19th May 2016, 5:56 PM
(This post was last modified: 19th May 2016, 8:07 PM by A Black Falcon.)
Update 3
A smaller update this time, so I got it done in a week -- seven games, to finish out the 2d platformers I have physical copies of section of the list. These seven include six games also available on consoles, and one PC-only addon to one of those games. Many are popular and some are great, but all either have design issues or performance issues on modern computers, so there aren't any of these seven I unreservedly can recommend. Still, they are interesting, and even if they don't run well or at all on a modern PC the Sonic games here are great...
Games Covered In This Update
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Rayman (1996)
Rayman Forever (1998)
Sonic CD (1996)
Sonic & Knuckles Collection (1997)
Sonic 3D Blast (1996)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)
Zool 2 (1994)
Rayman (1996, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. The original Rayman is a 2d platformer from Ubisoft. This game was a fairly big-budget game for Ubisoft at the time, but it paid off, as the game was a success and went on to be one of Ubisoft's top franchises. And Rayman is indeed a beautiful-looking game that plays pretty well. It is, however, crushingly difficult, probably beyond the skill level of most people who have played it. Basically, Rayman has everything except for fun gameplay beyond the early levels. The first Rayman game I played is the amazing second one, and I got this game around 2000 because I wanted to try the original. Well, it's kind of good, but I wish it wasn't so frustrating. But to start from the beginning, you are Rayman, a limbless cartoon guy who has a body, arms, hands, and feet, but nothing connecting the parts. It's an amusing look which is distinctive and works well. Indeed, the art design in this game is fantastic, the original cartoon artstyle looks great, both for the sprites and the backgrounds. The CD-audio music is pretty good as well; it's nice bouncy stuff which fits the settings great. You start out with only a jump, but get more abilities as you progress, most importantly, near the start, the ability to throw your fists as an attack; touching enemies hurts you. Rayman controls well, apart from the slippery levels which can be kind of a pain.
The level designs are good, but difficult. There are 28 good-sized stages in this game, so there's plenty to do. However, first, due to the beautiful graphics and their very large sprites, you can only see a short distance in any direction in this game. This becomes a big problem at times, so memorization will be key. Between the enemies, spikes, and pits, levels are full of ways for you to die. There are also far too many small enemies you either can't hit or can only hit if the level is designed with a slope you can stand below them on. Of course, they often aren't, meaning you have to try to jump over them. You do get three to five hit points, depending if you got a P powerup or not, but still, this can be frustrating. Still, working your way through each level can be fun, if you like a challenge anyway. There are plenty of secrets to find along the way, including seven cages in each level, and some require powers you won't get until later in the game, so there's a lot of reasons to go back to each stage later. Adding replay value like that is good. The issues aside above, Rayman's levels are mostly well-designed, if you like a challenge. Those graphicsa re also a draw, of course; it's always great seeing each new type of environment and background. While Rayman did start out as a SNES game, as released it clearly exceeds what any 4th-gen console could do, and it is great to see a 2d game that pushed the genre forward graphically for the new generation. As for running it today, Rayman runs okay in DOSBox, though I have had some issues getting the game to recognize more than two-button joysticks, which is odd; you do need three buttons here, for run, attack, and action. With the right DOSBox configuration it should work fine, though.
Unfortunately, the hard levels are not the only thing making this such a tough game. The game can be fun to play... until you die. Do that a few times and you'll find out that this memorization and replay-heavy game has limited continues, of all things! Sure, you can save at certain save points on the games' level-select map, but it saves how many continues you have left. Yes, there are ways around this, such as cheatcodes or copying your save file so you're always playing the file you didn't die much on, but still, this continue system takes a tough game and amps up the difficulty to near-unacceptable levels. However, the graphics, sound, and gameplay are all quite good, making this a good game despite its issues. So, is Rayman worth it? For masochists, yes, absolutely. For average gamers... maybe; the game is too hard, but it is good-looking and has some new ideas and lots to do. But know what you're in for. For something with a similar visual look to this, but a much fairer challenge, try the very good Rayman 3 for the Game Boy Advance. Rayman was successful, though, and was ported to many platforms. Also on Playstation, Saturn, Jaguar and Game Boy Advance as a physical release, and iOS; Nintendo DSiWare (digital download); Playstation 3, PSP, and PSP as a digital 'virtual console' release of the PS1 version; and Windows Mobile as a digital download.
Rayman Forever (1998, DOS (game) & Win9x (editor)) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Rayman Forever is a collection which includes both the original Rayman with its 24 stages, a level editor for the game, 40 levels made by fans, and a 'making of Rayman 2' video are included on the disc. The levels in this game only use the graphics from the original game though, there is no new visual or audio content here, just lots of levels. The fanmade levels are a mixed bag, but many are good, and you can play all of them at any time so this thankfully dispenses with Rayman's frustrating continue system. So, Rayman Forever basically is a retail expansion pack packed with the core game, and that's it... but that's okay, as Rayman is a pretty good game mechanically. This is a pretty cool compilation disc, and having a level editor is always great! Running physical copies of this game can have issues, though -- while the core Rayman game is the same DOS game it always was, the By His Fans levels have a Win9x installer that runs a DOS sound-setup application partway through the installation and then runs as a DOS program, and the editor is a Win9x program that doesn't run well at all on modern versions of Windows. If you want to play this, you might want to stick to GOG's fixed-up digital re-release. It is kind of surprising that the core of this is still a DOS game, though; DOS was mostly dead by 1998, so this is probably one of the last retail DOS titles, at least here in the US. But as usual here, the DOS program is fine, it's the Win9x parts of this disc that have big problems today, unless you uise that fixed-up GOG copy of course. As for the content though, this is the definitive version of Rayaman. It includes the entire original game, an editor, AND 40 fanmade levels, after all! This is the complete Rayman. Unlike the base game, this title is PC-only, though it is available digitally on GOG. Get it there.
