GRcade

I wanted to end the year with something a bit festive but as my free time shrinks I think Wrestlemania might end up the last pre Christmas video game video of mine , I really need to learn to plan better , I should have made something fitting at the start of the month and held it back to post it nowish

I decided I needed to do one last review as a Christmas special... it was going to be a SNES Review but it ended up being a Megadrive review

My 9th Megadrive/Genesis Review World of Illusion my Christmas Review special.. I really intended my Christmas special to be a SNES game but this just had to be done.. I would really appreciate people watching it as it is a very deeply personal Video and is in honour of my mum.

SNES Review 162 Zool




So here we have Zool a game which was originally intended as a rival to Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. The games designer George Allen came up with the idea of Zool as despite his previous game Switchblade 2 being a critical success one area he did receive complaints over was the fact that some people felt that the game had a lack of enemies. The game might have started off as the Amiga;s answer to sonic but it soon went multiplatform turning up on the Atari ST, Game Boy, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, Master System, Sega Game Gear, and PC. Obviously as this is part of my SNES Review Series the SNES version is the one I am going to be reviewing here.

Most computer ports are pretty close to the original Amiga version but the Megadrive and SNES ports both feature different levels which are structured differently, as well as different background graphics, and unique bosses both of these ports feature the soundtrack of the Amiga original, remixed to make the best of both console's unique sound systems. So While this does suffer from what I would call Amiga SNES Conversion syndrome where by a much cheaper Amiga game is ported to a cart and sold at full price with no real work going into it at least some effort seems to have gone in to making the most of the Super Nintendo and its abilities here instead of just trying to slap a disc on a cart and asking everyone to pay a pretty price for it.

OK so lets get down to the game its self well I cant help but feel that Zool does not feel in the least bit fresh at all, in fact it feels like a compendium of knock off ideas wrapped in a chuppah chups lolly wrapper. The main thing this game rips off is the aforementioned sonic the hedgehog, fast moving protagonist who the developers felt personified cool check, cuteness and bright things level dialled up to 11 check, super fast movement check. The main issue is that from my perspective at least the game copies some key ideas while totally missing the point, for example you might zip quickly forwards but your characters to close to the front of the screen by the time you have seen something you have already passed through it, sure you can spin about and fire but you soon find yourself spinning and firing almost constantly in the hope that you will hit something that will be in your way before you even pressed the button that fired the shot that hit it. Sonic has some of this covered by the fact that when hit you drop your rings instead of dying and can keep picking them up again to ward of the grim reaper, in Zool you have a life bar which can run down far faster than you'd imagine as stuff repeatedly slams into you. The game has lots of levels and some pretty long ones at that and its one of those games that expects you to finish the whole thing with no battery backup or passwords although in the modern day and age I guess this is an issue that you can solve with the right hardware such as emulation and save states but this doesn't help if your looking to experience the actual cartridge on actual original hardware.

The best thing about Zool is definitely the graphics which I feel hold up rather well when compared to other games in the SNES library. You have lots of Bright colours and a steady frame rate, how much you actually enjoy them though is going to depend on how much your in to cuteness if you want to see a world full of lollipops and chocolate eggs and candy canes then this is going to be right up your alley as there all there in there bright glory. The only terrifying thing your going to see here are a bunch of terrifying eyebrows pasted on to cute little slimes and bees. For me though the graphics are in no way matched by the sound, you have repetitive grungy music matched with overly loud repetitive sound effects it just lacks the charm of games like Mario and sonic which have carefully crafted level music which you will find yourself humming weeks later paired with satisfying little soundbites which bring life to the worlds in which they exist.

The most important part of a game is not the graphics or the sound though, most of what makes a game good or bad rests firmly on the controls which in this case I definitely think disappoint, they just feel a bit slippy and slidy you don't feel like you have the kind of tight control which make games like Mario and the 2D Sonic games the classics they are.

I cant say that this is a truly bad game its more of one of those games which is a disappointment, there was potential there but it never quiet lived up to it, sure it was worth its cost on the Amiga where it came on a floppy disc but in the world of 40pound carts it was never going to be able to stand head to head with the likes or Mario

If you feel like you really need to play Zool on your snes and don't want to use an everdrive or anything like that then a real cart will cost you about 12quid online with boxed copies being closer to 30pounds but I really do think that even if you have got all the Sonic and Mario games you could possibly want in your retro game collection then your money would be much better spent elsewhere maybe look at some of the more recent retro styled platformers which have been released instead of digging through the past for semi trash hoping it will hit the spot

I'd not pay 12p for Zool, let alone £12

I enjoyed that kerr, thanks for reviewing my suggestion!

