Zack Zero Reviews

Decent enough concept. Zack has three different suit powers (along with the normal mode), which you have to use to platform and fight enemies. The problem is that the suit powers are barely used in-game. There's a few times when I had to switch over, but I generally saw little reason to switch from normal, especially since it can easily defeat most enemies and doesn't use energy. Combat in general is just a bore, especially when the game makes you fight mini-bosses multiple times with no changes. There is some decent platforming in here, and a few moments where I found myself having fun with that, but overall, this is just mediocre.

It's all very good fun! Nice bright graphics, well thought out and executed game. The only problem with it is that you really do need a controller to play it, becuase the implementation for the PC keyboard is absolutely terrible. It's doesn't really make any logical sense and changing the layout is very tedious indeed. It really does give the impression that hardly no effort went in to converting this for PC use. Shame, becuase as it is I can't recommend it unless you own a controller.

I bought this for a dollar on a sale. I can safely say I would never pay more than that. It was a struggle, a test of my patience to see how fast I could speedrun this game, and I almost feel a little cheated. For a dollar! I will say this up front: the game tried, but not nearly hard enough. Hit detection is awful, the controls are inconsistent (sometimes I can double jump, sometimes not, sometimes I can grab ledges, not always), the recycled enemies are absolutely dull, the level design is pointless ( "puzzles" consisted of moving obvious blocks onto obvious platforms), the story is absolutely atrocious and uninspired, the psuedo-3d gimmick (you and enemies could move into the foreground and background) worked against me half the time as I couldn't hit enemies who were hitting me, the dialogue is straight out of an underfunded kid's animation movie, not to mention the "cinematic" and dull soundtrack... ugh. I'd give it flak for the infinite lives, but that's the only thing that kept me going to completion, and what with the awful hit detection and controls it's a blessing. It was never particularly hard, but there were very few deaths where I feel I screwed up and wasn't just cheated by the game. There were a few things that went well, however. The level design, however plain, did only leave me at a confused halt twice, one of them was because the game bugged and I couldn't progress in the lava area. The abilities did feel satisfying enough to use, watching enemies or the environment either freeze or explode. That's... about it. Oh, and minor spoiler here, but the ending leaves off in a CLIFFHANGER. They were confident enough in this game to leave space for a direct sequel. Good lord. Edit: Forgot to mention that the game stuttered in many places and had low framerate issues regularly for seemingly no reason, not like this is a graphically intense game.

If you're looking for a AAA storyline and impressive cinematic quality cut scenes, or even decent humor, forget about it. However, as craptacular as the narration, which comes off more like story time in the kids section of the book store, it starts to fall in to that "so bad it's good" category. The plot is flimsier than dollar store toiler paper, but that's what makes it funny. It feels like it was written by a grade schooler, and the character designs reflect a lot of those same sensibilities. The gameplay is your typical run and gun platformer ala Megaman X8/9. I use that example specifically because the different powers enable you to reach certain areas, depending on what you're trying to achieve. The models and environments are fairly well detailed, so I think I would've liked to have seen more in-engine cutscenes as opposed to the concept storyboards and would've liked to have had a voice attached to the comm notifications. All that said, I paid a buck for this and got a lot more than that in value. Zack Zero shows a lot of promise, but go in it for the old school run and jump gamplay of the nintendo era, and try to not cringe too much at the storyline or the narrator's booming voice. Other games like this would be Rochard and Shank.