Sonic CD (1996, Win9x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Sonic CD for the PC is a port of Sega's Sega CD fast-paced platformer of the same name. Probably the best-known game released for the Sega CD, Sonic CD is a fairly popular classic. It does have its critics, as the game has some design oddities versus the Genesis games, but it's great. I do really like Sonic CD. I didn't get this version of Sonic CD until several years ago, so I've mostly played the game on Sega CD, but it is a good port of a great game. The main issue here is, though, why get this version? There is no new content here, but there serious issues if you try to run this on any modern version of Windows. On my newer computer this game won't run at all! Some Win9x games are incompatible with even a 32-bit modern edition of Windows, and this early Win95 game is among them. You'll need an actual old computer or virtual machine to run this, I expect. This was the first main-series Sonic game ported to the PC though, I believe; they did improve things in the next one, below. On a compatible system the game looks and runs great, though. This is a near-perfect port, and other than some minor graphical glitches you'll probably never notice, it's the same awesome game it is on Sega CD. The only other negative is that as with many games on this list so far, there is no pause button on the gamepad; few of these DOS or Win9x games have that feature. You need the keyboard for that. Positively though, the bonus stages, which use scaling and rotation for a SNES Mode 7-esque effect as you run around a small area trying to destroy a bunch of hovering machines, run very smoothly in this version, smoother than they do on Sega CD. Nice.
If you can get PC Sonic CD running, it's great. I covered this game in my Sega CD Game Opinion Summaries list as well, but I'll discuss it again. I love the classic Genesis-era Sonic games, and this one is no exception. Sonic CD looks and sounds good for a port of an early '90s console game, and has some interesting design elements as well. This is a highly-regarded game, though some do dislike elements of it for understandable reasons; the time system is odd. The game has a unique version of Sonic's spin-dash too, which takes getting used to versus the normal one. Sonic CD was in development alongside Sonic 2, though it released well into the next year, and is from a different team. Unlike the other Genesis Sonic games, Sonic CD is not just a linear title. Instead, there are four different versions of each stage, a Past, Present, Bad Future, and Good Future version. You start in the Present, and can warp between times by touching a signpost for the one you want to go to, then running without stopping for long enough to warp. If you do stop though, you lose that sign and will need to find another one to try again for that warp. If you want you can just run to the end, but if you want the good ending in this game and not the bad one, you need to do one of two things: get over 50 coins enough times and beat enough bonus games to get all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic 1 style but with a new bonus game, or go to the Past on each first and second round of every stage in this Sonic 1-esque three-levels-per-stage game, find and destroy the machine there, go to the good future, and defeat Robotnik there. Each method has plusses and minuses, as the bonus games get tough, while Past signs are sometimes in short supply and avoiding all those Future signs can be tricky at times, but I like that you have a choice for more exploration or more rings and bonus stages. The levels are all huge and lots of fun to explore, too. This is a fantastic classic Sonic game, and the levels are great as usual! This is a simple game, without the multiple characters or puzzle elements in stages of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but it's great nonetheless. And anyway, the time system and machine-finding adds plenty of complexity.
However, the rings and some platform elements for all four versions of each level are there for all of them, which makes for somewhat odd, messy-looking stages with rings inside of platforms, random inaccessible blocks, and more. It's a unique look which works, though the Genesis games' cleaner styles might be better. The soundtrack here is fantastic, though! This version has the US soundtrack from Spencer Nilsen, and I think it's great. His Sega CD soundtracks are all really good, the amazing Ecco CD soundtracks particularly, but this is very interesting stuff as well. Make sure to listen to all variations on each levels' theme, there are different ones for the past, present, and future. On that note, as great a game as Sonic CD mostly is, the decision to have four versions of each stage has a downside: if you play th game 'right', you'll only ever see maybe half of the content in this game. The whole Bad Future, with its machine look, should be completely avoided, and that's a quarter of the levels in the game! And the Good Future is really only there for you to warp to at the end, too. The time system is interesting, but I might have rather seen maybe fewer versions of each level but another stage or two. Ah well. What's here is great, and Sonic CD has good graphics, great music, good level designs, a unique time system, and all-around great gameplay. However, unless you have a compatible computer, stick with the other ports of this game that are easier to run on modern hardware. Sega CD port. Sonic CD is also available on the Gamecube and PS2 in the Sonic Gems Collection; it is actually a port of this PC version, not the Sega CD original. Digitally, there is also an enhanced remake available for Xbox 360 Live Aracde, PS3 PSN, iOS, Android, PC (Steam), Windows Phone, Ouya, and Apple TV. I've never played that version, but it sounds good.
Sonic & Knuckles Collection (1997, Win9x) - 1-2 player simultaneous, saves (save files for Sonic 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, passwords for Blue Spheres) / No Saving (Sonic & Knuckles only), gamepad supported. Sonic & Knuckles Collection is a great package from Sega that includes ports of the Genesis games Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Blue Spheres, the near-infinite version of the bonus game you get if you attached Sonic 1 to Sonic & Knuckles on the Genesis. SO, it's not quite the complete collection for Sonic 2 and 2 & Knuckles are absent, but that sort of is a separate game, even if S&K is required. What you do get here is a good port of Sega's best game ever, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. This game was the first Sonic game I owned, when I got it in the later '90s, and while I had played the Genesis Sonic games quite a bit over the years, it was even better finally owning this myself! I recently covered all the games in this collection at length in my Genesis thread, and this version is largely exactly the same, so I won't do that again; read those for my thoughts on this great classic. Versus the Genesis originals, really the only changes here are that the soundtrack is now PC MIDI stuff instead of Genesis chiptunes, the game has the usual Win9x performance issues many games on this list have including no fullscreen on a modern computer because it's 320x240 only, a 640x480 max window size in windowed mode (so run this in 640x480 screen resolution compatibility mode through Windows!), and some performance issues common to many of Sega's '90s console-to-PC ports, though. It does recognize my gamepad at least, though, so that's something. I really don't like playing games which should be fullscreen windowed, however, so I'd rather only play this on a version of Windows able to run in 320x240 fullscreen. Do know that the game needs your screens' refresh rate to be 60hz to run right; alternatively there is a patch to fix this issue.
