The heydays of arcade games are long gone, a fact Retchy Games has completely ignored as they set out to create a modern arcade title with Zoe Begone!. The big question is: Is it able to catch that feeling from the glory days of the genre? Read on as Cubed3 picks up the joystick with a pocket full of quarters!
One thing that is hard to forget for older gamers is the fantastic arcade games that were very popular before the turn of the millennium. There were oh-so-many games where the focus was entirely on improving and doing a little better each time, never designed with the intention of the player beating it in their first, second, or even twentieth attempt. Also, once they won the game, that was just the beginning, as there was always a new high score to chase. Many think of these experiences as something to enjoy in an arcade hall. Still, it was also a very popular concept with console games—even the classic Super Mario Bros. is, in its most technical sense, a product of the arcade-style design philosophy. 
Nowadays, that way of designing games is almost entirely gone, and real arcade games are few and far between one another. Many games focus on being a longer experience than twenty to thirty extremely adrenaline-pumping minutes. Sure, games no longer have to milk players on pennies by being so difficult that they have no other choice but to make heavy use of the credit system to progress, which was undeniably a driving force behind the design philosophy of the time. Still, there was something so addictive about games that were difficult to beat, and even harder to master. There is a reason why games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong have survived the test of time. Now, the latest arcade experience has hit the Steam store: the beautifully-drawn bullet hell title Zoe Begone!
The first very refreshing thing that hits the mind when playing Zoe Begone! is that it is a game that knows exactly what it is, and what fans of the genre expect of it, because of what it is. Just like in the arcade games of old, Zoe Begone! has brutal difficulty and a fierce difficulty curve. Even on the easiest difficulty level, people who are not used to bullet hell games will likely struggle even on the first stage, which starts slowly and easily for the genre, but still doesn’t exactly hold the player’s hand. From there on, until the final boss is defeated, it just gets harder and harder in a very steep fashion. In other words, fans of arcade games will feel right at home from the very beginning.
That is not the only thing that shows just how much inspiration Zoe Begone! has taken from older games. Most enemies in the game are highly conceptual beings – not too rare in old arcade games. The enemies are things like drawn aeroplanes, stamped-on rockets, and even the hands of the animator themselves. It takes a theme and runs with it in a way that is really refreshing in a world that has taken more of a distance from this kind of art direction – and it works. While in the past this was a result of technical limitations, the graphics really do not hide the fact that this is a game from this side of the turn of the millennium, but rather a conscious artistic choice both to give Zoe Begone! its own distinct personality and also to pay homage to its roots.
All of this would be moot points, though, if the gameplay isn’t tight and enjoyable, because one of the more cruel realities of making arcade games is that they live or die on how well they execute from a gameplay perspective, as their punishing nature makes even relatively small issues stand out like a sore thumb, and likely will result in a couple of them too. Here is the part where Zoe Begone! is really outstanding! The gameplay is delightful, and the controls feel very tight, initially simple, but filled with depth to explore over time and several attempts to beat the game.
Zoe has two different ways in which she controls, based on two very different shooter genres. The first control scheme is a run-and-gun style that she enters the moment she touches the ground, and starts running. In this mode, she can shoot her gun in five different directions, giving the player a lot of freedom in terms of gun control. Then, when she takes off and flies into the air, she enters a more traditional horizontal shoot ’em-up style of gameplay where the player can no longer direct the gun more than straight forward or straight backwards, but in turn gives far more control of Zoe’s movement in all directions.
Initially, this shift between two different control schemes feels confusing and challenging to grasp. The genius part is that the player can play every part of the game using just one of them, but it becomes much easier if you master both. That fact means that it is not just possible, but also encouraged, to start out mastering one of the styles and then weave in the other until the point where the player can seamlessly switch between both of them, giving a lot of freedom.
That freedom is so crucial in Zoe Begone! to make it feel fair, because in all honesty, this game is challenging. Even the easiest difficulty level isn’t something most should expect to beat on their first or second attempt, and sometimes it could have felt really unfair unless the player had all of these tools at their disposal, just needing to master them. This makes every challenge feel like it is on the player rather than on the game, being unfairly difficult, and this holds up into the higher difficulty levels as well, where everything moves even faster.
The one little issue Zoe Begone! has is that it sometimes feels messy. While bullet hell titles often have a lot of things on the screen, they often appear in patterns. For boss fights, this is true. The bosses are phenomenally designed with beautiful patterns where what happens on the screen makes sense, even though it is often technically messier than the other sections of the gameplay. However, throughout the rest of the game, things are more plotty in terms of placements. This becomes more of an issue on the higher difficulty levels. Still, even on the easy difficulty levels, some might be overwhelmed by how many things are on screen in a completely unorganised manner. This is nothing major, but it can feel odd and out of place for the genre.
This isn’t helped by the art style that sometimes also feels a little messy. There are times where it is difficult to tell what is a projectile that can’t be shot, or an enemy that can be shot. It is a beautiful style, and from an artistic perspective it is really charming and captures the personality of the game in quite a remarkable way, so there is no complains about that. Still, some better tells for what is and what isn’t something that can be destroyed by a bullet would help, and the lack thereof detracts a little bit from the feeling of fairness Zoe Begone! otherwise upholds wonderfully.
All in all, Zoe Begone! is one of the best arcade games in recent times. It is one of the few in the genre that is both not afraid to show off that it is a modern game with its graphics, yet still holds on firmly to its roots. This is what a modern arcade game should feel like: difficult, frustrating, yet cruelly fair. All of this is set with a distinctive style that makes it stand out as its own thing. If Zoe Begone! was an arcade cabinet, it would catch the eyes of everyone in the hall, and the gameplay would keep the lines long and the machine full of quarters.
