Slave Zero X Review

 Slave Zero X is a sprite-based action beat-em-up title created by developer Poppy Works. It takes place in the dystopian city of Megacity S1-9 where the Sovereign Khan (SovKhan) rules, causing death and poverty to take over the streets. You play as Shou, a member of The Guardians and a freedom fighter who will sacrifice his life to take down these evil rulers. This title takes place four years before the events that occurred in the game Slave Zero which was released in 1999. Like in that title, the main protagonist steals a bio mecha weapon — called a Slave unit — to try to kill this false god and his top followers.

When you start the game, you feel like you are right inside an anime movie from the ‘90s, when it opens with credits appearing on the screen. It does a good job of pulling you into the game and making you want to find out for yourself what is going on here. There is voice acting here, but it sounds like everyone is talking through a tin can. I know the characters are probably speaking through helmet mics and such, but it wasn’t great quality and a bit tricky to understand what they were saying; fortunately, I had subtitles on. After this short intro, we are thrown into the tutorial.

The way Slave Zero X has its tutorial set up is quite frustrating; instead of having you control the character and perform the action that they are describing, everything is told to you in a massive text dump. Good luck remembering what all the controls are! My only saving grace was that I had taken notes about what all the buttons did for this review, so I was able to go back and reference what I had written down. Unfortunately, there is no command list available to look at to refresh your memory, so chances are you will rely on button mashing to take down your foes.

I’m using an Xbox controller on my computer or my Steam Deck to play Slave Zero X. The X button is used to do a light attack on the ground or in the air; the Y button is used to do a heavy attack — alternate between the two to perform combos to do more damage — and A to make your character jump with a double jump available right from the beginning. There is a strong EX move that you can do if you do a light attack followed by a heavy attack right after. If timed right, your character will flash blue and will inflict stronger attacks, increased speed, and knockback the enemy further. Another strong attack in your arsenal is the Burst move. This can be used to knock enemies away when you press in the Left Thumbstick, or when you hit the X, Y, and RB buttons together. I found it easier to just hit one button instead of a bunch at once.

One of the first things you will notice is that Slave Zero X has an interesting camera movement system. Most of the time, all you are doing is walking to the right, but the level rotates around you, giving it a weird 2.5 - 3D feeling that reminds me of the game FEZ or a game on the Dreamcast. I’m not the biggest fan of this, especially when you were trying to jump from one platform down to another. The game didn’t seem to know how to deal with this, and you were stuck in the air, or your character would be invincible until you smashed a bunch of buttons, making you appear again.

Most of the time, you will be focusing on attacking, as there isn’t much here for defending yourself. If you hit forward on the D-pad or thumbstick, you do have a chance to parry an enemy attack, but the timing has to be perfect. I found that I was just setting myself up to take damage if I tried to do this, and I had better luck just slashing at the enemy, using a Burst move, or trying to dash away instead. I wish there was a separate button designated for the parry because using forward just moved your character, making them walk right into the foe and take damage.

You will be swarmed by a ridiculous amount of enemies that jump on you from above, the background, and even the foreground. There is little variety in the enemies you will face, so most of the time you are fighting hordes of the exact same foe. It felt like these fights were never going to end because more and more foes kept appearing! Once you reach one of the five commanders, you will see a character with a unique design that looks really cool. They are a lot more challenging than the regular guys you have been fighting thus far. It would take me a few attempts to figure out the best method to use to avoid being decimated by these stronger foes, but luckily, when you die, you aren’t sent very far back, so you can run right back into the battle to try again.

The music in Slave Zero X was alright; it was upbeat and had a bit of a techno feel to it. However, it felt that the boss fight music, in particular, could have sounded more epic and intense considering all the slashing and killing that you are doing. The game even has a warning upon starting about the level of violence and carnage that you will encounter when you play.

The game gives you a score when you complete each area depending on how many enemies you killed, how many combos you performed, the amount of damage you took, and your average style — I’m not totally sure what this is, but maybe how cool you looked? — giving you a grade based on how many points you earned. Most of the time I had D’s, but the odd time I would have an A or S after doing the exact same thing I had done before. If you think you have a good score, you can submit it to the leaderboards to prove to everyone else playing this game how good you are.

Slave Zero X is an alright game, though it did feel unfair at times when you were trying to defend yourself or when you came across ridiculously strong bosses. Plus, when you defeat a boss, you would think you would earn power-ups and new abilities, but instead, you will have to try and save money to purchase these from the shop if you want them. The lack of variety in the enemies made the game feel very repetitive, as I was always fighting crazy amounts of the same foe and always walking to the right. If you want an action beat ‘em up with a different look to it, a cool-looking main character, bosses, and loads of blood, this may be a title you will want to check out. Especially if you just want to slaughter huge amounts of enemies.