Summary

• Zet Zillions is a roguelite deckbuilder with an engaging blend of sci-fi, humor, & unique mechanics, despite occasional bugs.
• Gameplay revolves around card fusions & balancing damage with population, making for strategic combat.
• Every playthrough is different with randomized galaxy maps, missions, and progression paths.

Zet Zillions is a roguelike deckbuilder that offers an enjoyable blend of sci-fi, humor, and unique mechanics that is very engaging, though it's sometimes held back by bugs. It's the second release from developer Ota Iman Studios following 2021's Wolfstride, and published by Raw Fury, which has previously helped release well-received indies like Dome Keeper and Moonstone Island. There are many fun synergies and strategies to discover, and these, coupled with the game's largely lighthearted nature, make some issues easier to overlook.

Players will assume the role of an intergalactic commander, but instead of piloting a ship, they'll be steering a whole planet named Baby Violence across the cosmos. Aided on this journey by eccentric associates Foam Gun, Captain DOK, and Ziggy, the group begins the game seeking out information about the mysterious and destructive entity Thanatos as they strive to find humanity a safe home. Both the visual style and excellent in-game music make for a vibrant world, with a splendidly colorful aesthetic that perfectly suits the bold cast of characters and large-scale enemies.

Combat In Zet Zillions

Balancing Damage, Population, & Card Fusions

The core of Zet Zillions gameplay largely lies with two types of cards: Junk, assorted mechanical waste from the planet; and Trash, which are synthetic life forms used in combat. This is complicated and deepened by the fusions that can be made between them. Fusions are made in-hand by combining two cards, and cost no energy to create. The first one players will learn is a Meatball, which is quite literally a ball of metal and bodies made by fusing basic Trash and Junk, but they go far beyond that, like combinations with creature cards for special types of damage and cards that gain power through multiple fusions.

Unlike combat in most deckbuilders, players aren't solely focused on damage, instead needing to balance lowering enemy health and raising their population to succeed. When this latter meter for an enemy is maxxed out, it will stagger them for a turn, which is often an invaluable strategy for avoiding damage. This further synergizes with many other elements in the game, like cards that deal damage based on population or player traits that do things like add weakness when population is applied. Players can even encounter enemy planets that can be colonized rather than killed this way, which earns more resources.

Population is one of many fun synergies to be experimented with, and works in satisfying conjunction with other mechanics like burn effects and armor-heavy builds. Players will have a few things to help them out in Zet Zillions besides their deck and post-combat rewards, mostly in the form of traits and minions. Traits are somewhat comparable to relics in Slay the Spire, earned through dangerous endeavors and granting permanent boons to the player, while minions are helpers accompanying them that have their own customizable traits and cards they can add to the starting deck.

Intergalactic Runs In Zet Zillions

Making Incremental Cosmic Progress

Zet Zillions is a game where every playthrough is different, offering randomized new maps of the galaxy for players to traverse each time. Each run is split into sectioned areas, each of which has many splitting paths that are fun to strategize optimal ways through - players can do quite a bit of clever zigzagging, but can never traverse backwards after certain points. Most nodes are simply Unknown Locations, which are enemy encounters or special events that do things like remove or transform cards, but there are also locales like Escape Pods that house Creature cards and the aforementioned colonizable planets.

Chosen pathing will also partially be determined by the missions selected within each section. These span a wide array of objectives, from transporting dangerous cargo between locations to staggering a certain number of enemies, which in turn net rewards like traits or card modifier upgrades reminiscent of the ones found in Monster Train. The enemies found throughout worlds are a fun balance of formidable and silly thanks to the scale of battles - there are plenty of giant, run-ending monsters coexisting alongside planets like the dorkily-designed Clueless, which enemies bully half the time rather than target the player.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

3.5/5 - "Very Good" By Screen Rant's Metric - A Low Cost, High Reward Deckbuilder

Unfortunately, there were a few bugs that hindered the overall experience. Some were small and largely negligible, like sprite asset names appearing occasionally for animations. Others were much more devastating towards progress, like an instance where after a boss fight the transition into the next section didn't trigger, and I wound up having to abandon the run. About 25 hours in, I encountered a new error in which, after selecting the deck, the game becomes stuck entirely, rendering it unplayable - however, it's being looked into and will likely be fixed in the final release or soon after.

The unlocks and minion upgrades earned through each run's earned XP are fairly satisfying in of progression - albeit a bit slow paced - and each time a new piece of strategy for the game clicked in my head it was genuinely exciting. It may not be a perfect deckbuilding game, but Zet Zillions still creates a very engaging atmosphere through creative mechanics, bold aesthetics, and fantastic music. For only $10 it's arguably still a fair amount of bang for one's buck, and is worth looking into for roguelite fans looking for something new.

Screen Rant was provided with a Steam code for the purpose of this review. The launch build version of Zet Zillions has fixed the game-breaking bug mentioned in this review.