Help Zack Zero use the power of fire, ice and stone to thwart Zulrog and rescue his girlfriend Marlene.
The story's rather cliche and even edges along Saturday morning cartoon fare. In between levels, the narrative is told via motion comics. The narrator's voice, although full of energy and enthusiasm, speaks dialogue that is very picture book-esque. Children might enjoy this kind of story telling, but for the grown ups, it's almost cringe worthy. Thankfully, the story takes a backseat to the gameplay.
Zack Zero is a throwback to the old school style of 2D action platformers with a lovely psuedo-3D presentation. Zack's geared up in an experimental suit that allows him to control three elemental powers: fire, stone, and ice. The introductory level lets you play around with all the powers and abilities of the suit's three forms, but then he takes a hard spill and straight out of a Metroid game, is reduced to nothing but his basic attacks. Through the course of the game, Zack will collect gems and experience points from slain enemies to level up and regain his lost powers.
These powers help Zack Zero not only combat his enemies but assist in maneuvering and object manipulation for puzzle solving. His fire suit set ablaze lets him move more quickly, surf the air to cross expansive gaps, let off a burst of light to blind enemies, and use a nasty flamethrower. His ice suit freezes enemies solid and slows down time to let him pass through moving hazards more safely. His stone suit grants Zack extra strength to move heavy stones, keeps him surefooted through the gustiest of breezes, lets him smash through cracked floors and sends a wave of sharp spikes towards his enemies.
It's fun to swap back and forth through these suits with a quick press of the d-pad. You can use your powers in conjunction with one another in combat as well. So, you can freeze enemies in their tracks and send a scorching stream of fire through them to obliterate them at once. The game contains five unique boss battles and although fun for the most part, none of them put Zack's elemental powers to any creative use.
The difficulty of the game fluctuates from ridiculously easy to frustratingly cheap. There will be quiet areas of the game where you'll just be jumping platforms with nothing happen, and then there will be ambushes with enemies coming from the left, right, fore and background. There's no way to defend yourself from bullets, so while you're busy beating up the meleers, a few ranged attackers will get in a couple of potshots. Some platforming segments are also rather harrowing, ending up with Zack falling to his demise quite often. The game, however, makes liberal use of a constant check point system, and there are no lives or continues to worry about, so you can keep trying that pesky section until you progress without fear of having to start the entire level over again. Sure, it helps reduce the frustration, but also diminishes the need for caution.
Adventuring through the game's eight levels is rather enjoyable, because the level design is quite solid. There's classic jumping from floating platform to platform, moving stones around on pressure plates and seeking out hidden switches to open doors, dodging spiked walls, carefully jumping across moving platforms and more. For the completionists, each level has hundreds of gems to seek out and gather, and a few hidden treasures to find as well. These all add to your score, which is compared to your friends' scores in real time. Unfortunately, there's a glitch that causes the game to hang if you boot it while connected to PSN. Even after signing out first and resigning in, it still might cause the game to freeze up on you.
There are a few other minor flaws as well. The jumping in the game is a tad floaty, and Zack isn't as surefooted as he should be. Sometimes, you'll miss the edge of a platform when you know for certain you landed on it. Jumping in general isn't as responsive as it should be in the middle of combat, allowing for a few cheap hits when you're trying to jump out of the fray. Plus, the game's double jump feature should have allowed you to double jump whenever you needed it instead of only at the apex of the first jump. Zack gets stuck in the floor or ceiling at times, and there's weird delays after a level up screen disappears or your game reloads during a boss fight that could cost you a hit or two. Also, the slow motion each time Zack suffers a fatal blow gets old quick, and just doesn't look right.
The game's strongest facet is most noticeably the visuals. Zack Zero is a very colorful game, painting the textures of the environments and enemies well. Rocks look realistically hard and lava looks blistering hot. There's a lot of action going on in many of the backgrounds, and the objects that pop up in the foreground look as it if you could reach out and grab them. The special effects are also terrific with Zack's elemental suit pumping out fiercely hot fire, shivering ice and shattering stone spikes. Enemies also blow apart wonderfully, scattering their bits every which way. Animations are very smooth as well, looking just as good as a cartoon would.
Audibly, the game doesn't reach the same level of excellence. Although the sound effects are great with the pounding of Zack's stone fists to the blazing of his flamethrower, the game could have greatly done with a more varied soundtrack. The repeated tracks of music get old rather quick, and the absence of any kind of voice acting - narrator aside - leaves Zack Zero with a serious lack of charm.
Zack Zero is a decent 2D platformer with 3D graphics, but after you beat it, you realize it could have been much more. It definitely is fun to play with the elemental suit, but a lot more thought could have gone in to its applications. The game has been in development since 2008, and some of that time should have been put towards making the story a bit more substantial. The leveling system also should have let you decide what you wanted to power up first instead of randomly attributing points by itself. For 13 bucks, the asking price is just about right. The game's roughly four to five hours long, and it offers solid gameplay with amazing visuals. Check it out if you're looking for a new PSN title.