Zool

Title		Zool
Game Type	Platform
Company		Gremlin
Players		1
HD Installable  Yes
Compatibility	AGA
Submission	Andy Thomas (andy@adamantium.demon.co.uk)

Review
 The lollipop game!  Well, OK, only one level was actually based on
sweets, but the sponsorship was lollipop based!  Zool, the Ninja from the
Nth Dimension, was Gremlin's answer to Sonic,  and in fairness, he had
the moves; he did great about-faces at speed, and slid down snowy slopes
before leaping with great finesse to grab the side of the pit across the
chasm.
 Zool was quite a large sprite for an Amiga game, but he was still fast,
and graphically the levels were very compelling.  Some thought was needed
to get through them, but it was great fun watching Zool start to dance if
you left him stood still on the music level.  At some points you even had
to play a keyboard correctly to move on. There were also hidden levels
where Zool turned into a 2D scrolling shoot 'em up.  Now that's value for
money!
 Zool's success probably came from the fact that he was something younger
Amiga owners could shove in the face of their Sega and Nintendo owning
counterparts and lay claim to having the coolest, hardest, cartoony
platformy video game character on THEIR machine. For myself, being a bit
older by then, Zool was a real joystick test. The keyboard puzzle I
mentioned earlier was just one of many manoeuvres that had to be executed
which required absolute precision with the controller.  They weren't
impossible, in fairness, but they weren't easy by any stretch of the
imagination.  I'm sure hardened platformers relished the challenge; I was
just happy to have him trot along at my own pace!  Oh, and no review of
Zool could be complete without a mention of the copy protection.  It was
one of those paper multiple wheel combination things.  You had get the
light shining on the little window just right otherwise it was impossible
to read the code!

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