Zexion

Platform	Windows
Genre	Search Action
Release Year	2025
Rating	⭐⭐⭐⚝⚝
Added	2025-Jun-21

A cool NES-inspired metroidvania with a massive world and some fresh takes on the genre. The story's basic: there's a mysterious science thing on a planet, you need it, and other actors are trying to steal it. The gameplay though is something else.

Progress comes from different weapons. You have missiles, but they're for damage and not access. Instead you get different guns, and each gun is the only way to eliminate certain obstacles. After a point the entire world opens up and you can go anywhere; no mostly-linear experience like old Metroids. This can be good or bad depending on the player.

Zexion has both a "classic" control style and twinstick, but you can only use one at a time unless you have three hands. Many encounters require twinstick aiming to do properly, and it never felt entirely right. Your aiming is limited to eight directions, and jumping with shoulder buttons feels extremely weird.

Zexion is hard and you're expected to do some extremely unusual control handling. Fortunately there's a robust accessbility system to let you adjust the difficulty. I played on 90% damage reduction and needed it.