Zool 2
Description official descriptions
The sequel to Zool sees him take on the bad guys Mental Block and Krool across 6 levels divided into 16 stages (Swan Lake, Bulberry Hill, Tooting Common, Snaking Pass, Mount Ices : 3 stages each and Mental Blockage : 1 stage). Additionally, Amiga CD32 version contains 1 extra level (Paper Plains : another 3 stages).
Zool 2 is a platform game where you control the titular "Ninja of the Nth Dimension" (or his girlfriend, Zooz, who can complete each level in a slightly different way) as he rampages through a variety of levels, collecting countless tasty treats, shooting any enemies that he encounters and finding bonuses (there's a variety of special power-ups Zool can find - for example, a bomb that follows him and can be blown up at any time to remove on-screen enemies or temporary invulnerability). New to the sequel is Zool's ability to scale walls and his new spinning attacks.
On each level, you have to collect 99% of the tokens within an allocated time limit, and then find the exit across the multi-directionally-scrolling levels. There are lots of hidden areas to see, including a bonus Breakout game starring Zool's pet 2-headed intergalactic wonderdog Zoon.
Spellings
- זול 2 - Hebrew spelling
- ズール2 - Japanese spelling
Groups +
- Advertising / Product tie-ins / Advergames
- Enhanced ports / Port differences
- Games with code-wheel copy protection
- Physical Bonus Content: Postcard
- Physical Bonus Content: Poster
- Physical Bonus Content: Sticker
- Protagonist: Extraterrestrial / Alien
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Theme: Ninjas
- Visual technique / style: Parallax scrolling
- Zool series
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (Amiga version)
11 People
Programming | |
Graphics | |
Map design by | |
Music and Fx | |
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Production | |
Manual Producer | |
Creative Consultant and manual artwork by | |
Tested by |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 78% (based on 41 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 34 ratings with 1 reviews)
A big improvement on the original
The Good
There's a lot of variety in the graphics, with the levels retaining a sense of realism and steering clear of most of the clichéd level settings. Zool and Zooz move quickly and responsively, with the ability to scale walls being a big improvement, and the neat feature of the route through the levels slightly altering depending on your character selection.
The level design is good, with consistant logic, thoughtfully-placed baddies and bonuses, and not too many of those irritating sections of progressing vertically across small platforms, meaning that one slip sends you back a long way
The music is pleasant, but the sound effects are probably a better option.
The range of secret areas and rooms is massive, giving you real impetus to explore. The bonus Breakout game featuring the two-headed dog is a nice touch.
The Bad
The lack of support for 2-button controllers is one problem that should've been rectified, especially as the game was intended at taking on the consoles.
The target as to how much of the fruit you had to collect didn't seem to work well - it appeared to be percentage-based, but you actually reached the 99% point with loads left on the level.
The Bottom Line
An exciting arcade platform game, likely to take a while to complete, equally suited to young and old players, and less tainted by marketing and product placement than the original.
Amiga · by Martin Smith (81738) · 2004
Trivia
Amiga versions
Amiga version of Zool 2 was created for three different systems: Amiga with ECS chipset, Amiga with AGA chipset and Amiga CD32. All of them were slightly different:
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ECS version had 5 energy bars, bombs were activated by SPACE key, background graphics were only created with copper. There were also 5 in-game music tunes (world 2 and 6 had the same music) and there was a music tune during game loading. The game was distributed on NDOS floppy disks.
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AGA version had 4 energy bars, bombs were activated by B key and the player could turn on and off music and sounds during the gameplay. Background graphics contained additional bitmaps and copper effects. There were only 4 in-game music tunes (world 2,4 and 6 had the same music) and there was no music tune during game loading. The game was distributed on DOS floppy disks and the second disk contained Hard Drive installing script.
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CD32 version had 4 energy bars, background graphics contained additional bitmaps and copper effects. In total there were 10 tunes played from audio tracks of CD. The game had also animated introduction in CDXL format and one additional world (Paper Plains) to explore that contained three new levels.
Awards
- Amiga Joker
- Issue 02/1995 – #2 Best Dexterity Game in 1994 (Readers' Vote)
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Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Rantanplan.
Amiga added by Rebound Boy. Antstream added by firefang9212. Amiga CD32 added by Martin Smith. BlackBerry added by MAT. Jaguar added by quizzley7.
Additional contributors: Martin Smith, Ms. Tea, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, Ingsoc.
Game added March 11, 2002. Last modified July 19, 2024.