KAZ is your next ‘one more run’ obsession.
Curating an indie game showcase or Steam events brings me immeasurable joy. Going through a list of hundreds and thousands of games per year is a daunting, exhausting task. But each line on an exported spreadsheet holds the potential to uncover something you’ve never seen before; an experience that will live in your mind rent-free until it launches. KAZ from Kalinarm is a recent example.
Going hands-on is always the best way to judge a game, of course. But it’s not always possible due to the sheer abundance of submissions or the lack of a build. So instead, I can usually garner a general sense of what a game is shooting for through footage and assets. It’s a bit of a sixth sense of mine. KAZ was a unique enigma when it came to curating my final Six One Indie Showcase earlier in the year. I had no clue what I was looking at, but I couldn’t look away. It turns out my sixth sense guided me well, because now that I’m playing it, I cannot stop.
KAZ presents as a mechanically complex game, but in practice, it’s an approachable arcade experience crafted for a larger audience. The core pitch is simple. You are placed on a grid that varies its layout per stage. Enemies will spawn in various spots throughout the grid. Your goal is to defeat as many enemies as you can within a time limit, reaching a target point total. The beauty here is that KAZ is a single(ish) input experience. With a keyboard, it feels oddly akin to Stepmania, frantically navigating the grid with WASD. While playing with a controller or on Steam Deck, it’s simply mapped to the left stick and d-pad.
Simple doesn’t mean it lacks depth, though. After each stage, you’re presented with a choice of three (sometimes four) buffs to start racking up higher and higher scores. Buffs range from lightning bolts sporadically striking enemies, spawning a combo meter, and the ability to jump over gaps. Some buffs can even be spells that are cast through a particular sequence of moves. My personal favorite spawns enemies on every empty spot on the map, allowing for a clean sweep of gaining points with zero gaps. That particular spell is executed by hitting down, down, down, up in the midst of the action, which feels like I’m frantically dropping a GTA cheat code. There are also debuffs in play, as well. Debuffs overtake your options post-stage when you hit enough traps and build up a curse meter. Examples here range from slower-spawning enemies to a spell with a simple button combo that randomly transports you around the stage. The traps and debuffs provide a reason to be a bit more methodical versus aimless frantic movements, which is much appreciated.
The options are vast and creative, and throughout runs, gnarly builds begin to form. I’m still buzzing from my best run. I had buffs that spawned enemies in every spot at the start of a stage, the aforementioned combo meter, excess points carrying over, and point values increasing per enemy as long as I didn't hit a wall. Those four on their own make for a great start, but it was the Rush buff that made me feel like Sonic with all of the Chaos Emeralds. Rush allows you to spam movements and dart around for a few seconds at the start of the stage. With the build in place, I was hitting my goals within the opening moments. That particular run only failed simply because I’m 34 and my thumb started cramping.
KAZ is already the antithesis of “one more run” through gameplay alone, but the sheer amount of challenges and unlocks will encourage you to stay up until the witching hour to hit that next milestone. Challenges are self-explanatory: reach certain stages, hit accuracy goals, complete X amount of runs. But the unlocks are what helps keep the experience fresh while giving you a long-term goal. Completing challenges gifts you coins, which you can then redeem to unlock new themes.
Themes will swap out your character and the design of the enemies, but also provide a trait. Think of them like the various decks in Balatro. Some of my early favorites include reduced spell cooldowns, starting with a small combo meter, and gaining a four-way laser. With 27 in total to unlock, not only does it provide an overarching goal to work towards and swap out the aesthetic, but they present an integral opportunity to start a run-breaking build off strong.
KAZ oddly harkens back to early mobile gaming or Flash games, but with a modern indie edge. It’s something that would be in the same rotation as Snood, Candy Stand Golf, and Tiny Wings. Putting it in more modern terms, this is my new Vampire Survivors. It’s now a Steam Deck “pick up and play” staple when I could go for a quick run here and there, or as a second-screen experience while watching my weekly pro wrestling. I’m particularly excited to see how it runs on my AYN Thor. That little device has become my new travel buddy, and goddamn, it would make for the perfect companion during PAX West coming up.
All of this is to say that KAZ is the first experience in a long time where I feel nearly anyone can pick up, play, understand, and have an absolute blast. Between its strategic simplicity and carefully crafted depth, it’s the rare game that I can recommend to all, even those who don’t play games on a regular basis. Grab it on Steam for the price of a coffee and bagel, and get yourself completely enamored in its rhythm.
