Konami’s Latest Game Propels Retro Genre to 11th Place

After nearly a decade of stagnation, Konami is slowly rebuilding. The legendary publisher will release remakes of both Silent Hill 2 And Metal Gear Solid 3: The Snake Eaterboth of which will bring Konami back into the world of big-budget console gaming. These projects join a collection of retro revivals, including this year’s Against: Operation Galugawhich shows that the company is willing to return to its most beloved franchises. But it’s not just digging up old intellectual properties. Its publishing efforts are always looking to the future, even if it’s through shades of nostalgia.

In that sense, its most intriguing game isn’t one of its mega remakes but something much smaller. Cygni: All guns blazinga new space shooter coming out on August 6th, is the first game from developer KeelWorks to be published by Konami. It’s a throwback to one of gaming’s core genres, where players blast away waves of enemies from a top-down perspective. I recently demoed the upcoming game, checking out its early levels. It’s both familiar and a radical departure for the genre, bringing more complex mechanics and a cinematic art style. Call it modern nostalgia—a phrase that might just describe exactly what to expect from a refreshed Konami in 2024.

Shoot’em up, evolved

When I say “space shooter,” you probably already have a strong image in mind. I imagine you picture a vertically scrolling screen with a small ship at the bottom that fires energy blasts at enemies by dancing in patterned waves. You’d have most of that figured out by now. Swans at this point, but you’d still be surprised the moment you boot it up. It opens with a fully animated cutscene that looks like it’s straight out of a Pixar movie. We see our plucky pilot hopping out of bed and getting ready for a mission while listening to energetic music. Once I set up a story and hop into my plane, the camera smoothly pans out of the cockpit and locks into that familiar top-down perspective. This is an early sign that Swans isn’t just looking to create something retro; it wants to evolve the shoot’em up genre.

It’s immediately obvious the moment I start shooting. I suppose I could just jump in without a tutorial and start shooting, but I can immediately tell I’m not getting anywhere because I’m torn. Of course I am. Swans is much closer to a modern space shooter like Ikaruga than a retro game to take anywhere. A tutorial tells me that I have a set amount of energy represented by bars around my ship. I can allocate this energy to my shield or my weapons. Devoting it to my cannons will make my shots more powerful but leave me defenseless, and vice versa. I can juggle this dynamic on the fly with my mouse wheel, which instantly brings a more active layer of ship management to the genre.

That’s not the only perk. In addition to my standard shots, I can hold down a button to land ground attacks. I’ll have to pay attention to where enemies are on the screen to make sure I’m hitting them with the right weapon. And even then, there’s still a lot to learn: an auto-fire button, a lock-on, RPG progression, and even a pattern generator that lets me shape the distribution of my shots. It’s a lot to take in, making it clear that KeelWorks is aiming to bring more depth to a simple genre.

With a better understanding of what Swans When I first jump into the game, I dive back into the first level and figure out how to play. The basics are pretty simple: click a button to shoot at approaching enemies. It’s when I start using the rest of my arsenal that I start to feel more like a conductor. When weak enemies approach, I direct my energy into my weapons and lock on to them for easy takedowns. When I hit a big boss, I activate my shields and start planning my shots a little more carefully.

What I like about this is that it’s not a “bullet hell” game where one or two hits are enough to blow my ship to pieces. Players are meant to get hit – a lot. The action is chaotic, and enemy fire comes in dense waves. My shield helps me absorb those hits when I need them, giving me some flexibility in the tricky parts of a level. It’s an art to know when to play offense and defense.

At times, it can be overwhelming. KeelWorks has gone for a visual spectacle that isn’t often seen in the genre, which creates some legibility issues. The screen is multi-layered, with the action happening both right in front of me and on a lower level. One section has me flying over a battlefield as my comrades fight aliens. I activate my ground attacks and start dropping bombs to help them out. The moments of air-ground interaction aren’t always so clear, though. Sometimes, enemies can feel like they’re right in the middle, leaving me confused as I try to figure out which attack I’m supposed to use. Add to that a screen full of lasers, enemies, detailed backgrounds, and explosions; it’s a lot.

I imagine that’ll be the appeal for those who really want to dig in here. Like any good shoot ’em up, these are challenging levels that players will likely have to play through over and over again to master. Having so many tools to play with and so much to see on each attempt makes the idea of ​​replaying stages a little more palatable. Each room feels like it’s designed to keep the core of the genre intact while better incentivizing new players to engage in classic loops. I haven’t delved into its progression hooks and template builder yet, so I’ll have to see how those make its handful of story stages feel different each time since the levels themselves are static.

I appreciate what Cygni: All guns blazing is the goal here, and Konami by extension. It feels like a spirited attempt to preserve the roots of gaming and prove that we’re not done experimenting with old genres. KeelWorks is already making its point here, though the ultimate test will come in how younger players without a nostalgia for space shooters will react. Can an old game still appeal to newcomers with a modern sheen? That’s apparently the larger question Konami itself is intent on answering right now.

Cygni: All guns blazing will launch on August 6 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.