I bought Defunct for the Nintendo Switch shortly after purchasing the system. This is because for the first year or so of the Switch being out the Nintendo eShop sometimes had games go on-sale for 10 cents. Sometimes 1 cent. I didn't have a gaming computer yet, so I wasn't yet used to the overwhelming library of free games readily available to me via Steam, scouring the internet, or good ol' straight-up piracy emulation. Seeing a game sell for a penny blew my mind, and it was hard to pass up, so I snagged a good handful of penny-candy shovelware. Some of it is actually good.

I bring up Defunct specifically because it plays exactly like Zineth does, with its gravity-increasing speed-boosting terrain traversal across a wide, hilly space. As a playground, it feels good to move in, but there's not much going on in terms of making it interesting.

Meanwhile, Zineth is out here putting mini-games on the right side of the screen for you to play while you're riding walls and zooming around a desert.

It's bright, colorful, and feels excellent to play. The wall-riding part is a little jank, but it more than makes up for it with its sense of style.

Don't play Defunct, it sucks. Play Zineth instead. It's cool.

This brought me back to when I was trying out a bunch of demos that Digipen and other game design students would release publicly. It was so cool to see how a group of people would express a bunch of systems and visuals to accompany. There is little to no financial capability from being tied to the place of education, unless the creators actively retool things as was the case with Nitronic Rush becoming Distance.
Zineth is such a great example of this small spot of video games. For the capabilities weren't fully formed as could be done later. Polish isn't a top objective or even a capability, so what's done instead is to expand on the core concepts (ex. the playlist shuffling of ~5 or so songs, the odd roughness of the sand dunes). Namely, the big one of skating really fast. Once the player's speeds reach up to 400 units of speed and above feel dangerous to control, the meager jump heights getting stretched small and narrow through the velocity. Having to know where to get the most ideal airtime for reaching other platforms and buildings becomes critical.

Haven't got too much for audio beyond how rewinding time for the several seconds back makes the stock record scratch sound effect pretty funny. Visuals on the other hand are really interesting, as a smaller team getting to (what I assume as) 'toon' shaders and flat color buildings and models. Done as simply as possible to be made more viable.
If I was to praise this further it would then start getting into the small details that would require me to get out a notebook and write down every thought popping up.


Arcane Kids made this? Huh. Guess it does explain the odd smartphone-based menu system. Knew that trying to integrate Twitter and other social media into the play experience was a hip & buzzy marketing move game creators shot for during this period (Skate 3, Superbrothers, the then upcoming PS4 dualshock with a Share button). That sort of early iPhone adopter type optimism that I never truly understood. Though the rest of the phone-as-menu selections are understandable, with the small minigame that does a sort of "pet sim" of killing enemies and dying to upgrade from high scores. The zine as a feature of this is pretty charming too.
I enjoyed messing with Zineth, certain their future work will show through. It's good!