Still, beyond that this is a great version of one of the best platformers ever. Super Mario World may be my favorite 2d platformer, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one of the next-best games on the list! This is a fast-paced game which manages to be great fun despite its speed, unlike too many Sonic clones. S3&K has a lot of levels to play through, three playable characters in four modes (with Sonic alone or Sonic with Tails being separate options) each of which plays differently enough to well be worth trying, that great classic Sonic art design, and all the fantastic platform fun of its console counterparts. Sure, the music is a bit off versus the Genesis, and fullscreen is an issue, but this is an exceptional game regardless. The controls are spot-on and levels very well designed. This game has the perfect balance between letting you run fast and learn stages, and has plenty of challenge without resorting to too many cheap traps you'll need to memorize. Some levels have minor puzzle elements too, and they're fun to figure out. It's great stuff. I love the bonus game too; Blue Spheres is easily my favorite Sonic bonus game ever. It's fantastic that this collection includes the full Sonic 1 lock-on Blue Spheres game, where you can play a near-endless number of Blue Spheres levels. Unfortunately just like on the Genesis you will need to write down long passwords in order to return to a favorite stage, as this is a straight port, but still, it's great to have. They could easily have left it out, as some subsequent Sonic 3 & Knuckles digital re-releases on consoles do.
Still, overall, despite how great the game is, and how much fun I had with this game in the late '90s, today this is not the best way to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Unless you've got an older Win9x computer to play this on, dealing with this games' problems will be much more of a hassle than just playing some newer port of the game. It is true that many collections after this one and digital re-releases have not actually included the full Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and thus do not match up to this, but enough do that this has been superceded. There is no new content here, either, and the music is not as good as it is on Genesis. At least one song has been altered, also. Still, on a computer or virtual machine which can run this as intended, the Sonic & Knuckles Collection is a great version of one of the best platformers ever, so pick it up if you see it cheap. Genesis port. This version is PC-exclusive, but all content from this disc is also playable on the Saturn in Sonic Jam and the PS2/Gamecube in Sonic mega Collection & Mega Collection Plus. The Sonic Classic Collection for the DS includes everything except Blue Spheres, though the port is apparently not the best. Digitally, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are available on Wii Virtual Console, Xbox 360 Live Arcade, and PC (Steam), but Blue Spheres is not. There is also an iOS port that I think includes everything. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, but NOT any lock-on games for some stupid reason, are playable in the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the X360 and PS3. Sonic & Knuckles is also included, on its own, in many Genesis handheld and clone consoles.
Sonic 3D Blast (1996, Win9x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Sonic 3D Blast is an isometric platformer developed by Traveller's Tales, now known as TT Games, and published by Sega. The game is controversial, and many people don't like it. And indeed, it is quite different from other Sonic games, with its collection focus, slower pace, and isometric gameplay. However, I do like the game myself, and have all three versions of it, Genesis, Saturn, and PC. Sega ported many of their top console games to the PC in the mid '90s, and this was among them. The game is similar to the Saturn version, but there are some PC-exclusive changes as well, including saving, finally, and a slightly different version of the bonus game. That's all pretty good, and feature-wise, this is maybe the best version of Sonic 3D Blast, but like Sonic CD, I can't get this game to run at all on my newer computer; it needs actual Win9x to work. So, this is another one for people with virtual machines or a Win9X computer only, unfortunately.
And that is unfortunate, because despite its iffy reputation, this game is fun! In Sonic 3D Blast, you explore overhead-isometric stages, trying to find all the small birds called flickies on each part of each stage. Get all the flickies and you can move on to the next area. Unlike the main Sonic games, this is not a fast-paced game; you'll move around somewhat slowly, exploring each level, avoiding the obstacles, and getting those flickies. Each stage is complex and I like exploring them and figuring out what to do and where to go. The designers knew that jumping in isometric 3d can be difficult, so they accounted for this by having most jumping puzzles be not over death or injury pits, but just areas that make you go back, which is great. Good design elements like that make this game much more fun than some games in this genre. The typically Euro-platformer focus on collecting may get old to some, but only having to get five per area isn't nearly as bad as some games, and I do find stages fun to explore. The addition of saving is really great too, because with this games's somewhat slow pace, playing the whole thing in one sitting as you have to do on the Genesis or Saturn is kind of a pain. No issue here! The graphics are quite nice also. This version uses the improved Saturn graphics for the main game, and everything looks pretty good. The bonus game is, sort of like on the Saturn, a Sonic 2-style tube you run down. However, here everything is made up of sprites, not polygons like on Saturn. That change is perhaps a bit unfortunate, as the Saturn one looks pretty good for the time, but it looks fine here, and plays about as well.
Overall, Sonic 3D Blast is a good isometric platformer. This game isn't quite the great classic of the 2d Genesis and Sega CD Sonic games, but it's still a good game, mixed critical reaction or no. I certainly recommend trying some version of Sonic 3D Blast, you never know; you might like it. This version, however, due to its technical issues probably is only for fans of the game. It is probably the best version, but you'll need a computer that can actually run it. This PC version of Sonic 3D Blast is a physical-only PC exclusive. The Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast is included in the Sonic Mega COllection for Gamecube, Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PS2, Xbox, & PC, and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 & X360, and digitally on Wii Virtual Console and PC (Steam). The better-looking Saturn and Win9x PC versions, however, have never been re-released.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported (sometimes). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the PC port of Konami's NES game of the same name. This somewhat infamous platformer is well-known for being frustratingly hard and kind of odd. This is a worse version of that game, but unfortunately, while I loved the Ninja Turtles through the late '80s to mid '90s, somehow THIS was the one and only Ninja Turtles game I bought that decade. Now there was a bad decision; sure, I loved both arcade games, so I played great Ninja Turtles games, but this... this is not good. As a kid I convinced myself it was decent, I guess, probably mostly because I loved the license, though I never got past level two, because it's very hard and quite flawed. And yes, it is worse than the NES original, as this version has worse controls; some altered graphics and decent but not-quite-as-good music; the game has been made much harder than it is on the NES as there are more enemies, enemies don't bounce back when you hit them, and they do more damage; and worst of all, there is a bug which makes one stage impossible in the US version I have unless you cheat to skip that level, but it does add saving. That one positive isn't worth all the negatives in this port of an already-poor game, but it's better than nothing, I guess. Still, the graphics really are kind of ugly. The monsters are all misshapen weird things, the game has EGA or CGA support but not VGA, scrolling is choppy, and the Turtles don't look great either. I don't have the NES version, but from what I've seen it does look a bit better there.
