, the action takes place right in front of me and at a lower level. In one section, I’m flying over a battlefield while my buddies fight some aliens. I switch my ground attacks and start dropping bombs to help them out. However, moments of air-ground interplay are not always so clear. Sometimes enemies can feel like they’re right in the middle of it, which makes me nervous trying to figure out which attack to use. Now add a screen full of lasers, enemies, detailed backgrounds and explosions; that’s a lot.
I imagine it will appeal to those who really want to dig in here. Like any good shooter, these are challenging levels that players will likely have to play over and over to master. With so many tools to play with and so many things to see on each try, the idea of ​​replaying stages is a little more enjoyable. Each piece feels like it was crafted to keep the heart of the genre beating while better motivating new players to engage with the classic loops. I haven’t gotten deep into its progression hooks and pattern maker yet, so I’ll have to see how those make the handful of story stages different each time since the levels themselves are static.
I appreciate what Cygni: All Guns Blazing is here and Konami is expanding. It feels like a spirited attempt to preserve the game’s roots and prove that we’re not done experimenting with old genres. KeelWorks is already heavily supporting it here, though the ultimate test will come from how younger gamers without nostalgia for space shooters respond. Can something old still appeal to newcomers through modern gloss? That seems to be the larger question that Konami wants to answer.
Cygni: All Guns Blazing releases August 6 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.