Rating
Cygni: All Guns Blazing
It's a twin-stick vertical scrolling Shooter hybrid with a cinematic flare: An unrelenting onslaught of eye-popping visuals, ear bursting soundscapes and mind-melting action makes Cygni the vanguard for the next generation of shoot-em ups.
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Cygni: All Guns Blazing Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Mechanical aliens are threatening humankind's settlement on a mysterious planet so it's time to stop them in CYGNI: All Guns Blazing.
KeelWorks did a great job bringing vertical-scrolling shmups up to speed with modern trends. Despite its pacing issues and overall visual clutter, Cygni delivers an intense shoot-'em-up experience.
I was eagerly awaiting for the release of Cygni: All Guns Blazing. After literally finding out about its existence during a gaming show, when interviewing its developers out of the blue, I kept waiting for the final launch, as there were many things about it which caught my attention. A bullet-hell shooter endorsed by the publisher of Gradius, Salamander and Axelay, boasting some of the most impressive visuals the genre had ever seen at that point, actually taking advantage of the power of ne...
KeelWork’s strikingly opulent shooter dares to do new things with its genre in an effort to unite players of every level. This is what a blockbuster shooter should look like.
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is an old-school shmup in modern clothing, offering the same sort of immediate arcade fun as its genre stablemates, but with a cinematic (albeit slightly perfunctory) story and some neat high-res graphics.
Mechanically-engaging and technically impressive when it wants to be, CYGNI: All Guns Blazing goes all in on spectacle with mixed results. Where its core energy-management system is an anxious-but-delightful thing to manage, it's most of what surrounds the gameplay that KeelWorks sadly don't fair as well on. Putting its immediate and dense introduction to one side, its lack of a stand-out musical or artistic identity, while not the end of the world, does mitigate a hefty chunk of how much enjoyment one can find. Particularly in such a visually-busy take on shmups as CYGNI is. Even so, a suffic...
When it comes to Shmups from Konami, you normally think about Gradius, Salamander, Gyruss, and Axelay (we haven't forgotten about Axelay). However, with the release of its newest game, Cygni: All Guns Blazing, we can add another game to Konami's Shmup catalog. But does this new title stack up with…
What CYGNI: All Guns Blazing lacks in tightened combat it makes up for in visuals, though sadly that might not be enough to win over die hard shoot ‘em ups fans.
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is the best-looking shoot 'em up out there, and along with its epic soundtrack, it's a treat for the eyes and ears. But a number of issues, such as its stages being too long and the screen often being simply too busy, mean that it doesn't fulfil its potential.
Cygni is a gripping bullet hell shmup that manages to thrill despite its ho-hum aesthetic sensibilities.
Perhaps if it was balanced better, had more meaningful upgrades, or strove to play as well as it looks, it might be worth it. As it stands, I’d say wait for a sale and don’t bother paying more than $15. It’s a fun way to kill an afternoon and gives you a taste of the genre, but that’s about it. Here’s hoping that developer KeelWorks can learn from its debut effort and bring its gameplay design to the same level as its visuals.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is a functional arcade shooter that’s pretty to look at and pleasant to listen to, but it's an average experience with uninspired ideas that add nothing to the genre.