As I’ve shared many times in my reviews over the years, one of the things I appreciate most in the indie space is when developers take big swings. Given the amount of titles in the eShop that simply feel like variations on a common theme, games that come out with their creative guns blazing tend to grab my attention. Of course, new and different also means risky on multiple fronts, whether due to the risk of confusing the audience, working out kinks people normally haven’t dealt with, or all of the ingredients not quite working together. Zoe Begone absolutely has elements that you’ve seen or played with before, I just can’t think of any other title that has crammed so many shooting styles into one package.

The first thing when reviewing a shooter is normally to categorize it into a familiar lane, whether run-n-gun, bullet hell, twin-stick, or some other known style. In this case, you could almost consider it to be “All of the Above”, essentially melding them all together and having you moving all around the screen, shooting, dodging, dashing to avoid threats and blow apart everything that’s coming for you. This includes points where it sort of breaks the fourth wall and an animator’s brush will intrude, bringing some added unique threats to the table. If you like your shooters to have an element of chaos to them, this is a game that’s happy to oblige! Throw in some power-ups you’ll be able to purchase with your accumulated apples, and the further you go the more intense things get across the board.

Of course, with all of that intensity and insanity, there are some challenges that distinguish the game, but can make it tough to love in places as well. While I appreciate the fact that at times it’s played in an on the ground and run-n-gun style, but can then quickly transition into being more of a traditional shooter, managing that adds overhead and control complexity as well. You’ll need to keep track of your energy to be sure you can take flight or dash through enemies, but doing so while so much is going on can be problematic so instead you’ll sometimes find yourself trying and failing to do what you’ve got in mind, and that can lead to disappointments. With so much visual cacophony in front of you, it can also be a challenge to accurately spot enemies or their bullets at times, adding some difficulty that can be harder to account for than it should need to be.

In the end, it just feels like this is a game brimming with energy and ideas, but rather than being thoughtful and deliberate in deciding what to keep, the developers just decided to run with everything at once. Even if you dial back the difficulty, the complexity of it all doesn’t diminish much, and after you get into the groove you’ll realize there’s only so much to explore here. Sure, chasing scores on the leaderboard may be an option for some, but if you’re really just looking for a satisfying shooter to get your fill from, different players will likely get very different results with this one.