ZPF
Image: ZPF Team/Mega Cat Studios

Update #2 [Mon 1st Jul, 2024 15:15 BST]: ZPF's Kickstarter campaign went live earlier today, giving people a chance to pick up a physical copy of the promising Mega Drive / Genesis shoot 'em up. And it has already smashed its £11,852 goal in only 19 minutes.

The campaign offers a bunch of rewards for backing, with the cheapest option being a $45 bundle (roughly £36) containing a ZPF cart and a collection of digital goods (including a manual, OST, poster, and artbook). There's also a complete-in-box version of the game priced at $60 (about £45), as well as even higher tiers containing posters, pins, stickers, vinyl soundtracks, display dioramas, and much much more.

If you're interested, you can back the project here.

Update #1 [Mon 10th Jun, 2024 16:45 BST]: ZPF is coming to Kickstarter soon – 1st July 2024, to be precise.

Original Story [Tue 17th Oct, 2023 10:30 BST]: ZPF is a game we've known about for a while now. Its developer ZPF Team dropped the first teaser trailer for the new Mega Drive / Genesis shoot 'em up back in 2020, and ever since we've found ourselves following every update and appearance at livestream events, in order to try and learn as much as we could about when we would be able to get our hands on it.

At the beginning of last week, word began to spread online that a demo of the game was being distributed on its publisher Mega Cat Studios' website. However, this soon turned to disappointment, when the demo was seemingly removed not long after for unknown reasons.

Now it appears the demo is back online and for real, this time, with the publisher sharing the good news on Twitter earlier today.

We've only had the chance to play a bit, but from our experience so far, we've been impressed with its colourful and highly detailed graphics, otherworldly designs, and killer soundtrack. There are also a ton of options we can't wait to explore more, including three distinct playable ships to pick from, such as the Gold ship, Gradius ship, and the Knight ship.

Here's an official description of the game taken from its store page:

"Get ready to embark on an epic journey through space and time with ZPF. Are you up for the challenge?

Enter the thrilling world of ZPF, a mesmerizing shoot 'em-up game designed exclusively for the SEGA Mega Drive + Genesis. This 16-bit masterpiece promises an adrenaline-pumping experience like never before.

Explore fantastical spaces, unique enemies, and horizontally schmup your way through a gauntlet of bosses destined to haunt your Mega Drive."

If you're interested in trying it out, you can grab the demo now from Mega Cat Studios' website. We've also included some more screenshots from the demo below. Sadly, as far as we can see, there's no release date yet for the full version, but we'll keep an eye out and let you once we have more information.

[source megacatstudios.com]