Platform: Steam
Genre: Platformer
Completed: 20/06/2024
I've had this game for, I don't even know how long. All I know is that it has been sitting patiently in my backlog for a very long time. I started it back when I first got it but moved on after the first level; not for any reason related to the game. I probably had another game that had caught my attention at the time.
When it came to picking the Z title, it helped that I didn't have many to pick from. When I saw the game, I figured it was time to scratch it off the list. And, I do like a good platformer like Crash Bandicoot or Sonic The Hedgehog. Recently I tried to scratch that itch with A Hat in Time and while I know it is quite popular I was rather disappointed with it. I find many modern-day platformers don't have the same feel as the ones I grew up with. So, I decided to take my chances with Zack Zero.
Honestly, it's not a bad game. It's nothing special mind you, but it's not a bad game either. It's platforming elements were quite decent and I felt it was quite similar to the type of platformers that I had been seeking out. However, it was not all good.
Firstly, the story is nothing special. Hero sets off to stop their arch nemesis and save the girl while having their powers sapped and needing to regain them (damaged power suit). You also don't get much character development. All the characters are simply "there". Sure, there is a little backstory as to why the villain has it in for you. But other than that, absolutely nothing. But, I knew from the start that this wasn't a game I was looking to play for its story.
Good thing that I was also focusing on gameplay too. The voice acting in the cutscenes was painful. The comic-style approach to the cutscenes was a nice touch, but the voice of the narrator was off-putting. It reminded me of old hero cartoons where the narrator is disconnected from the scenes/action and sounds like they are simply reading from a script.
And now for the rather frustrating things. While the gameplay was fun and I found myself easily absorbed in it - I managed to get through the game quite quickly and even acquired all achievements without much fuss - the game has its fair share of bugs. A few were minor inconveniences - like the intermittent long load times or the controller not being detected in the main menu. Or trophies not popping unless you replayed the level again.
Others, on the other hand, were very annoying and generally required a checkpoint restart. This included getting stuck in the environment. Considering the game is 2.5D you sometimes needed to jump to a platform that was closer to the foreground (or further back), but you never directly controlled the character to make that adjustment. The game would do it for you... And sometimes it would not, so you would jump into the scenery and get stuck there. Another annoyance was that sometimes, when fighting bosses or elite enemies, if they got too close and you tried to jump away, you could end up hitting an invisible wall, so you would get stuck in the enemy's damage range. It was almost as if I was getting caught on the character's hitbox.
At one point, I almost had to call the game quits when it kept crashing after completing the second level. Thankfully after searching online and trying a variety of fixes (disabling Steam Cloud; disabling Steam overlay; and Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode), I was able to continue without major issues.
I also felt the game was missing something. Whenever fighting a boss, after damaging a certain amount of health, there would be a cutscene where the hero would fight it before moving on to the next phase. Each time, I kept expecting a QTE event. So it felt very strange to see these scenes without any player input. Maybe I'm just too conditioned to them.
Something which I did find interesting though, was an easter egg I found in one of the levels. Seemed like a top-heavy Samus. Initially, I tried to find out anything about her soon after stumbling across her, but it goes to show how obscure Zack Zero is because I couldn't find anything about it. Then, the game, in the same level, gave me the next clue.
If it wasn't for this scene (and later one other thing) I would not have had a lead to look up the character. I was very curious to find out about this game because everything I knew about the developers - Crocodile Entertainment - said that Zack Zero was their first (and only) game.
However, after checking out Phantis (or Game Over II outside of Spain) there was no direct link to Zack Zero. It wasn't by the same developers; wasn't part of the same franchise; wasn't a spiritual successor. Nothing.
But, because I learned that Phantis was very popular in Spain and that Crocodile Entertainment was a Spanish company, I suspected that the developers wanted to pay homage to their source of inspiration (especially when comparing some of the pixelated enemies to the Zack Zero ones.) This assumption was further reinforced when at a later level I came across a hidden section aptly called Phantis. It was a nice touch to add these references and it was enjoyable looking them up and learning more about them. If Zack Zero hadn't made a clear reference to the game Phantis I don't think I would have been able to track down the source. I suspect the developers assumed that might have been the case.
Another shame is that Zack Zero was not popular enough. The game ends with the indication of a sequel. Well, I assume it does, considering the ending cutscene cut out mid-sentence all of a sudden. But the text at the end of the game definitely indicated it. But there have been no further games from Crocodile Entertainment. I can barely even find any information on the company, so I don't even know if they went under or not.
Overall, I still felt that Zack Zero was a fun game, and it satisfied my platformer itch. Now, however, I move on to my final entry for this A to Z run, and that would be 198X. Can't wait!
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