''ExZeus'' (also known as Counter Force) is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed in France by

HyperDevbox Japan HyperDevbox Japan (previously known as Hyper-Devbox) is a French Japanese video game company created by Carlo Perconti, one of the founders of Toka and Arcade Zone. HyperDevbox Japan is developing original games, mostly for Android, and also ...

. It was released in 2003 in the arcades running on a

Tsunami Visual Technologies A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater expl ...

TsuMo arcade cabinet. In 2004, a PlayStation 2 port was released, but only in Europe. Then in 2005, the game was released in the arcades, this time running on

Sega NAOMI Sega is a video game developer, publisher, and hardware development company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with multiple offices around the world. The company's involvement in the arcade game industry began as a Japan-based distributor of co ...

GD-ROM GD-ROM (an abbreviation of "Gigabyte Disc Read-Only Memory") is a proprietary optical disc format originally used for the Dreamcast video game console, as well as its arcade counterpart, the Sega NAOMI and select Triforce arcade board titles. It ...

hardware, and only released in Japanese arcades. There was also a PC port of the game released as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

. It was ported to the Wii under the

working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

of Shoot Out, later changed to ''Counter Force'', and released in 2007. It was reincarnated in 2009 for the iPhone, under the name ExZeus. An

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

port was released in 2010.

Reception

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...

gave the Wii version a positive review, praising its accurate infrared controls, graphical design, and "deep-rooted sense of nostalgic fun". However, they scored the game a 4/10 based on its price, saying "If it was on Wii Ware for $5, we’d have a hard time not nerding out entirely".Bozon (29 January 2008)
Wii version review

Re-Release

In August 2021, Video game publisher Ziggurat Interactive announced through their official YouTube channel that they would be re-releasing ''ExZeus'' and ''ExZeus 2'' as ''ExZeus: The Complete Collection'' for PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch in Summer 2021, with porting completed by developer

Sickhead Games Sickhead Games, LLC is an American independent game development studio founded in 2002. It is best known for its multiplatform turn-based strategy game ARMED!, its involvement with the MonoGame framework and Torque series of game engines, and th ...

References

External links

Conspiracy Entertainment's Counter Force page
505 Games games 2003 video games Video games about mecha PlayStation 2 games Rail shooters Wii games Arcade video games Windows games IOS games Android (operating system) games Video games developed in France Conspiracy Entertainment games Single-player video games Metro3D games {{rail-shooter-videogame-stub