♦ Livestream of the ZZT world "Nexus II: Time's Arrow" by My Liver Hurtz (2003) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/nexus-2/] ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (2:20) "Nexus II: Time's Arrow" by My Liver Hurtz (2003) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/nexus-2/]
More adventures through spacetime!
The sequel picks up right where the first left off, with James returning from his seemingly successful mission to stop the K'Ton invasion, and confronting Nexus operator Andrew over how much of an "accident" it was that he was sent to the wrong time initially. Andrew reveals himself to be from the future, and James' descendant, telling his story.
This puts the player in a flashback sequence aboard a malfunctioning (deliberately perhaps?) K'Ton vessel that is on a collision course with Ivory Coast, Africa. Players get to explore a small ship, with each screen contaning a key to collect protected by standard ZZT shenanigans, be they blink walls, spinning guns, or slider puzzles. Robot enemies (that I mistakenly believed to be K'Ton) duplicate in endlessly, which makes it very difficult to think. Ammo reserves are high, but health reserves are low. It's clearly a more complex design than the first game, but still one of its time, favoring enemies that mostly shoot each other over ZZT's built-ins. (The reviews of the game both chastize MLH for using built-ins later, claiming that era of ZZT is over. I strongly disagree.)
Andrew manages to acquire some significant data, but is unable to stop the ship from crashing. With its own Nexus generator about to blow, players flee through the jungle where the game falls back to a more simple style of action, having players on a timer as they fight lions and tigers with branches in the paths offering other challenges like ZZT trivia (which was surprisingly tailored to my personal ZZT experience. I'm even one of the wrong answers!)
The ship explodes, killing millions.
Back in the present, James and Andrew plan to travel to the future only to be ambushed by K'Ton forces warping in, destroying the Nexus device. An alternate plan is hatched to travel to Venus where a second device awaits, with the two splitting up. James shoots his way to the machine, everyone arrives in the future, and plans are discussed to beat the K'Ton to developing a hypothesized superweapon capable of winning the war by blowing up a planet or two.
Overall, the sequel is an improvement. There's more focus on story, compared to wandering around prehistoric times in the first game. It looks nicer as well (at least compared to the original release, less so for Commodore's graphical overhaul). Its main issues are a lack of health, a buggy final boss (they can get stuck on walls and become unable to take damage unless freed). And of course while I welcome shooting lions and tigers over the more annoying object-based foes there's little set dressing as to what you're fighting and why. The jungle boards could just as well be the northern path of Town of ZZT, but they don't mesh with the sci-fi world MLH is constructing here.
Looking forward to the final game in the series though and seeing how MLH ties it all together.
♦ Play this world directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/nexus-2/
♦ Originally streamed on March 14th, 2025 ♦
