What is Zool? Who is Zool? Where is Zool? Well, all these questions answered, and more. Read on, after this disclaimer. Zool Redimensioned was provided to me for free for the purposes of this review. This, however, had no bearing on the outcome of my review.
There are some people who will recognize the name Zool (not Zl from Ghostbusters), but there are many like me who won’t. It’s okay if you don’t, but there was a huge cult following for this game in the nineties. It was ported to numerous platforms, and many saw the Zool game as the top tier of platform gaming at the time. Here were are now, nearly 30 years down the road, and we see Zool making a return to gaming scene in Zool Redimensioned. As mentioned, I have no previous experience with the IP, but there is an emulator included with the game so that you can experience the game as it was then and as it is now.
Zool is pretty much the definition of a platformer: run, jump, take out enemies, grab collectibles, and boss fights. Rinse, repeat, and have fun. Much like other platformers of the time, there are several worlds for you to play through, each with their own theme and difficulty which gets progressively harder as you go through each level. For the nostalgia-buffs out there, the soundtrack is pretty neat and a blast from the past. The action is pretty impressive for it’s time, considering we’re 29 years out from the original release. But the real things that shine here are the QoL changes made for this modernization of the game.
Notice I didn’t say remake, or remaster, there. It’s not really either of those. It is actually mostly the same game, with some modernizations brought to the game. Some levels have been tweaked to make them a little less frustrating than the originals. Perhaps the best thing they did was allowing players to resume their game from the current level, something notably absent from the first release all those years ago. We see a few accessibility options added, and a new game mode. You can also double-jump now, which makes completing the levels easier than ever. In the Redimensioned mode you can even add modifiers such as infinite jumping, invincibility, and turbo fire from the menu.
If you have not played Zool before, part of this release may never actually mean anything special to you. So I would suggest that you at least try the game in “Ultimate Ninja” mode first. This will give you the original 1992 release experience, which lacks double-jump and other modernizations mentioned above. After this, you may be able to appreciate better the experience presented by developer Sumo Digital Academy. Regardless of your experience, this game represents a true piece of nostalgia that so many people are looking for these days.
Whether you’re new to the series, or an veteran, Zool Redimensioned is worth looking at for your platforming needs.
4 out of 5.
