Zool 2

"Zool, and his fabulous female companion, ZOOZ. are about to face a challenge which would wilt the knee of even the toughest Ninja in this action packed PLATFORM ARCADE ACTION sequel. You'll need joystick skills from the NTH DIMENSION when you help them take on the evil KROOL and his devious accomplice MENTAL BLOCK as they seek to wipe imagination from the face of existence. SIX huge levels supercharged with varied and challenging gameplay. Play either ZOOL or ZOOZ, each with their own moves and abilities. Cunning enemies, monsters, power ups, collectibles and hidden 'Chopa Chups' bonus rooms. Sizzling sound FX and a choice of in-game tunes."

Released in multiple versions for A500 class, A1200(AGA) and CD32 as well as ports to Dos and the Atari Jaguar and sequel to ZooL originaly by Gremlin themselves.

The game is an audio/visual upgrade over the previous game with all new maze like levels to traverse including hidden rooms to find. There are five themed worlds each with three levels and a boss to fights at the end of the third level. In each level you need to collect a set amount of collectable items before you can exit the stage. Completing all five worlds takes you to a single final Mental Blockage level to take on the final boss. Within each level is a ZooN to find and having all three after finishing each world will take you to a bonus breakout stage where you can earn some extra lives if you can survive long enough and you only get one shot.

Buying this back in 1993, I felt disappointed with the game. The original game had some great music although level music was stuck with what was chosen in the options at the start. ZooL 2 has per world music but some of the tunes are really slow and drab and doesnt fit the fast pace of the game. Not until we get to world three do we finally get some pumpin music and along withthe title screen is the only good music in the game. Both games suffer with having either FX or music and the A1200 game doesnt even get any music during the level loading. The opening Swan Lake theme somehow doesnt feel very ZooL like either but maybe that's just me! We do get a choice of characters this time though, each with a slightly different move/weapon set and also slightly different routes through some levels.

The longplay shows a run through the game as ZooZ (The A1200 recording shows a play as ZooL to compare) and played on Normal mode which makes for a faster game without worrying about collecting every single item. The game can move quite fast at times with many baddies flying around the screen firing random shots that you can just accidently walk into and they respawn as well which can be fun when trying to jump around a tricky maze like area. The framerate isn't locked which can cause problems depending on how much is going on and can be a real problem with trying to precision jump.

Overall, it's a nice enough platform game, it just isn't as fondly remembered as an Amiga game to have a conversation about like the original game. The longplay was recorded using sound fx to compare against the A1200 recording using music, However I have included the music at the end of the video including Snaking Pass which isn't included in the 1200 game. Bluberry Hill also shares it's music with Mental Blockage.

00:00:00 Title Music
00:03:00 Swan Lake 1
00:06:56 Swan Lake 2
00:10:20 Swan Lake 3
00:15:40 Bonus Stage
00:18:42 Bulberry Hill 1
00:22:50 Bulberry Hill 2
00:26:32 Bulberry Hill 3
00:31:17 Bonus Stage
00:34:27 Tooting Common 1
00:39:40 Tooting Common 2
00:44:38 Tooting Common 3
00:51:12 Bonus Stage
00:54:00 Snaking Pass 1
00:58:40 Snaking Pass 2
01:01:50 Snaking Pass 3
01:06:53 Bonus Stage
01:10:12 Mount Ices 1
01:16:10 Mount Ices 2
01:19:56 Mount Ices 3
01:23:30 Bonus Stage
01:27:10 Mental Blockage
01:34:43 End
------- Music Bonus -------
01:37:32 swan Lake
01:40:03 Bluberry Hill
01:43:15 Tooting Common
01:46:26 Snaking Pass
01:49:05 Mount Ices