Life is complicated. Sometimes games are complicated too. Often it can be nice to just turn off your brain and do something relaxing. Some people find that zen in nature, others in a good book. You might find it in KAZ.
It is worth mentioning that whilst I found KAZ to be a simple, relaxing time, it is not attempting to be that at all.
Between the music, gameplay and visual effects, KAZ is assaulting your senses from minute one. Yet, despite the relentless bombardment, KAZ achieves a harmony between these elements that results in a nostalgic gameplay experience that harkens back to days of arcades and gunning for that high score.
KAZ revolves around a very simple premise, you play as one of a number of characters, chosen by game mode, on a series of grids made up of tiles in various configurations. Using your arrow keys or WASD you move around the board defeating enemies by moving into their tile. You have a time limit to achieve a certain score to progress, the score increases with each passing round.
If you successfully complete a round, you can select from a list of bonuses that can effect tht timer, your movement or your damage output. Classic rougelike stuff.
Developed by Kalinarm and published by HAKURO, KAZ does a good job of triggering the “one more round” mentality in its gamers, partially due to rounds taking a mere 15-20 seconds, but also because it always feels like you’re completely capable of clearing the next round. That hook is what keeps KAZ going, the game doesn’t really change round to round, only the score needed to pass. So as long as I feel confident in how I’m playing, I will click that “Next” button over and over until my hand cramps or my keyboards gives in.
I do find it difficult to write verbosely about KAZ, given how little there is to it and in that sense, the price tag of £5.39 (at time of writing) is appropriate. Yet, I find that KAZ could be one of those games that you keep coming back to, going for that high score, beating your friend’s total, climbing the leaderboard, such that you could charge double and still find value in it.
Another arrow in KAZ’s quiver is the rota of events that occur daily, weekly, monthly. Meaning that KAZ is a different game pretty much every time you click on that Start button. Whilst the events themselves are, once again, simple enough, the potential for expansion is sky-high.
I’ll end the review there as my hands are starting to uncramp, got to get back on that grind. Nothing else to do, there’s no football for at least another 2 weeks.
