''Galak-Z: The Dimensional'' is a

shooter Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, Bow and arrow, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or Blowgun, blowpipe). Even the acts of launching Flamethrower, flame, artillery, Dart (missile), darts, ha ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed and published by 17-Bit. It was released in August 2015 for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and October 2015 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

. A

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

port, subtitled ''Deluxe Edition'', was released in March 2019 by Golem Entertainment. It was announced during Sony's pre-

E3 2013 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 (E3 2013) was the 19th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California with many press conferences taking place at nearby venues including the Microsoft Theater ...

press conference in June 2013. 17-Bit CEO Jake Kazdal describes it as "modern ''

Halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * ''Halo'' (franch ...

'' and ''

Far Cry 3 ''Far Cry 3'' is a 2012 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the third main installment in the ''Far Cry'' series after ''Far Cry 2''. The game takes place on the fictional Rook Islands, a tro ...

'' combat in a 2-dimensional shell." Reflecting its inspiration in part by Japanese anime, the game is also known officially by the Japanese title of .

Gameplay

''Galak-Z'' is a two-dimensional

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

shooter video game Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...

with

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player characte ...

elements. The game's levels are generated uniquely for each playthrough and are connected as an endless dungeon. The levels include spawners for enemies and traps.

Development

Former Sega Japan developer Jake Kazdal started the game's development company, 17-Bit, in 2009 to make games similar to that of the

16-bit era In the history of video games, the fourth generation of game consoles, more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release of NEC Home Electronics' PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North Amer ...

. They had previously released '' Skulls of the Shogun'' for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

and

Windows phones Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

in early 2013. ''Galak-Z'' gameplay was inspired by what senior producer Raj Joshi called new wave'

roguelikes Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player characte ...

", especially ''

Spelunky ''Spelunky'' is a 2008 source-available 2D platform game created by independent developer Derek Yu and released as freeware for Microsoft Windows. It was remade for the Xbox 360 in 2012, with ports of the new version following for various platfo ...

'' and ''

Don't Starve ''Don't Starve'' is a survival video game developed by the Canadian indie video game developer Klei Entertainment. The game was initially released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on April 23, 2013. A PlayStation 4 port, renamed ''Don't ...

''. The 17-Bit team sought to emulate ''Don't Starve'' "survival mechanics", which encouraged players to plan ahead during their games. The team also liked the game's progression tech trees, which provides the player more options as the game advances. ''Spelunky''

handheld A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...

release and its "pick-up-and-play" variable game length inspired 17-Bit to release ''Galak-Z'' on the

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

. ''Galak-Z'' art style draws from

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

influences, including Ichiro Itano's signature ''

Macross is a Japanese science fiction mecha anime media franchise/media mix, created by Studio Nue (most prominently mecha designer, writer and producer Shōji Kawamori) and Artland in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth and the ...

'' series "Itano Circus" missile fusillade. ''Galak-Z'' was announced during Sony's pre-

press conference in June 2013. A playable version of ''Galak-Z'' was on display at video game merchandiser Fangamer and video game collective Attract Mode's August 2013

PAX Prime PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX was ...

combined event in Seattle. The game was planned for release on

in Q2/Q3 2014, followed by

and PlayStation Vita versions, successively - this was before the team decided to allow themselves more time for development, pushing the release window into 2015. All versions would contain the same content. On July 14, 2015, 17-Bit announced that the PlayStation 4 version would be released on August 4, 2015, with the PC version following a couple months later. The PlayStation Vita version was cancelled.

Release

In April 2016, 17-Bit joined forces with

IndieBox IndieBox was a monthly independent video games (indie game) subscription box service. Working directly with the indie game developers, IndieBox designs and manufactures boxed collector’s edition physical releases of games that are typically only ...

, a monthly

subscription box Subscription boxes are a recurring delivery of niche products as part of a marketing strategy and a method of product distribution. Subscription boxes are used by subscription-based ecommerce businesses, referred to as "subcom" for short, which fol ...

service, to create an exclusive, custom-designed, physical release of ''Galak-Z''. This limited, individually-numbered collector’s box included a themed

USB drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since first ...

with

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militai ...

-free copy of the game, the official soundtrack on cassette tape, an instruction manual and

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

key, along with several other collectible items.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the game has received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 83, based on 26 reviews indicating "Generally favorable reviews".

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

awarded it 8.3 out of ten, saying "While not a full-fledged roguelike, ''Galak-Z''s superb controls and charming personality make it great."

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

awarded it a score of 88%, saying "Challenging but immaculately calibrated controls power an exciting and enormously rewarding sci-fi roguelike."

Notes

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Video games, border=no 2015 video games Cancelled PlayStation Vita games Roguelike video games Science fiction video games Shooter games PlayStation 4 games Windows games MacOS games Linux games Video games developed in the United States Video games using procedural generation