As for the game, though, in this game you play as any of the four Ninja Turtles, going through a series of extremely tough missions. They jump and attack with their weapon, though jumping is awkward and hard to control in this version. The keyboard controls are annoying too, and unconfigurable: Enter to jump, Space to attack. There should be gamepad support, but some versions of the game seem to be missing it, though the one I bought back then does have it. Odd. You can walk around an overhead-view overworld, and from there can enter various sewer or door entrances to play side-scrolling levels. Some levels are necessary, some have useful powerups, while others are just distractions and serve no purpose other than to drain more health than you'll get back from whatever powerup is there, so you will need to learn where to go and where to avoid as you play. And for another change from the NES, no items spawn randomly or when you kill enemies, so the only powerups in this game are the one-time pickups in pre-planned locations. Between all the enemy-behavior changes listed above and this, this game is quite a bit harde than the already-tough NES version. It's just too difficult, an issue I see mentioned in pretty much any online review of this version of the game. And you won't be able to avoid damage, because only Don has a weapon with much range, and it's not going to be enough. You have a health bar, but enemies drain it quickly and health powerups quickly become few and far between. If a turtle runs out of health there are VERY few ways to get them back, and if all four die it's Game Over, so this game gets hard quickly. Enemies swarm you, and they take your health bar down quickly. They respawn the instant you leave the screen, too, and levels are designed to force you to go back and forth some and fight the same guys multiple times. The hit detection is iffy sometimes as well; play control here is a mess. The constant swarms of cheap enemies will overwhelm even Don in a hurry, and once he's low health you're finished. Level designs are mostly fairly basic corridors and platforms, too. There are obstacles to jump over, ladders, platforms, and such, but it's forgettable stuff.
And of course, the second level, an underwater level near a dam, is infamously annoying thanks to its tight timer and mazelike layout; you've got to find some bombs scattered around, and sure won't do it on your first try. What's past level two? Who knows, I never got that far. But level 3 is the one with the impossible jump unless you find a European copy of this game, so there's that.On the positive side, though, you can save anywhere in this version (press Control+S) and continue from exactly that point if you quit to the menu (Control+Q) and load the game, though there is only one save file so watch out where you save. On the NES you can't save and have limited continues, and I do like this addition, but as much as I like saving in games, it does not make up for everything else bad about this game. And the NES game isn't exactly good, either. Also apparently the game gets even more difficult near the end, as the few health powerups drop to almost none. No thanks. This game is mediocre enough in the first two levels, I don't need to see the rest. Overall, the original TMNT game isn't the worst thing, but it is bad. This game is too hard, has mediocre controls with enemies you often have to get too close to to hit, poor level designs, annoying enemies, poor visuals and sound, and a pretty bad bug if you have the US vesion like I do. Don't play this.
Zool 2 (1994, DOS) - 1-2 player alternating, No Saving, gamepad supported. Zool 2 is a below-average European platformer from Gremlin. This game was inspired by Sonic, but has shooting instead of jumping as your main method of attack. I've never really played the first Zool, though it was apparently more popular than this game and was on more platforms, but I got this sequel in the mid '90s because I thought it looked interesting. I don't know what I paid, but I hope it wasn't too much because while games get a lot worse than this, this is one of the weakest games on this list so far. It's okay, I guess, but never was great and has aged somewhat badly. The game has some annoying design traits common to European computer games as well, including bad controls and no saving. This game is an Amiga port with alright graphics, decent audio with limitations, and large levels to explore and collect stuff in. You can play as Zool or his female counterpart Zooz, and the two are the same gameplay-wise. Your controls are okay, but very fast and bouncy. Your character does not feel good to control and moves or bounces around too quickly for you to keep track of, and avoiding damage is often near-impossible. You do have a life bar and health does drop, but still, it can be a problem. Your fast movement can be fun at times, though, and you can grab onto and climb walls, which is nice, and spin-attack if you hold attack while jumping, but still it's way too easy to take hits. You also can only jump with the up button or up on your gamepad, which is terrible; this isn't an Amiga, PCs support more than one-button joysticks! Come on. Gamepad buttons all shoot. And maybe even more annoying, the game does not have both sound effects and music at the same time! You've got to choose one or the other in the menu. I usually choose music, so you're running around grabbing stuff without much sense of interaction with the world around you. It's weird stuff, in a bad way. I really hope that isn't common on the Amiga, it's no good. No other PC platformer I have played is like this. If you want to play a version of this game with both sound AND music, your only option is the Atari Jaguar port, but few people have that console of course. I don't.
