I caught a lot of bullets in my time playing the new Sega Genesis game - yes, the new Sega Genesis game - ZPF. But! The amount of time in-between each bullet gradually increased as I caught up with the shoot 'em up's blistering pace, learned to take advantage of upgrades between and during missions, and achieved a flow state undisturbed by the sheer amount of stuff happening at once.
ZPF, from the undisputed king of the modern retro game, Mega Cat Studios, is precisely what you'd expect from a game that builds on pretty much every classic shoot 'em up of the 16-bit era – from Forgotten Worlds to Shadow of the Beast and everything in-between. It's frenetic, sometimes overwhelmingly so, but there's an order to the chaos as you slowly learn to navigate just enough to survive a little longer than you did your last run.
