Zool is a mascot platformer developed by Gremlin and originally released on the Amiga in 1992.
It would later be ported to the popular consoles of the day, making it’s way to the North
American Super Nintendo in 1994.
Zool is a fairly straightforward game.
You must collect widgets until the counter on the bottom left hand of the screen reaches
zero.
Once it does, you make your way to the end token which will clear the stage.
The fourth stage of each world is rather short and concludes with a boss battle.
The game starts off simple enough, but it doesn’t take long for the game to become
extremely aggravating.
First, the default control setup is terrible, utilizing the shoulder buttons for the spin
attack and backflip.
After correcting this to a logical button setup, the game is at least playable.
Still, the game has problems right from the start.
The first issue is you are not immune to attacks while jumping.
While this might seem minor, there are a ton of enemies that come at you from the air.
This means you have to constantly do the spin attack at all times.
The spin attack is accomplished by holding the jump button, and the spin button, at the
same time.
If this was going to be such an integral part of the game, they might as well just made
Zool immune while in the air, like…
Sonic.
The next issue is the speed itself.
Zool moves quick, and it’s very easy to accidently run into enemies or their projectiles,
before you even knew they were there.
While playing Zool, you are going to get hit, a LOT.
Thankfully, many enemies will drop hearts once destroyed, so you can keep your life
bar full a majority of the time.
Unfortunately, the problems don’t stop there.
The level design is mediocre at it’s best, and maddening at it’s worst.
Zool just has very little flow to it.
It really likes to place spikes everywhere.
While this in itself isn’t bad game design, Zool likes to place them where you have no
choice but to run into them, on walls, platforms, in pits, everywhere.
You can’t really avoid them either, the camera moves all over the screen and you can
rarely see where you are going to land, or where you’re headed.
The game just feels really chaotic, and for all the wrong reasons.
Even things you wouldn’t expect to hurt you, hurt you.
This amp appears to be a moving platform, after all, you jump on other stereo equipment
through the entire world.
But nope, it’s an enemy, not a moving platform.
Lame.
Things aren’t helped by the spastic controls.
The jumping feels loose and it’s hard to make any sort of precise landings.
Thankfully the game doesn’t have bottomless pits to fall in, but at times you are forced
to do an awful lot of backtracking as you fall from a high-up place.
Again, the level design doesn’t match the jumping, and the enemy placement doesn’t
match the move set.
It makes Zool a miserable experience.
There are a few power-ups making the game a bit more tolerable.
The shield is particularly useful, giving Zool temporary invincibility and a reprieve
from the constant bombardment of attacks.
As expected, the bosses also kind of suck.
Their attack patterns don’t really leave enough room for Zool to dodge.
You just shoot as fast as you can and hope you come out victorious.
This Banana boss at the end of world 3 really tested my patience, draining at least 20 lives
before I finally got lucky.
Some of his attacks just can’t be avoided.
You can’t jump over them, you can’t slide beneath them, you just have to take a hit.
It feels incredibly sloppy.
As much as I don’t enjoy playing Zool, it’s not a bad looking game.
First, it doesn’t really look like a Super Nintendo game at all.
The graphics are chunky with bright primary colors, opposed to a more subdued palette.
It gives the game a unique look that I genuinely find appealing.
This bold style is carried over into the music.
Again, this doesn’t sound like a SNES game, featuring instrument samples I rarely hear
on the system, and an upbeat style that was probably common on the original Amiga computers.
It isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but the catchy melodies are easy on the ears.
I’ve spent a ton of time really trying to enjoy Zool, and it’s sequel Zool 2.
But no manner how many hours I put into them, I just can’t stand them.
The spastic controls don’t match the tight platforming required for success.
The spin attack and shooting don’t really match the enemy placement or their attacks.
Some enjoy the challenge the game offers, but the game is hard for all of the wrong
reasons.
In the end, Zool just isn’t very fun to play.
Two out five.