Zool - Fan Thread to the Nth degree!!

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by Doctor Clu

T
There was a video I watched called Battle of the ports that talks about first Zool game:

Why are people so hard on Zool?
The guy in the video clearly said it's a BAD game.

I mean.. it's not Sonic killer, or anything like it (like he mentioned also in the video), but it's not that bad at all.
I personally never played it much, but I always sort of like it.

I've seen waaaaay worse platfomers on the Amiga.
I'd very hesitate to call it bad game, even mediocre.

It's not a masterpiece, but it's a good speedy platformer.

[chip]

Probably because people sometimes don't appreciate what they have

[gimbal]

It's a good game with flaws, and that's alright. All games have their flaws, especially platformers. But when you start advertising a game as a Sonic killer you create expectations and set the bar high and those expectations were absolutely not met. So I respect people's opinion when they say the game is bad; it really did not live up to the hype, that's for sure.

[Doctor Clu]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Why are people so hard on Zool?
The guy in the video clearly said it's a BAD game.

You get used to it after a while. People like what they like. Even though the video reviewer was not a Zool fan, he did provide good information.

Originally Posted by chip

Probably because people sometimes don't appreciate what they have

And truth is people have a lot to choose from. Unless you are a Jaguar gamer, then you have like four major mascot platformers. :P

Originally Posted by gimbal

It's a good game with flaws, and that's alright. All games have their flaws, especially platformers. But when you start advertising a game as a Sonic killer you create expectations and set the bar high and those expectations were absolutely not met. So I respect people's opinion when they say the game is bad; it really did not live up to the hype, that's for sure.

So there were many Sonic-Wanna-Bes out there. In truth if I was a Sonic fan you gotta know that if someone said "we got a character that is better than Sonic" I would look at it and laugh and say "Nope!" Even if it was good.

[mirthturtle]

I picked this up again tonight for another try, and wow, that 2-2 level is still insanely hard. It's full of spikes, those violins always seem to get a shot off, you can't shoot the drums, and with the time limit it's hard to get across the level and back. I gave up in frustration once again!

Also I'd forgotten about this, but somehow I entered a bonus round on 2-1 and it's a space shooter set inside someone's body? I was like, "This reminds me of Disposable Hero" and then remembered Gremlin also did that, so it's probably a direct reference

[Doctor Clu]

Originally Posted by mirthturtle

Also I'd forgotten about this, but somehow I entered a bonus round on 2-1 and it's a space shooter set inside someone's body? I was like, "This reminds me of Disposable Hero" and then remembered Gremlin also did that, so it's probably a direct reference

That part looks cool to me. How does it play and how similar it is to Disposable Hero?

[gimbal]

It's a simplistic horizontal shooter section with a ship so big it's hard to dodge stuff

[mirthturtle]

Yeah it's not great, and the idea that "points" matter in Zool is ridiculous, so it falls kind of flat as a bonus level.

It was the organic-ness that reminded me of D-Hero – there's bones sticking up, pulsing holes, etc. For its flaws, Disposable Hero really nailed that aesthetic.

[DamienD]

Considering this shmup part seems to be inside someone's body, it more reminds me of Fantastic Voyage... and too a lesser extent, DNA Warrior.

[Doctor Clu]

Originally Posted by gimbal

It's a simplistic horizontal shooter section with a ship so big it's hard to dodge stuff

Yeh I was thinking the same. The ship did look really cool, but also I was thinking, looks kinda unwieldy.

Originally Posted by mirthturtle

Yeah it's not great, and the idea that "points" matter in Zool is ridiculous, so it falls kind of flat as a bonus level.

It was the organic-ness that reminded me of D-Hero – there's bones sticking up, pulsing holes, etc. For its flaws, Disposable Hero really nailed that aesthetic.

You know I'm getting the feeling that Gremlin should have had a slogan...


"Games you'll hate to love!!"

Originally Posted by DamienD

Considering this shmup part seems to be inside someone's body, it more reminds me of Fantastic Voyage... and too a lesser extent, DNA Warrior.

Oh I was thinking the same. Seems like ever since Fantastic Voyage we have some ship shrunk in a person, or is it a ship in some really large creature?


Did they ever explain WHY Zool is flying around in some body? And who or what it is?

See they did it also in the SNES version...

[ Show youtube player ]

[Gilbert]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Why are people so hard on Zool?
The guy in the video clearly said it's a BAD game.

I mean.. it's not Sonic killer, or anything like it (like he mentioned also in the video), but it's not that bad at all.
I personally never played it much, but I always sort of like it.

I've seen waaaaay worse platfomers on the Amiga.
I'd very hesitate to call it bad game, even mediocre.

It's not a masterpiece, but it's a good speedy platformer.

I think they asked for trouble by making Zool (the main character) like like a rip-off of sonic. I guess they knew what they were doing from a marketing perspective. If you had an Amiga and wanted Sonic - you knew Zool was the one to go for. I would say thoughh that Sonic is clearly a rip-off of Mickey Mouse (right down to the nose and gloves) and he got away with it!

I agree though - its a good game. lots of fun. Way better than James Pond : Robocod. I never understood why that game such good reviews. I thought it was very average.

Originally Posted by Doctor Clu

There was a video I watched called Battle of the ports that talks about first Zool game:


[ Show youtube player ]


So here are the notes I took from that:


Amiga - Uses full screen, no border. No need to collect all crap. Has a Space ship scene. Game is Long (and video through the game was crap, but he thinks all the ports are basically crap.)

CD32- Intro screen. Has the backgrounds (which he liked) Less slow down. Now has a jump button! Improved playability. No in game music still.

