Zool - Atari ST (Gameplay Footage & Opinion)

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Published on November 13, 2018 8:19:39 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qQ-OhfTpmA

Game:

Zool (1992)

Duration: 26:31

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Zool is a very disappointing title. Now as a kid growing up in the 90's I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog and like most children was happy to buy something simply because it looked nice. Now apply that to Zool, the Ninja from the Nth dimension, a fast paced platformer with some well detailed graphics and yet I didn't like it and I still don't like it.

Zool was created by Gremlin Graphics in 1993 and despite Commodore Amiga wanting to use him as an official mascot he appeared on virtually every format at the time such as the arcades, Amiga, Amiga CD32, Acorn Archimedes, PC, Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System, Mega Drive and SNES. However the one that I am looking at today is for the Atari ST. It's also worth noting that this was one of the many times where Gremlin would try to put advertising into their games, with a certain sweets manufacturer getting the nod here.

The lead character of Zool being the same as the title is a Ninja who has to get back to his home planet by stealing stuff within each of the zones, in that you have to get around 100 pieces of candy before the exit to the level becomes unlocked. At the end of every third stage there’s a boss that you need to defeat in order to progress.
As you can clearly see the game is bright and colourful; okay this isn't the most detailed version of Zool, it definitely lacks the parallax scrolling of the Amiga version. The game is very smooth and Gremlin have put a lot of developers to shame by actually being able to handle smooth sideways scrolling on the ST. This port does have quite a bit of slowdown though when the sprites start to pack the screen and definitely on the bigger bosses. It looks great and the music is pretty cool too.

Game play wise it is a mixed bag. The game does play well with the joystick however Zool's speed is a problem along with the jumping which feels rather floaty. You’ll want to run through the level, however you can't because of the poor level design as you will regularly bump into an enemy or spike trap, which makes you wonder why they bothered implementing it in the first place. The second reason why the speed is a problem is because of the objective of the game. As you are required to collect 100 pieces of candy in order to progress to the next level you are forced to search all over the environment as these items aren't exactly plentiful. Much like my comments on Sonic Chaos of the Sega Master System, having a fast character on a slow plodding collect a thon is counterproductive to what the audience wants – you are happiest when you are running. I really wish that the collecting was simply optional because a lot of the time I get so bored that I simply give up.

It seems like the game is running in the low resolution, the reason why this is a problem is because what is above and below you, it often leads to a number of cheap deaths and when you die the level timer does not go back. I especially hate world two, the instrument level because you can often get hit from enemies above you and spike traps below you. Also finding the exit isn’t always at the end of the stage, you have to go looking for that too.

I remember playing the demo disk on ST Format back when I was a kid and it plays well because you only get to see it for 60 seconds and there isn’t even enough time to beat the level. So naturally I didn’t realise that it was a collectathon until I got the real copy of the game.

As I said Zool isn't a bad game and I have genuinely tried to like this one, but I just can't do it. It’s a very disappointing game because all of the things that Gremlin have done right, but it’s just simply the concept that’s wrong. If only they had made a standard platformer and made the collecting a bonus extra, then I would look on this one more favourably. But alas even Zool 2 on the later Jaguar has the same problem so they evidentially never learnt from their mistake. These days Zool is now owned by Atari, which is really Infogrames in disguise and they haven’t done anything with the character since and that’s probably a good thing.

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Atari ST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzF1WNCk2yjFs9SNEZUf6o3
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Windows PC: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfxkkqPP6dWcSarH94BPrbvr

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