Zordak is a beautifully animated Super Metroid inspired action platformeing metroidvania where you wake up after a 200 year long cryosleep to find that you’re alone in a long abandoned research facility.
Previously featured on Alpha Beta Gamer a little over a year ago Zordak is a Sci-Fi metroidvania that wears its influences on its sleeve as your lone female protagonist battles aliens and collects upgrades while making her way through a sprawling facility. After waking up from a cryosleep that even Ellen Ripley would say was a little on the long side, you find that the facility you were stationed at has long since fallen into disrepair and all the staff are long dead. You now need to search the facility, figure out what went wrong and find a means of escape.
The current build of Zordak features around 30 minutes of gameplay and starts with you waking up unarmed and in your underwear. You then set out to explore the facility, fend off attacking aliens, collect useful upgrades (including a Metroid-esque suit) and battle a giant blob monster boss. It plays a lot like Super Metroid (which is no bad thing), but there is one novel gameplay mechanic where you attack small weak points in the environment that can then make large obstacles disappear.
It’s a very impressive game, with high quality pixel art animation, great level design and refined action platforming gameplay. It feels very much like a love letter to Samus Aran’s SNES classic and well worth checking out for a bit of old school Sci-Fi metroidvania fun.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download The Zordak Beta Demo Here (Windows)
~Similarities~
1. Blonde, curvy babe fighting alone in a hostile alien world. < – At least make her brunette or raven-haired.
2. Gets a topheavy space armor with a gun permanently grafted on one arm. < – Could have changed the idle pose a bit to give her a bit of a differing personality.
3. Little spiky spider enemies that slowly crawl in circles around rooms and platforms, a staple Metroid enemy. < – Remove
4. Little enemies hidden in the ceiling that suddenly drill down at you if you get close enough under them. Another staple Metroid enemy. <- at least
5. Little enemy that slowly rises out of a tube and then darts forward. A THIRD staple Metroid enemy. < – two of these.
6. Use attacks to open locked doors. < – Second worst offender after #1 actually. Could have used a key-card system instead. EASIEST fix.
7. Color-coded doors for the kind of attacks you need to use to open them.
8. The ones that require missile attacks are red.
9. Oh, and there's a missile upgrade. < – Could have made these more unique. Perhaps homing missiles that don't require you to point directly at the enemy?
10. Killing enemies often drops pulsating purple energy spheres that refill your health if you grab them. < – AT LEAST make them green crosses or something!!!
I like this game, but there's TOO MUCH inspiration from Metroid. I'm genuinely worried you(the developer, not the video uploader)'ll get hit with a lawsuit. If you did, I don't doubt for a second you'd lose. But if you take the advice I outlined, particularly in points 1, 6, and 9… you should be alright even in spite of 3-5. Maybe do 2 for a bit more personal flair.
dear lord dont listen to that other comment, it’s written by a psuedo-legal expert moron who didnt read the game’s intent to be a super metroid clone and thinks very simple snes enemy types can be lawsuit material.
The game seems awesome without a doubt. However, feels too familiar or just like a Metroid clone. The artist(s) and dev(s) spent countless hours on this, only to produce a clone? I seriously can’t believe that. I’d rather play a hacked/cloned version of Metroid than this. Sorry for being harsh, but that’s my honest opinion.
I agree with Eniak on aesthetics, but make her hair green. It’ll be a callback to classic Samus, but won’t be so glaring that the Big N will have as much of a case.
On the missiles, I disagree, homing missiles might take too much skill out of the gameplay. It might be enough to change some other things, like have the gun be a rifle she carries intead of an arm cannon.