Zool 2

I've never been drawn into the Sonic series because I don't find it challenging at all.  You have all that speed, but it takes a lot of stupid moves before you end up dead and having to restart.  The speed didn't appeal without a tough challenge to go with it.  Enter Zool 2...  and my idea of a fast-paced game with a serious challenge has arrived.

Zool 2 is fast.  Everything about this game tells you to move at warp speed throughout the whole thing...  except you need to get a bunch of pieces of candy before the end boss will come out to challenge you.  This means that you have to manage your speed, and gives you quite the challenge as you speed along way to face the evil Mental Block.

The graphics are cute, and the game features Chupa Chups.  Yes, that is correct, those awesome suckers have made their way into this game.  But I digress, the graphics...  The graphics look great, and the Jaguar handles them about as good as could be expected.  Once in a while, the game suffers from slowdown when there is stuff flying everywhere but it doesn't hurt the game at all.  In fact, I like the slowdown because it calms the game down sufficiently so I can figure out what is going on again.

The music is perfect.  Yes, this game has what I consider to be an absolutely flawless soundtrack.  There were times that I would turn on my Jaguar, throw in Zool 2 and sit down and do something else just to listen to the tunes.  The sounds aren't quite as perfect, and they actually are almost a little too "cute."  They get very repetitive after a short period, but you are stuck with the same sounds the whole game.

The control... A lot of people complain that this game allows you to jump with the D-pad, but I don't understand the problem.  Yes, once in a while you accidentally hop from hitting the up arrow on accident, but I have never had this seriously impact a game.  In fact, I like the layout because I can keep one hand shooting and if I see something about to hit me, I can hop without having to try to hit two buttons at once to shoot at my assailants.

Grab this game and jump into the Nth dimension, and join Zool in his race to save your imagination You won't regret it!