As for the gameplay, it's okay, but also flawed. "Collect" is the operative term, here, from my description above, as your goal in each level is to get the pickups-collected number in the bottom left up to 99; before that point, even if you reach the end of a level you cannot exit. So, grab everything you can, get up to 99, then go to the exit. The game starts in a candyland world, and perhaps takes that too far, as the game has a license from British lollypop company Chupa Chups, whose logo is all over the game on pickups. It's kind of silly that this American release of the game still has advertising all over for a company I've never heard of here in the US, but it does. The levels themselves are large and full of enemies, lots of small pickups that look like teddy bears, worms, chicken legs, and all kinds of other weird stuff, bounce pads which look like odd things like eggs, and secrets to find behind hidden walls you can break if you attack them. So yeah, this game is for item-collection fans only! Exploring levels, finding secrets, and picking up the mountains of items can be fun, and the game thankfully has few to no bottomless pits, always a plus in fast-paced platformers like this one. The game is somewhat repetitive, however, particularly when you have to backtrack to find more items to pick up to max out that percentage. Oh, and enemies respawn, too, unfortunately. As a result of all this, the game quickly gets hard, and you have no saving in this game frustratingly enough, and only have any continues if you earn them ingame. There are cheat codes for level-skip, lots of lives, and the like, but without them I've never gotten past world two in Zool 2. Most PC platformers have saving, so the absence of a save system always has been one of my biggest complaints about this game; it has other issues as well, but saving is the worst one. If I could save my progress between levels, the game would be more fun for sure, it would help reduce the frustration factor. You can cheat, but that's not as satisfying. There are some good points to this game, including decent VGA graphics with some okay background designs, large levels to explore which can be fun to find the secrets in, and nicely bouncy music. However, Zool 2 has many issues, including the overfocus on collecting, the too-fast movement and jumping, the absence of both music and sound at the same time, the up-to-jump-only controls, and the inability to save your game. On the whole Zool 2 is an okay but below-average game I can't really recommend except for huge collection-game fans who like European platformer design or for people who want to see all the Sonic-inspired games out there. Also available on Amiga, Amiga CD32 (Europe only), and Atari Jaguar. The Jaguar version is the best as it is the only one with both music and sound at once.
A smaller update this time, so I got it done in a week -- seven games, to finish out the 2d platformers I have physical copies of section of the list. These seven include six games also available on consoles, and one PC-only addon to one of those games. Many are popular and some are great, but all either have design issues or performance issues on modern computers, so there aren't any of these seven I unreservedly can recommend. Still, they are interesting, and even if they don't run well or at all on a modern PC the Sonic games here are great...
Games Covered In This Update
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Rayman (1996)
Rayman Forever (1998)
Sonic CD (1996)
Sonic & Knuckles Collection (1997)
Sonic 3D Blast (1996)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)
Zool 2 (1994)
Rayman (1996, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. The original Rayman is a 2d platformer from Ubisoft. This game was a fairly big-budget game for Ubisoft at the time, but it paid off, as the game was a success and went on to be one of Ubisoft's top franchises. And Rayman is indeed a beautiful-looking game that plays pretty well. It is, however, crushingly difficult, probably beyond the skill level of most people who have played it. Basically, Rayman has everything except for fun gameplay beyond the early levels. The first Rayman game I played is the amazing second one, and I got this game around 2000 because I wanted to try the original. Well, it's kind of good, but I wish it wasn't so frustrating. But to start from the beginning, you are Rayman, a limbless cartoon guy who has a body, arms, hands, and feet, but nothing connecting the parts. It's an amusing look which is distinctive and works well. Indeed, the art design in this game is fantastic, the original cartoon artstyle looks great, both for the sprites and the backgrounds. The CD-audio music is pretty good as well; it's nice bouncy stuff which fits the settings great. You start out with only a jump, but get more abilities as you progress, most importantly, near the start, the ability to throw your fists as an attack; touching enemies hurts you. Rayman controls well, apart from the slippery levels which can be kind of a pain.
The level designs are good, but difficult. There are 28 good-sized stages in this game, so there's plenty to do. However, first, due to the beautiful graphics and their very large sprites, you can only see a short distance in any direction in this game. This becomes a big problem at times, so memorization will be key. Between the enemies, spikes, and pits, levels are full of ways for you to die. There are also far too many small enemies you either can't hit or can only hit if the level is designed with a slope you can stand below them on. Of course, they often aren't, meaning you have to try to jump over them. You do get three to five hit points, depending if you got a P powerup or not, but still, this can be frustrating. Still, working your way through each level can be fun, if you like a challenge anyway. There are plenty of secrets to find along the way, including seven cages in each level, and some require powers you won't get until later in the game, so there's a lot of reasons to go back to each stage later. Adding replay value like that is good. The issues aside above, Rayman's levels are mostly well-designed, if you like a challenge. Those graphicsa re also a draw, of course; it's always great seeing each new type of environment and background. While Rayman did start out as a SNES game, as released it clearly exceeds what any 4th-gen console could do, and it is great to see a 2d game that pushed the genre forward graphically for the new generation. As for running it today, Rayman runs okay in DOSBox, though I have had some issues getting the game to recognize more than two-button joysticks, which is odd; you do need three buttons here, for run, attack, and action. With the right DOSBox configuration it should work fine, though.
Unfortunately, the hard levels are not the only thing making this such a tough game. The game can be fun to play... until you die. Do that a few times and you'll find out that this memorization and replay-heavy game has limited continues, of all things! Sure, you can save at certain save points on the games' level-select map, but it saves how many continues you have left. Yes, there are ways around this, such as cheatcodes or copying your save file so you're always playing the file you didn't die much on, but still, this continue system takes a tough game and amps up the difficulty to near-unacceptable levels. However, the graphics, sound, and gameplay are all quite good, making this a good game despite its issues. So, is Rayman worth it? For masochists, yes, absolutely. For average gamers... maybe; the game is too hard, but it is good-looking and has some new ideas and lots to do. But know what you're in for. For something with a similar visual look to this, but a much fairer challenge, try the very good Rayman 3 for the Game Boy Advance. Rayman was successful, though, and was ported to many platforms. Also on Playstation, Saturn, Jaguar and Game Boy Advance as a physical release, and iOS; Nintendo DSiWare (digital download); Playstation 3, PSP, and PSP as a digital 'virtual console' release of the PS1 version; and Windows Mobile as a digital download.