You make a good point about the character screen position vs movement speed and how if you're fast moving you want to place the character further left to give the player more reaction time.

I really liked the Zool books when I was little which is why I have a soft spot for Zool, but the game really isn't great. I do think it's notable though for the insanely blatant chupa chups branding.

Fun fact about chupa chups is that their logo was designed by Salvador Dali... which arguably means because the logo appears in this game, this is the closest you will ever get to playing a videogame with art by Salvador Dali

OrangeRKN wrote:I enjoyed that kerr, thanks for reviewing my suggestion!

You make a good point about the character screen position vs movement speed and how if you're fast moving you want to place the character further left to give the player more reaction time.

I really liked the Zool books when I was little which is why I have a soft spot for Zool, but the game really isn't great. I do think it's notable though for the insanely blatant chupa chups branding.

Fun fact about chupa chups is that their logo was designed by Salvador Dali... which arguably means because the logo appears in this game, this is the closest you will ever get to playing a videogame with art by Salvador Dali

I am a very very big fan of the lolly's I had loads of them as a kid.. Zool is one of those games that I feel with a bit of alteration it could be a lot better there's so many games like that were I think make a few simple changes and you'd up them like 20percent in reviews, which wouldnt be a bad idea for a post thread

kerr9000 wrote:I decided I needed to do one last review as a Christmas special... it was going to be a SNES Review but it ended up being a Megadrive review

My 9th Megadrive/Genesis Review World of Illusion my Christmas Review special.. I really intended my Christmas special to be a SNES game but this just had to be done.. I would really appreciate people watching it as it is a very deeply personal Video and is in honour of my mum.

Lovely tribute to your mum mate and sorry to hear she's passed. I lost both my parents in 2019 too so can relate. Take care x

Barnsy! wrote:

kerr9000 wrote:I decided I needed to do one last review as a Christmas special... it was going to be a SNES Review but it ended up being a Megadrive review

My 9th Megadrive/Genesis Review World of Illusion my Christmas Review special.. I really intended my Christmas special to be a SNES game but this just had to be done.. I would really appreciate people watching it as it is a very deeply personal Video and is in honour of my mum.

Lovely tribute to your mum mate and sorry to hear she's passed. I lost both my parents in 2019 too so can relate. Take care x

Thank you very much deeply appreciated, sorry to hear you have lost both of your folks now. You take care too

kerr9000 wrote:I decided I needed to do one last review as a Christmas special... it was going to be a SNES Review but it ended up being a Megadrive review

My 9th Megadrive/Genesis Review World of Illusion my Christmas Review special.. I really intended my Christmas special to be a SNES game but this just had to be done.. I would really appreciate people watching it as it is a very deeply personal Video and is in honour of my mum.

I love your videos, and I'd only just noticed I'd not watched this one of yours, and I had to comment - it's a wonderful tribute to your Mum and it says absolutely bucketloads about her and her relationship with you. You can hear it in your voice. It seriously made me well up as I remembered my Mum and the things she did for me over the years. I'm so sorry for your loss, but so glad you can have a wonderful 'concentrated' moment of memories of her while playing this game.

Lime wrote:

kerr9000 wrote:I decided I needed to do one last review as a Christmas special... it was going to be a SNES Review but it ended up being a Megadrive review

My 9th Megadrive/Genesis Review World of Illusion my Christmas Review special.. I really intended my Christmas special to be a SNES game but this just had to be done.. I would really appreciate people watching it as it is a very deeply personal Video and is in honour of my mum.

I love your videos, and I'd only just noticed I'd not watched this one of yours, and I had to comment - it's a wonderful tribute to your Mum and it says absolutely bucketloads about her and her relationship with you. You can hear it in your voice. It seriously made me well up as I remembered my Mum and the things she did for me over the years. I'm so sorry for your loss, but so glad you can have a wonderful 'concentrated' moment of memories of her while playing this game.

Thank you, that was a really nice comment, and I really really enjoyed playing the game again and reviewing it.

I have had a bit of a busy time since Christmas been spending a lot of time helping my daughter with her interviews for uni places and talking to my brother on the phone supporting him so really haven't managed to find the time for Youtube but I will make time at some point .

