Zool 2 is the sequel to the superior Super NES Zool.

This game is a very colorful side-scroller for Atari Jaguar. You can play 1 player or 2 player and take control of either Zool or Zooz. The basic goal is to get 100% of items like fruits or other indescribable objects floating around on the screen. There are quite a lot of enemies which I can't identify what they are supposed to be. Many enemies are in the background which is a real pain. So, unlike most side-scrollers, you have to collect 100% items on your meter (you really only have to get a certain number which the SNES version told you before you can clear the stage) and make it to the end while avoiding all the enemies. Shoot stuff, jump on stuff, and slide into stuff. It's cool to just kill all the enemies as they just explode when you hit them. This game could have been simple, but like I said, reaching the end of the stage is not enough. So you basically wander around collecting stuff until your meter is full, then goto the end. I can live with that, but then comes the thing that made me shut the game off, the super-slippery controls.

Jumping, shooting, and power-bombs are fine, but the basic movement was a nightmare. You move too fast and slide all over the place in a game where precision landing is crucial. If you had a control stick, the speed of movement would be acceptable. Also, when it comes to climbing, it's not that easy to jump off instead of just falling. In Batman for Nintendo, you have to press a direction then press jump to go either up or down. In this game, if you press any direction, you usually just fall. You have to more or less press the buttons at the same time to be able to jump off of the walls, but if you hold down the jump button while you try to jump off of a wall and then press the direction, Zool just sits there. It's hard to explain. The way the camera moves is another problem. This is another one of those games where the camera stays stationary until you move closer to one side of the screen, again, it's complicated.

The only way I can really explain this is by comparing it to a few games. Imagine you are playing Super Mario World, you have Super Sonic's speed from Sonic 2, the camera doesn't move until you are 75% of the way on the screen in the direction you want to move, and the whole time you are playing on an ice stage with the walls being made out of honey similar to Donkey Kong Country 2.

Take all that away, and the game would be awesome. I recommend playing the SNES version if you are curious about Zool. It's cheaper and easier.

Brand	Atari
Rating	3 (2 ratings)
Price	$N/A
Category	Atari Jaguar

Zool 2 for Atari Jaguar 64 Bit