The Internet is full of keyboard warriors, and maybe you’ve been one of them, typing furiously to get your point across and defeat an opponent, or correct someone who was stupid enough to be. fake on the internet. In KAZ you are a keyboard warrior of the same kind. You must furiously press the direction keys as fast as possible to eliminate enemies and accumulate points to progress through the different levels.
KAZ is a roguelite grid game in which you move the avatar of your choice as quickly as possible across different grids to eliminate enemies. Each round has a score goal that you must reach to progress, with failure ending your run. KAZ is just one of the avatars available as the game features different grid themes giving you new avatars, enemy designs and music to listen to.
Different themes also come with different starting abilities for each of the avatars. With Kaz, the bonus ability is to cause a big explosion at the end of a turn to clear the grid, while Bunny Bento gives a small multiplier and Aku has shorter spell cooldowns. Not all avatars are available from the start, but are unlocked by completing quests to earn coins to spend on new themes and their new avatars.
Despite its simple appearance, KAZ requires quick reflexes and decision-making on which abilities to choose from that will allow you to increase your score as high as possible. You can make enemies appear faster, spawn stars that give big points if you catch them, increase the time you have, or make fugitive type enemies worth more the further away they get from you. In addition to these passive abilities, you can also equip the spells you need to activate via key combos. These spells can help fill the board with enemies, provide a time saver, or activate bonus attacks like lightning and waves. While these perks help you, things get more difficult with each turn with grids expanding and cursed tiles appearing. Hit enough of them and you have to choose debuffs to equip, which can make runs much more difficult.
It really exploits this compulsive chase for high scores. Your keyboard may suffer as you only have 15 seconds to clear grids unless you find boosts to increase the time, and having quests to complete helps keep you engaged. In addition, you have the choice between different modes. With Too Many Items mode, you choose three items after each turn, quickly increasing the buffs you have. No Stress mode pushes that frantic button back so time only advances when you make a move. Survivor seems to be the best default mode where you continue to build up your score, choosing one item at a time between rounds. And for those of you who have a dance mat in the attic, there’s a specific mode that supports dance mats so you can sweat it out while chasing enemies.
KAZ doesn’t have any sort of overt story and doesn’t need one. Yes, the themes and their heroes have different enemies to kill, but there is no plot. Instead, the game leans on you and draws you in with its fast-paced action, good music, and pursuit of the leaderboard. The music goes well with the action and the visual designs are very good for the avatars, enemies and themes.