Acorn Archimedes - Couldn't get it to load past intro. Looked pretty good.

Atari ST -No background. Lacked parallax scrolling. No background music

MSDOS -Nice graphics. Sound options. Crappy controls. Good scrolling

Mega Drive - Cool intro. controls are better. Three action fire jump spin. Fire across entire stage. Good Graphics. Controls are still slippery. Stage design not much from original. Music good

Super Famicon. Larger enemy sprites. No introduction like Genesis.

Sega Master System. Moves smoothly. Now to collect 100% of items. Still ultra slippery controls.

Game Gear- Stage designs have changed. Still must collect 100%. with music

Gameboy -Gives the big platform experience, good considering platform.


Ultimate thoughts (from me from that video). --------------------------

I like the idea of not having to collect 99% of the items so that is appealing to me on everything before the Sega Master System release.


The Jaguar release which I know the best so far I think has the best of most of the improvements (and the last release), but has the 99% collect thing, and some thing the sprite looks squat and messed up. I like him but hey..

So what do you all think of the various ports you've played?

I watched the Megadrive video and actually thought it looked really well coded. Haven't played it but was impressed from the video. Strange no Zool 2 on MD! The SNES usually suffers from it's slightly lower resolution - so less map visible at same time but still looks good. Still think the MD version looks like it plays slightly better.

I think maybe Zool benefitted from Amiga coders making it - they were used to being efficient on the Amiga - so got much more bang-for-buck on the consoles.

[Doctor Clu]

Been a fun couple of days Zool collecting-wise, but more on that in a moment...

Originally Posted by Gilbert

I think they asked for trouble by making Zool (the main character) like like a rip-off of sonic. I guess they knew what they were doing from a marketing perspective. If you had an Amiga and wanted Sonic - you knew Zool was the one to go for.

Exactly. I think Gremlin had a good angle. Sure people bought Zool and found out that is was no Sonic, but most of the accounts had people enjoying the game, though the level designs were not as well thought out in comparison, and the game was challenging. But as we can see, many liked it.

Originally Posted by Gilbert

I would say thoughh that Sonic is clearly a rip-off of Mickey Mouse (right down to the nose and gloves) and he got away with it!

Over here in Texas we have a rodent named "Buc-ees" that is at a bunch of gas stations, which is obvious, to me, to be a rip-off of Chuck he Cheese from the 80s with yellow background, buck teeth, red hat etc. And they have the gaul to sue other cartoon mascots for gas stations for copying them.



Anyway, what I was thinking of when you mentioned the Sonic and Mickey Mouse similarities.

Originally Posted by Gilbert

I agree though - its a good game. lots of fun. Way better than James Pond : Robocod. I never understood why that game such good reviews. I thought it was very average.

I thought James Pond was about the puns. Or was James Pond any relation to the comic series "Fish Police". I know nothing of James Pond obviously.

Originally Posted by Gilbert

I think maybe Zool benefitted from Amiga coders making it - they were used to being efficient on the Amiga - so got much more bang-for-buck on the consoles.

Oh I have no doubt. And with the Motorola 68K processor as common between Amiga and Genesis might have given some common ground (though Amiga has all the specialized chips for graphics and sound, sooo...)




At any rate, good last few days. I ordered some Chupa Chups lolly pops (hey Soccer Kid has me eating Golden Grahms serial and Bubsy had me buy a Nerf Ballzooka, so why not?!) Anyway, the Chupa Chups lolly pops are quite tasty!


I'm also jumping through hoops to get a Zool handheld game from the UK to the US...


https://www.gremlinarchive.com/index...-game-systema/


Would love to hear of other Zool collectables.

[frikilokooo]

Zool is a game with great movements, controls and art design in stages and sprites that I love in my opinion. Sadly the game is designed horribly, console versions get a bit better but they are also bad. Focusing on Amiga version: annoying respawn of enemies, landing after fall is always dangerous and very usual, camera doesn't focus smart, impossible boss patterns, fairly repetitive design, ultra hard game, cd32 version has level time errors it's little time and more... Basically it is a fun game but to play the first world and maybe a little the second. This is manifested in few longplays on youtube and some are with cheats, anyway, the biggest difficulty is that it is not fun to want to complete it.

[gimbal]

And that from someone with Zool as the avatar

[Doctor Clu]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

Zool is a game with great movements, controls and art design in stages and sprites that I love in my opinion. Sadly the game is designed horribly, console versions get a bit better but they are also bad. Focusing on Amiga version: annoying respawn of enemies, landing after fall is always dangerous and very usual, camera doesn't focus smart, impossible boss patterns, fairly repetitive design, ultra hard game, cd32 version has level time errors it's little time and more... Basically it is a fun game but to play the first world and maybe a little the second. This is manifested in few longplays on youtube and some are with cheats, anyway, the biggest difficulty is that it is not fun to want to complete it.

That seems pretty consistent to what I'm hearing and seeing. Someone was saying any game is fun depending on how much time you put into it. I think Zool is one of those games.

Originally Posted by gimbal

And that from someone with Zool as the avatar

Trust me, the irony was not lost on me. :P


Ok, so I've been having fun picking up on some Zool collectables lately.


The Zool books, which has a lot of material for the Zool wiki. You get more on the Nth dimension there. And the Zool handheld game which I am currently trying to figure out what batteries it uses.







Also bought a bag of Chupa Chups lollypops. Not easy to get ahold of in the States so I ordered from a candy vendor. Have to say, the one I tried ... lime flavored lollypop was quite good.