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. 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 CD32 game opens with an additional Paper Plains world which serves as a small practice world easing you into the games mechanics. There is no bonus level to unlock.

The longplay shows a run through the game as Zool (The A500 recording shows a play as ZooZ to compare) and played on Normal mode which lowers the item collection a little but I still spend to much time jumping around like a loon all over the place in order to get most of the collectables. 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.

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. This version of the game makes use of the CD32 AGA features to add another playfield for more background graphics over the A500 original. There does seem to be a negative effect of slowdown when there is a lot going on though when collectables are flying around the screen and enemies exploding and this causes a real problem when trying to do do some precision jumping. What the CD32 does bring is the option have Music and SFX at the same time but the music is even less interesting than the floppy game and doesnt fit the fast paced nature of the game. Th


00:00:00 Intro / Title Music
00:00:00 Paper Plains 1
00:04:03 Paper Plains 2
00:05:45 Paper Plains 3
00:07:31 Swan Lake 1
00:10:58 Swan Lake 2
00:14:10 Swan Lake 3
00:19:15 Bonus Stage
00:22:54 Bulberry Hill 1
00:26:44 Bulberry Hill 2
00:30:35 Bulberry Hill 3
00:35:26 Bonus Stage
00:37:34 Tooting Common 1
00:43:08 Tooting Common 2
00:47:36 Tooting Common 3
00:53:38 Bonus Stage
00:54:45 Snaking Pass 1
00:59:06 Snaking Pass 2
01:02:18 Snaking Pass 3
01:06:40 Bonus Stage
01:07:50 Mount Ices 1
01:12:55 Mount Ices 2
01:17:28 Mount Ices 3
01:21:27 Bonus Stage
01:22:34 Mental Blockage
01:31:03 End