My Video Review of Super Mario All Stars Review 84

I have done a fair bit of work on my next SNES review Video its actually for a game I had yet to review even in writing, it is for Batman Returns. I have freshly played the game again a bunch, I have then recorded the footage and I am about half way through writing the actual review, I just need to finish this and then record the Audio. I will probably put the Written Review up first. Once this is out of the way I will probably go back to making Videos for games I have already reviewed for the next few its much easier just to make the video based off something you have already done a written review of.

SNES Review :163 Batman Returns (YouTube Review to follow in the next few days)

I have been a big fan of Batman for pretty much as long as I can remember, I used to watch and enjoy the old Adam West show and I have enjoyed both the animated series and the modern movie but for me the one actor who I truly view as The Batman is Michael Keaton. I remember going to see both of his Batman films in my local 1 screen cinema the Byron Cinema, I cant over state what an event those films were when they were released, finally there was a serious movie length pair of Batman films which really got the spirit of the source material right in my opinion featuring top Hollywood names and directed by the amazing Tim Burton.

Now most people will know the unwritten law in gaming a law which was even more likely to be true back in the day and that is that games which are based on films are usually rubbish, and this is usually because they have been rushed out the door by some low key studio desperate to make a quick killing of the strength of the name.

OK so where to start well for a start Batman Returns on the SNES was developed and published by Konami a company whose name at least during the 16bit days was a huge sign of quality this was I would argue there golden age. Also this game came out on the 15th of January 1993 in America with the Japanese release following on the 26th of February and finally the PAL release arriving on the 7th of may. The film was released in June 1992 so the game didn't come out till at least half a year after the film the fact it wasn't rushed is a very good thing and is probably one of the reasons why this is a movie based game which is actually well worth taking a look at stick with me and I will tell you why.

So I guess by now you have seen enough to know that Batman Returns is a side scrolling beat ‘em up which is a genre I actually have a fair degree of fondness for. This is also helped by the fact that the game contains large, vibrant and well animated sprites, the enemies are mostly taken directly from the film and so are the end of level bosses which really helps this game feel like an extension to the movie. The game actually follows the plot of the film very closely there are cutscenes featuring what I can best describe as digitised images from the movie between the levels to advance the plot add to this the fact that Konami did an awesome job with this games soundtrack. The SNES is great at doing these sort of digital orchestral soundtracks and the one here really does add to final product it helps invoke the emotions each scene is trying to present and really gives the game a highly polished feel.

OK so lets talk about the most important bit the gameplay well Batman has a decent repertoire of moves there is your basic strikes and then Batman can also grab his enemies and slam them into the floor head first or throw them in to various things like shop windows its all very satisfying but the most satisfying moment is probably when you first manage to grab two of the Clowns at the same time and smash their heads together whatever your smashing someone in to be it floor or window or someone else's head there is always a great crunch sound accompanying it.
If things are getting a bit much for you then you can always use Batman's Batarang to attack enemies from a distance and there is also a test tube smart bomb style weapon which when Batman uses it will hurt all enemies on screen.

I know I said this game is a side scrolling beat em up and yes it is or at least 90% of it is you see there is also a pretty cool Mode 7 Batmobile driving level, I actually wish there had been a little bit more of this to brake things up as I am a fan of having a little something different thrown in from time to time just to surprise you here and there and keep you on your toes.

As far as downsides go this game has very few. I suppose the only one I can really complain about is the fact that its one of the only walk along beat em up games not to feature a two player mode, this game is a purely one player affair. The difficulty also does ramp up quiet considerable in the later levels but whether this is a good or bad thing is more of a case of preference rather than quality, I will only call difficulty a failure if its so extreme that your it robs your average player of gaining any enjoyment from a video game.

I would give this game a score of 8 out of 10, I very nearly contemplated giving the game a 9 out of 10 as I think it is an incredibly polished game but with the lack of a 2 player mode and limited re-playability I just find 8 to be a much fairer score. If you want to try this game then a loose cart should be around the 20pounds region with a boxed copy going for a lot more, I feel that its more than worth twenty quid though and would strongly recommend it especially if your into this kind of game and also like Batman.

Batman Returns SNES Review Video

I was going to have review videos up for Toys and Lawnmower man soon but I've lost the data for these due to an error thankfully I had backups of everything else just not the work I'd done on these in the last two days or so.

The Lawnmower Man SNES Review Video

I really liked the Lawnmower Man gamw when I was a kid, thought it was great fun.

Pedz wrote:I really liked the Lawnmower Man gamw when I was a kid, thought it was great fun.

I dont remember being as critical of it when I was young, I guess some games just dont age as well.

Toys YouTube review

I am on a roll I am 90% of the way through a video review of The Hunt for Red October and I have it backed up just in case