Rayman Forever (1998, DOS (game) & Win9x (editor)) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Rayman Forever is a collection which includes both the original Rayman with its 24 stages, a level editor for the game, 40 levels made by fans, and a 'making of Rayman 2' video are included on the disc. The levels in this game only use the graphics from the original game though, there is no new visual or audio content here, just lots of levels. The fanmade levels are a mixed bag, but many are good, and you can play all of them at any time so this thankfully dispenses with Rayman's frustrating continue system. So, Rayman Forever basically is a retail expansion pack packed with the core game, and that's it... but that's okay, as Rayman is a pretty good game mechanically. This is a pretty cool compilation disc, and having a level editor is always great! Running physical copies of this game can have issues, though -- while the core Rayman game is the same DOS game it always was, the By His Fans levels have a Win9x installer that runs a DOS sound-setup application partway through the installation and then runs as a DOS program, and the editor is a Win9x program that doesn't run well at all on modern versions of Windows. If you want to play this, you might want to stick to GOG's fixed-up digital re-release. It is kind of surprising that the core of this is still a DOS game, though; DOS was mostly dead by 1998, so this is probably one of the last retail DOS titles, at least here in the US. But as usual here, the DOS program is fine, it's the Win9x parts of this disc that have big problems today, unless you uise that fixed-up GOG copy of course. As for the content though, this is the definitive version of Rayaman. It includes the entire original game, an editor, AND 40 fanmade levels, after all! This is the complete Rayman. Unlike the base game, this title is PC-only, though it is available digitally on GOG. Get it there.
Sonic CD (1996, Win9x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Sonic CD for the PC is a port of Sega's Sega CD fast-paced platformer of the same name. Probably the best-known game released for the Sega CD, Sonic CD is a fairly popular classic. It does have its critics, as the game has some design oddities versus the Genesis games, but it's great. I do really like Sonic CD. I didn't get this version of Sonic CD until several years ago, so I've mostly played the game on Sega CD, but it is a good port of a great game. The main issue here is, though, why get this version? There is no new content here, but there serious issues if you try to run this on any modern version of Windows. On my newer computer this game won't run at all! Some Win9x games are incompatible with even a 32-bit modern edition of Windows, and this early Win95 game is among them. You'll need an actual old computer or virtual machine to run this, I expect. This was the first main-series Sonic game ported to the PC though, I believe; they did improve things in the next one, below. On a compatible system the game looks and runs great, though. This is a near-perfect port, and other than some minor graphical glitches you'll probably never notice, it's the same awesome game it is on Sega CD. The only other negative is that as with many games on this list so far, there is no pause button on the gamepad; few of these DOS or Win9x games have that feature. You need the keyboard for that. Positively though, the bonus stages, which use scaling and rotation for a SNES Mode 7-esque effect as you run around a small area trying to destroy a bunch of hovering machines, run very smoothly in this version, smoother than they do on Sega CD. Nice.
If you can get PC Sonic CD running, it's great. I covered this game in my Sega CD Game Opinion Summaries list as well, but I'll discuss it again. I love the classic Genesis-era Sonic games, and this one is no exception. Sonic CD looks and sounds good for a port of an early '90s console game, and has some interesting design elements as well. This is a highly-regarded game, though some do dislike elements of it for understandable reasons; the time system is odd. The game has a unique version of Sonic's spin-dash too, which takes getting used to versus the normal one. Sonic CD was in development alongside Sonic 2, though it released well into the next year, and is from a different team. Unlike the other Genesis Sonic games, Sonic CD is not just a linear title. Instead, there are four different versions of each stage, a Past, Present, Bad Future, and Good Future version. You start in the Present, and can warp between times by touching a signpost for the one you want to go to, then running without stopping for long enough to warp. If you do stop though, you lose that sign and will need to find another one to try again for that warp. If you want you can just run to the end, but if you want the good ending in this game and not the bad one, you need to do one of two things: get over 50 coins enough times and beat enough bonus games to get all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic 1 style but with a new bonus game, or go to the Past on each first and second round of every stage in this Sonic 1-esque three-levels-per-stage game, find and destroy the machine there, go to the good future, and defeat Robotnik there. Each method has plusses and minuses, as the bonus games get tough, while Past signs are sometimes in short supply and avoiding all those Future signs can be tricky at times, but I like that you have a choice for more exploration or more rings and bonus stages. The levels are all huge and lots of fun to explore, too. This is a fantastic classic Sonic game, and the levels are great as usual! This is a simple game, without the multiple characters or puzzle elements in stages of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but it's great nonetheless. And anyway, the time system and machine-finding adds plenty of complexity.
However, the rings and some platform elements for all four versions of each level are there for all of them, which makes for somewhat odd, messy-looking stages with rings inside of platforms, random inaccessible blocks, and more. It's a unique look which works, though the Genesis games' cleaner styles might be better. The soundtrack here is fantastic, though! This version has the US soundtrack from Spencer Nilsen, and I think it's great. His Sega CD soundtracks are all really good, the amazing Ecco CD soundtracks particularly, but this is very interesting stuff as well. Make sure to listen to all variations on each levels' theme, there are different ones for the past, present, and future. On that note, as great a game as Sonic CD mostly is, the decision to have four versions of each stage has a downside: if you play th game 'right', you'll only ever see maybe half of the content in this game. The whole Bad Future, with its machine look, should be completely avoided, and that's a quarter of the levels in the game! And the Good Future is really only there for you to warp to at the end, too. The time system is interesting, but I might have rather seen maybe fewer versions of each level but another stage or two. Ah well. What's here is great, and Sonic CD has good graphics, great music, good level designs, a unique time system, and all-around great gameplay. However, unless you have a compatible computer, stick with the other ports of this game that are easier to run on modern hardware. Sega CD port. Sonic CD is also available on the Gamecube and PS2 in the Sonic Gems Collection; it is actually a port of this PC version, not the Sega CD original. Digitally, there is also an enhanced remake available for Xbox 360 Live Aracde, PS3 PSN, iOS, Android, PC (Steam), Windows Phone, Ouya, and Apple TV. I've never played that version, but it sounds good.
