If you played shoot-em-ups in arcades back in the 80s and early 90s, it wasn’t uncommon for the games to be rigged against the player. Sometimes bosses were immune to damage for a set amount of time before players could hurt them or time limits were set unfairly low.
When arcades eventually died out, gamers still craved brutal challenges from shoot-em-ups. Games like Dodonpachi or Radiant Silvergun would fill the screen with bullets and make buttholes clench as gamers sweat their way through the minuscule gaps between the danger. It’s a tradition that every shoot-em-up comes out and beats poor gamers into the dirt until they learn its nuances.
Konami is no stranger to producing some of the best shoot-em-ups since the 80s. Classics like Salamander and Gradius still hold up decades later and now they’re partnering with KeelWorks to deliver a new generation of shooter. What happens when the amount of bullets and enemies goes beyond the scope of last-gen consoles and a game requires the power of a Series X|S or a PlayStation 5? Find out in our CYGNI: All Guns Blazing review!
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing
Developer: KeelWorks
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: August 5, 2024
Price: $29.99
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing begins with an impressive-looking cinematic that isn’t afraid to get a little cheeky. The story involves a futile battle against an alien invasion on Cygni Prime and as one of the sexy ORCA pilots, players will have to shoot the ever-loving shit out of anything and everything.
After about a micro-second, players will instantly forget the story about the settlements on Cygni Prime. They will be frantically trying to grasp the unbearably spicy action, as the game hurls countless enemies and protectiles. The only story worth getting invested in while playing CYGNI: All Guns Blazing, is the inner struggle of the player trying to make it to the end of a stage in one piece.
Most shoot-em-ups are tough since they harken back to the days of quarter-devouring arcade cabinets, but CYGNI won’t demand to be fed your hard-earned dollars after you buy it. The amount of threats in the first few seconds will overwhelm gamers, even after taking the time to learn how to play in the tutorial mode.
The tutorial is utterly crucial to learning how to get past the launch zone on Cygni Prime. CYGNI is not like most shoot-em-ups; the gameplay is more than just shooting since ORCAs are equipped with energy that can be used for shields or Macross-like missile launchers.
A major pillar of the experience is managing your resources refilling energy on the fly and collecting batteries dropped by foes, while also blasting everything. Even with the tutorial, the explanation goes by fast and does not emphasize the importance of distributing energy for shields or missiles. The gameplay is extremely fast and managing the charges becomes second nature as players will gradually find themselves lasting longer.
Since CYGNI relishes bombarding the screen with dangerous elements at high speeds, taking damage is all but a guarantee. The game is seemingly designed around tanking damage at the cost of sacrificing energy to launch homing missiles. Since the action can get very spicy, it’s better to rely on homing weapons while dodging, and this is very important because bosses can have a lot of HP.
ORCA’s weapon systems are formidable and can make light work of almost any threat, but they can come from almost any angle. Thankfully, the ORCA can aim in a cone from the 10 to 2 o’clock range with the right analog stick. Compounded with the feature to further customize the shooting pattern, ORCAs are a versatile shoot-em-up craft that allows players to play their way.
There is also an alternate firing mode that is air-to-ground fire for attacking enemies below. This can be toggled to a lock-on setting, but the air-to-ground is too situational, with some levels not featuring it as an option at all.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is not for the faint of heart. Not only is the action blisteringly fast, but the stages are marathons of hundreds – possibly thousands of enemies filling the screen. The brief wave of relief becomes a frightening clench of all your muscles as more foes rush into the fray. Stages may only take about ten to twelve minutes to beat, but it feels much longer since every second counts.
There are no mid-stage checkpoints and you get one life in normal or hard modes. Crashing and burning after a lengthy battle with a biomechanical squid means starting from the beginning. This could potentially artificially lengthen the experience. This kind of barrier is a bit excessive for a game that is already intense and difficult. Some levels could have been divided into two and nobody would have noticed.
The graphics are unbelievable for a shoot-em-up. There are extreme close-up shots of the ORCA where the pilot is visible and the perspective zooms out to the standard, distant gameplay view. The level of detail justifies why CYGNI: All Guns Blazing had to be on current-gen consoles. The visuals dazzle with an unprecedented display of lighting and smoke effects that diffuse the blazing bullets slashing across the screen.
Bosses are imposing and look like something out of The Matrix films. There are red light accents on the dark insectoid motifs. Long flowing tendrils and intricate moving parts that look skeletal and bone-like imply a deathly aura. Compounded with the hundreds of thousands of smaller targets that litter the background, moving in real-time, it can be sensory overload as you try to mentally process everything all at once while trying to dodge fire.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is a stressful game. You won’t ever be bored while playing it because of how much it constantly puts on the pressure and it rarely lets up. Even after clearing the first stage, expect to have a thousand-yard-stare from the utter badlam that preceded the clear stage screen.
During some stages where the game is unrelenting with the enemies pouring in, the visuals get extremely chaotic and it isn’t clear what is a threat or what is just cool effects. Compounded on the high-stakes gameplay, the experience feels like you are always on the edge of an oncoming heart attack and you forget to breathe. Your hands run cold and dry as a terrible sinking feeling inverts your guts, as you pray that you still can narrowly bob and weave to grab an energy charge.
As amazing as the graphics are, it can be a bit too much to take in at times. There was no restraint when it came to bombarding players with every single type of effect imaginable, all at once. It might be enough to send some players into an epileptic fit.
The rousing music evokes memories of Basil Poledouris’ bombastic and heroic score from Starship Troopers. It’s big and orchestral that transitions into multiple emotions as the stages rise and fall, and then keep rising. Most of the time players might not notice the music due to the raw action and explosions drowning it out.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is a heart-stopping, adrenaline-fueled shoot-em-up. Its steep learning curve may initially deter gamers, but mastering its intricacies leads to an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience. The sheer intensity of the action is almost overwhelming, pushing the limits of human perception, yet it’s undeniably impressive in its fearless approach.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing was reviewed on a PlayStation 5 using a code provided by Konami. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is now available for PC (via Steam), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