Zack Zero is a pile of shit. If you plan to just play through it like a standard platformer (which, to be frank, it is - it's Yet Another Bland Indie Platformer With a Gimmick), don't, because the platforming is in no way good, and the aforementioned gimmick is somehow worse. Zack turns into three alternate forms! Ice, Fire, Earth. Now, IF you want to play it by "its rules", you're going to swap these constantly because higher score comes from raising "combo" by swapping damage types between each attack. The problem is that doing this will chew through your too-small energy meter, so you can basically only get off two or three before forcefully transforming back into Zack Prime or whatever the hell his base form is called. Let me tell you why the actual mechanics are bad, though: You begin the game as a superpowered wunderkind and then at the end of the first stage, you're knocked on the head and are suddenly Level Ass, like a later Metroid game. The problem is that ZZ's stages are straight up left-to-right platforming levels, so instead of finding your powers to get cool again, you need collectables. Rareware-level collectables. Each single green dot is some XP! It's less fun than it sounds. The powers, as a result, go from having cool moves and tricks to all suddenly being one-hit-wonders (fire has a hover which you use to clear too-long gaps, ice can slow time to get under too-fast crushers, earth can't jump but HULK SMASHES open rocks beneath you and also is used every time there's a lever because you're too fucking weak to pull a lever without rocks on you?? no really). The levels aren't fun. Period. Only fire has a reliable homing attack (which chews up energy, so you only get 2, maybe 3 off without becoming Zack again) so all the flying enemies are gonna clown on you while you try taking them out, or perhaps the platform beneath you will collapse while you try shooting down the dude who's gonna dive-bomb you mid-leap. I would legitimately argue that Super Mario Bros. (1!) has better platforming and level design than this game, if that tells you anything. Obstacles come in two varieties: "easily ignored" or "KILL AT ALL COSTS", and sometimes it's hard to tell the latter because they look like the not-entirely-3D backgrounds and will come out to wreck you. Oh, also, sometimes the platforms follow the same rule! Have fun telling which random chunk of rock in the caves is supposed to be walk-onable or will drop you to the two-second death FMV for the 500th time. (Yes there is a death cutscene. Dragon's Lair as fuck.) Don't buy Zack Zero, it's not a good platformer, or a good score-attack game, or really "good" at all. It's complete and utter shit. If you don't have a controller (I did, for the record!) the keyboard controls are the most spiteful I've ever seen for a game that needs nothing but arrow keys, "switch forms", and action buttons.

A fun adventure platformer, it is on the simple side but it was fun. Controls on KB are wonkey so play with controller. That too wish it would have opted to have D-pad control for movement but all in all was fun.

Actually, this is a decent little side scrolling platformer. You play Zack who has some powers that can be used in certain areas of the game (mainly rock to knock down barriers and ice to slow down time) and to attack enemies. Run, jump, shoot and punch then get to the end of the stage and fight a boss. Nothing too taxing here, the checkpoints are nicely spaced so if you die, you never have much to do again, which I appreciated being a bit crap at games. Maybe aimed more at kids, but I had a good time playing, but I am wondering if the promised sequel will ever show up.

I started playing this game without expecting too much: it had a somewhat troubled development and it wasn't getting great reviews. But if you withstand some of it's quirks, it's actually a very enjoyable platformer, with nice voice acting (though sparse), cool cartoon cutscenes and some really impressive levels. Oh, and the music is pretty good too. It took me about 4 hours to finish it and I didn't find all the secrets, so it has a nice length and I didn't feel the game was padded by using the same tricks over and over. It manages to keep it fresh by using several environmental traps, cool bosses and some neat retro references here and there. Overall, I think it has some flaws, but it's still a nice platformer on the PC (and there are not many with this style here). I hope Crocodile could make a sequel, so that they could polish some of the rough edges. If you crave for some oldschool jump-n-shootin' on your PC, this could meet your needs!

I bought this game while it was on 90% discount sale. A really good 99 cents investment. Zack Zero is an excellent platformer with graphics color palette similar to sudeki with character movement similar to earthworm jim. The game has some decent cutscenes although the voice-over isnt as good as i would have appreciated; however not bad. +Good Graphics for a 820MB game +Fluid gameplay, no lag, no jitters unless youre in contact with enemies +Earth, Fire and ice power morphs for gameplay variety +Hidden locations with hidden items for a slight challenge giving it a slight puzzle game feeling +Cutscenes with voice-over/narration +Automatic checkpoint saves so no issues if your character falls off the platform/dies or you quit abruptly +Fictional Alien planet exploration +No game-bugs experienced in my time spent playing this game on my system which isnt really "latest" -Voice-over sub-par -Linear Storyline and slightly cliched -The hidden levels and puzzle attempts are rather simple. Slightly more complicated situations would have been nice. -Powers recharge very quickly so theres less strategizing on budgeting power usage. Its more about using variety of powers to get a better score The cons mentioned arent really cons in my opinion. Ive just laid them out for those expecting those aspects.This review is strictly my opinion. I will definitely recommend this game especially when on sale. It has a very nostalgic feel to it and is a lot of fun.

Zack Zero, Bugged Hero The game looks awesome, especially for an indie title...but the basic gameplay and storyline are actually pretty bland. The worst part of the game though is that there are a lot of glitches and bugs...you can find yourself saved to an unwinnable save point, stuck in the back / foreground, or just have the textures go haywire on you. If you find it on a BIG sale (I picked it up 90% off), it may be worth your time...otherwise give Zack zero thought.