Sonic & Knuckles Collection (1997, Win9x) - 1-2 player simultaneous, saves (save files for Sonic 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, passwords for Blue Spheres) / No Saving (Sonic & Knuckles only), gamepad supported. Sonic & Knuckles Collection is a great package from Sega that includes ports of the Genesis games Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Blue Spheres, the near-infinite version of the bonus game you get if you attached Sonic 1 to Sonic & Knuckles on the Genesis. SO, it's not quite the complete collection for Sonic 2 and 2 & Knuckles are absent, but that sort of is a separate game, even if S&K is required. What you do get here is a good port of Sega's best game ever, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. This game was the first Sonic game I owned, when I got it in the later '90s, and while I had played the Genesis Sonic games quite a bit over the years, it was even better finally owning this myself! I recently covered all the games in this collection at length in my Genesis thread, and this version is largely exactly the same, so I won't do that again; read those for my thoughts on this great classic. Versus the Genesis originals, really the only changes here are that the soundtrack is now PC MIDI stuff instead of Genesis chiptunes, the game has the usual Win9x performance issues many games on this list have including no fullscreen on a modern computer because it's 320x240 only, a 640x480 max window size in windowed mode (so run this in 640x480 screen resolution compatibility mode through Windows!), and some performance issues common to many of Sega's '90s console-to-PC ports, though. It does recognize my gamepad at least, though, so that's something. I really don't like playing games which should be fullscreen windowed, however, so I'd rather only play this on a version of Windows able to run in 320x240 fullscreen. Do know that the game needs your screens' refresh rate to be 60hz to run right; alternatively there is a patch to fix this issue.
Still, beyond that this is a great version of one of the best platformers ever. Super Mario World may be my favorite 2d platformer, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one of the next-best games on the list! This is a fast-paced game which manages to be great fun despite its speed, unlike too many Sonic clones. S3&K has a lot of levels to play through, three playable characters in four modes (with Sonic alone or Sonic with Tails being separate options) each of which plays differently enough to well be worth trying, that great classic Sonic art design, and all the fantastic platform fun of its console counterparts. Sure, the music is a bit off versus the Genesis, and fullscreen is an issue, but this is an exceptional game regardless. The controls are spot-on and levels very well designed. This game has the perfect balance between letting you run fast and learn stages, and has plenty of challenge without resorting to too many cheap traps you'll need to memorize. Some levels have minor puzzle elements too, and they're fun to figure out. It's great stuff. I love the bonus game too; Blue Spheres is easily my favorite Sonic bonus game ever. It's fantastic that this collection includes the full Sonic 1 lock-on Blue Spheres game, where you can play a near-endless number of Blue Spheres levels. Unfortunately just like on the Genesis you will need to write down long passwords in order to return to a favorite stage, as this is a straight port, but still, it's great to have. They could easily have left it out, as some subsequent Sonic 3 & Knuckles digital re-releases on consoles do.
Still, overall, despite how great the game is, and how much fun I had with this game in the late '90s, today this is not the best way to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Unless you've got an older Win9x computer to play this on, dealing with this games' problems will be much more of a hassle than just playing some newer port of the game. It is true that many collections after this one and digital re-releases have not actually included the full Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and thus do not match up to this, but enough do that this has been superceded. There is no new content here, either, and the music is not as good as it is on Genesis. At least one song has been altered, also. Still, on a computer or virtual machine which can run this as intended, the Sonic & Knuckles Collection is a great version of one of the best platformers ever, so pick it up if you see it cheap. Genesis port. This version is PC-exclusive, but all content from this disc is also playable on the Saturn in Sonic Jam and the PS2/Gamecube in Sonic mega Collection & Mega Collection Plus. The Sonic Classic Collection for the DS includes everything except Blue Spheres, though the port is apparently not the best. Digitally, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are available on Wii Virtual Console, Xbox 360 Live Arcade, and PC (Steam), but Blue Spheres is not. There is also an iOS port that I think includes everything. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, but NOT any lock-on games for some stupid reason, are playable in the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the X360 and PS3. Sonic & Knuckles is also included, on its own, in many Genesis handheld and clone consoles.
Sonic 3D Blast (1996, Win9x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Sonic 3D Blast is an isometric platformer developed by Traveller's Tales, now known as TT Games, and published by Sega. The game is controversial, and many people don't like it. And indeed, it is quite different from other Sonic games, with its collection focus, slower pace, and isometric gameplay. However, I do like the game myself, and have all three versions of it, Genesis, Saturn, and PC. Sega ported many of their top console games to the PC in the mid '90s, and this was among them. The game is similar to the Saturn version, but there are some PC-exclusive changes as well, including saving, finally, and a slightly different version of the bonus game. That's all pretty good, and feature-wise, this is maybe the best version of Sonic 3D Blast, but like Sonic CD, I can't get this game to run at all on my newer computer; it needs actual Win9x to work. So, this is another one for people with virtual machines or a Win9X computer only, unfortunately.
And that is unfortunate, because despite its iffy reputation, this game is fun! In Sonic 3D Blast, you explore overhead-isometric stages, trying to find all the small birds called flickies on each part of each stage. Get all the flickies and you can move on to the next area. Unlike the main Sonic games, this is not a fast-paced game; you'll move around somewhat slowly, exploring each level, avoiding the obstacles, and getting those flickies. Each stage is complex and I like exploring them and figuring out what to do and where to go. The designers knew that jumping in isometric 3d can be difficult, so they accounted for this by having most jumping puzzles be not over death or injury pits, but just areas that make you go back, which is great. Good design elements like that make this game much more fun than some games in this genre. The typically Euro-platformer focus on collecting may get old to some, but only having to get five per area isn't nearly as bad as some games, and I do find stages fun to explore. The addition of saving is really great too, because with this games's somewhat slow pace, playing the whole thing in one sitting as you have to do on the Genesis or Saturn is kind of a pain. No issue here! The graphics are quite nice also. This version uses the improved Saturn graphics for the main game, and everything looks pretty good. The bonus game is, sort of like on the Saturn, a Sonic 2-style tube you run down. However, here everything is made up of sprites, not polygons like on Saturn. That change is perhaps a bit unfortunate, as the Saturn one looks pretty good for the time, but it looks fine here, and plays about as well.
