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LukeTheRipper β Amiga Tribute: Zool
Published: 2013-03-19 00:48:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 1887; Favourites: 34; Downloads: 15
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Zool from the Zool series.Part 3/24 of my Amiga tribute project >3
This month it's one of Amiga's many various platformers, Zool
Some of you might know this title from one of it's various ports, some better (PC) and some downright crappy (like SNES, which is odd since the Gameboy port worked really well). This title really did claw itself well in the minds of players back then, for one, it was a rather trippy game, seriously, it had several themed levela, as most platformer games had, but the ones in Zool make you feel that the designing process looked something along the lines of - "OK, we need to make a music land (or candy land, etc.), so lets get high and think about music" and it only gets even more trippy in the sequel, where the themed levels get some rather odd themes, like an egg themed one and a lightbulb themed one, and with some equally trippy names (like the lightbulb level which is named Blueberry Hill). Other than that, one of the main sponsors was Chupa Chups, yes, the damn lollipops... which never ceases to show us that they're a sponsor by sticking their logo (and lots of lollipops everywhere) wherever they can, even in the damn levels...
Well, at least Zool 2 had one of my all time fav music tracks - www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGNIEsβ¦
The funny thing though, was that the mysterious "ninja from the Nth dimension" named Zool was meant to be Sonic The Hedgehog's rival on the plaformer scene, and it was something the developers didn't hesitate to emphasise whenever they could, usually by images like this - ukresistance.co.uk/pics7/zool-β¦ , heh, there's even a scene in the game where Zool kicks aside a random blue hedgehog, now isn't this subtle |D
Well, needless to say, Zool's adventures were never anything as good as Sonic's, but it was still a good and memorable game >3
Other parts of the project - Shadow Of The Beast , Shadow Fighter , Zool , The Chaos Engine , Superfrog , Skeleton Krew , The Speris Legacy , Flashback , Agony , Brutal: Paws of Fury , Fightin' Spirit , Ruff 'N' Tumble , SwitchBlade , Lionheart , The Lost Vikings , Brian The Lion , Wolfchild , Gods , Entity , Franko: The Crazy Revenge , Hired Guns , Turrican , The Killing Game Show , Yo! Joe!
Zool (c) Gremlin Graphics
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Comments: 27
Hehe, thanks, glad you like it so much ^^
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I never dug zool but this piccy is religious.
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It wasn't the greatest game in the world, but still a huge hunk of Amiga history, well worth a place in my tribute, I'd say ;3
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Indeed, indeed. I always thought the bummer with zool though was that he was an awesome looking character but he was stuck in those fruity cake and lollipop worlds, like he was originally meant to be a cutesy frickin' platypus or somethin and they changed him at the last minute. Still I agree with your point and it's a fine piece of arts.
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Well, as cool looking as he was, he also did quite fit the trippy setting, made out of more things than just fruitcake and lollipops >D especially since he was an undefined being from another dimension (though many vg magazines thought he's an ant).
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Thanks, glad you like it ^^
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Hehe, yeah, ports like this one was what made this Amiga title know to more people ^^
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I would like to get an Amiga. Which one plays all the games (or the one compatible with the most). I was thinking the 500
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I strongly recommend A600 or optionally A1200.
For one, A600 has the biggest library out of them all, and two, all it took to play non-compatible A500 games was the Kickstart program, making A500 obsolete.
A1200 however, could play some A500 & A600 with similar programs, it couldn't play all of them, but did have quite a few awesome titles of it's own.
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alright. I'll remember that when it comes time to get one
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It was hard to miss due to it's trippyness XD
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YouΒ΄re right.^^
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I used to play Zool on the Genesis back in the day. This is awesome. Such a cool character.
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The Genesis and SNES versions were different than the original, some stages differed, etc. mainly due to huge hardware differences, turned out pretty glitchy too |3 (and yeah, I actually tried them once)
But yeah, it was still a great game ^^
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That doesn't surprise me. One could write whole articles about the cross-platform port scene from those days. So many interesting differences and compromises. I've actually never plan an Amiga. Never had the opportunity. I don't recall the game being particularly good, I just remember Zool being a neat character. It was the 90's so everything remotely Ninja related had to at least be checked out in my eyes.
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The Amiga was a pretty powerful system compared to Genesis or SNES, but the limited space on floppy discs and the need to swap them almost constantly, and very long loading time, was what made it fall into obscurity |D
And well, while it might not be as good on Genesis, on the good il' Amiga, Zool was a good game, not as great as Sonic or other top class platformers of it's time, but still "good" ^^
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Wow this looks very good. I love the cute pose
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Lol, well, I was tryin' to make him look sorta badass actually |D
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I just looked up the Amiga version. Dang, is the game good.
I never knew about the Sonic magazine picture.
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The funny thing is, Zool wasn't the first nor the last Amiga platformer which set itself as a "Sonic rival" 
Fun fact, the only other games references as "rivals" as much as Sonic were Street Fighter 2 (games like Shadow Fighter and Fightin' Spirit for example, both mention to be SF2's rivals) and Pitfall (with games such as Lionheart, Entity or Wolfchild all calling themselves "Pitfall rivals").
And yes, while not "great", the game was a good one, even while rather trippy |D
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