Zool 2

Plot

The intergalactic gremlin ninja Zool returns, and this time his enemies in the game were named Krool and his assistant Mental Block, whose goal is to stifle the world's imagination, causing rampant boredom. In his fight Zool is aided by his female companion, named Zooz (in a red costume), and his faithful dog Zoon. The ending contained a hint at a possible further sequel.

Gameplay

Zool 2 is very similar gameplay-wise to the original game, but with more cartoonish and detailed graphics. It also adds the option to play as Zool's female counterpart, Zooz, who is armed with an energy whip. The two characters played similarly, although there are some subtle differences in their abilities. Most notably, Zool is capable of destroying parts of the scenery that Zooz could not, and vice versa, resulting in a slightly different route through the levels. The sequel, like the original, features several minigames, such as a version of Breakout which uses Zool's two-headed morphing pet dog as a paddle.

Release

The Amiga remained the lead format for the second Zool game, but unlike the first it was not widely ported to the other platforms, only the Atari Jaguar and DOS. The game had originally been planned to be bundled with the Amiga CD32 at the request of Commodore, but when Gremlin Graphics failed to reach the deadline, Zool 2 was bundled with the Amiga 1200's Computer Combat pack in 1994. The PC version of the game was also re-released as part of the Windows-based compilation CD Best of Gremlin in 2000.

Reception

The Amiga versions of Zool 2 received generally high review scores, including 93% in Amiga Format, 90% in Amiga Computing, 86% in Amiga Power and 76% in CU Amiga.

GamePro gave the Jaguar version a positive review, saying that the varied abilities of the playable characters "push this game to the top of the Jaguar hop-n-bop ranks." GamePro also praised the graphics, stating that "Zool's Nth Dimension is a shiny, inventive world that's equal parts candy shop and toy store", and that the Jaguar version is sharper and brighter than previous versions of the game. Next Generation called it "still a basic platform game, but one of the best we've seen a while." Like GamePro, they praised the quality of the graphics, and additionally the large number of interesting powerups and stages. Mike Weigand of Electronic Gaming Monthly assessed it as "a pretty good version of the pint-sized ninja character", particularly noting the large levels, though he felt the graphics were sometimes "visual overkill."