I woke up to some very exciting and unexpected news today as HyperDevbox Japan has announced that ExZeus 2 is in the works and is heading to the App Store soon. If you aren’t familiar (and I won’t blame you if you aren’t), the original ExZeus ($0.99) was a somewhat obscure arcade game that came out in 2003 and went on to see limited releases on various other platforms like the PlayStation 2, PC, and even as a Wii title in 2007 under the name Counter Force.
In 2009 ExZeus released for the iPhone, and we took a close look at it as well as a hands-on video of the game in motion, as in those early days of the App Store it was a pretty impressive title and used the accelerometer functionality of the iPhone really well. The iPhone was my first time experiencing ExZeus, and it went on to become one of my very favorite games.
ExZeus was an arcade game through and through, and was a similar behind-the-back on-rails shooter to something like Space Harrier. It was hard, but tons of fun. ExZeus 2 looks to bring back that same style of play but will be throwing in tons of other things, too. Seriously, it’s nuts how many different things are going on in this game. In between the flying there are parts where you’ll face off against enemies on the ground brawler-style, there’s a part that looks like a top-down shooter, vehicle sections, giant turrets you can sit in and blast dudes away with, and more. Check out all the craziness in this early trailer for ExZeus 2.
I really loved the simplicity of the first ExZeus. It did one thing and it did it really well. I’m not totally sure how mashing up so many types game styles will work out in the sequel, but it’ll be interesting to see nonetheless. Basically I’m just super excited that the ExZeus franchise lives, as very recently I was reminiscing at how much I loved that game and how sad I was it hadn’t been updated in so long.
HyperDevbox says ExZeus 2 should be coming “very soon" so join in on the forum discussion and add it to your TouchArcade (Free) Watch List and we’ll let you know when more news is available.