Overall, Sonic 3D Blast is a good isometric platformer. This game isn't quite the great classic of the 2d Genesis and Sega CD Sonic games, but it's still a good game, mixed critical reaction or no. I certainly recommend trying some version of Sonic 3D Blast, you never know; you might like it. This version, however, due to its technical issues probably is only for fans of the game. It is probably the best version, but you'll need a computer that can actually run it. This PC version of Sonic 3D Blast is a physical-only PC exclusive. The Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast is included in the Sonic Mega COllection for Gamecube, Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PS2, Xbox, & PC, and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 & X360, and digitally on Wii Virtual Console and PC (Steam). The better-looking Saturn and Win9x PC versions, however, have never been re-released.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported (sometimes). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the PC port of Konami's NES game of the same name. This somewhat infamous platformer is well-known for being frustratingly hard and kind of odd. This is a worse version of that game, but unfortunately, while I loved the Ninja Turtles through the late '80s to mid '90s, somehow THIS was the one and only Ninja Turtles game I bought that decade. Now there was a bad decision; sure, I loved both arcade games, so I played great Ninja Turtles games, but this... this is not good. As a kid I convinced myself it was decent, I guess, probably mostly because I loved the license, though I never got past level two, because it's very hard and quite flawed. And yes, it is worse than the NES original, as this version has worse controls; some altered graphics and decent but not-quite-as-good music; the game has been made much harder than it is on the NES as there are more enemies, enemies don't bounce back when you hit them, and they do more damage; and worst of all, there is a bug which makes one stage impossible in the US version I have unless you cheat to skip that level, but it does add saving. That one positive isn't worth all the negatives in this port of an already-poor game, but it's better than nothing, I guess. Still, the graphics really are kind of ugly. The monsters are all misshapen weird things, the game has EGA or CGA support but not VGA, scrolling is choppy, and the Turtles don't look great either. I don't have the NES version, but from what I've seen it does look a bit better there.
As for the game, though, in this game you play as any of the four Ninja Turtles, going through a series of extremely tough missions. They jump and attack with their weapon, though jumping is awkward and hard to control in this version. The keyboard controls are annoying too, and unconfigurable: Enter to jump, Space to attack. There should be gamepad support, but some versions of the game seem to be missing it, though the one I bought back then does have it. Odd. You can walk around an overhead-view overworld, and from there can enter various sewer or door entrances to play side-scrolling levels. Some levels are necessary, some have useful powerups, while others are just distractions and serve no purpose other than to drain more health than you'll get back from whatever powerup is there, so you will need to learn where to go and where to avoid as you play. And for another change from the NES, no items spawn randomly or when you kill enemies, so the only powerups in this game are the one-time pickups in pre-planned locations. Between all the enemy-behavior changes listed above and this, this game is quite a bit harde than the already-tough NES version. It's just too difficult, an issue I see mentioned in pretty much any online review of this version of the game. And you won't be able to avoid damage, because only Don has a weapon with much range, and it's not going to be enough. You have a health bar, but enemies drain it quickly and health powerups quickly become few and far between. If a turtle runs out of health there are VERY few ways to get them back, and if all four die it's Game Over, so this game gets hard quickly. Enemies swarm you, and they take your health bar down quickly. They respawn the instant you leave the screen, too, and levels are designed to force you to go back and forth some and fight the same guys multiple times. The hit detection is iffy sometimes as well; play control here is a mess. The constant swarms of cheap enemies will overwhelm even Don in a hurry, and once he's low health you're finished. Level designs are mostly fairly basic corridors and platforms, too. There are obstacles to jump over, ladders, platforms, and such, but it's forgettable stuff.
And of course, the second level, an underwater level near a dam, is infamously annoying thanks to its tight timer and mazelike layout; you've got to find some bombs scattered around, and sure won't do it on your first try. What's past level two? Who knows, I never got that far. But level 3 is the one with the impossible jump unless you find a European copy of this game, so there's that.On the positive side, though, you can save anywhere in this version (press Control+S) and continue from exactly that point if you quit to the menu (Control+Q) and load the game, though there is only one save file so watch out where you save. On the NES you can't save and have limited continues, and I do like this addition, but as much as I like saving in games, it does not make up for everything else bad about this game. And the NES game isn't exactly good, either. Also apparently the game gets even more difficult near the end, as the few health powerups drop to almost none. No thanks. This game is mediocre enough in the first two levels, I don't need to see the rest. Overall, the original TMNT game isn't the worst thing, but it is bad. This game is too hard, has mediocre controls with enemies you often have to get too close to to hit, poor level designs, annoying enemies, poor visuals and sound, and a pretty bad bug if you have the US vesion like I do. Don't play this.
Zool 2 (1994, DOS) - 1-2 player alternating, No Saving, gamepad supported. Zool 2 is a below-average European platformer from Gremlin. This game was inspired by Sonic, but has shooting instead of jumping as your main method of attack. I've never really played the first Zool, though it was apparently more popular than this game and was on more platforms, but I got this sequel in the mid '90s because I thought it looked interesting. I don't know what I paid, but I hope it wasn't too much because while games get a lot worse than this, this is one of the weakest games on this list so far. It's okay, I guess, but never was great and has aged somewhat badly. The game has some annoying design traits common to European computer games as well, including bad controls and no saving. This game is an Amiga port with alright graphics, decent audio with limitations, and large levels to explore and collect stuff in. You can play as Zool or his female counterpart Zooz, and the two are the same gameplay-wise. Your controls are okay, but very fast and bouncy. Your character does not feel good to control and moves or bounces around too quickly for you to keep track of, and avoiding damage is often near-impossible. You do have a life bar and health does drop, but still, it can be a problem. Your fast movement can be fun at times, though, and you can grab onto and climb walls, which is nice, and spin-attack if you hold attack while jumping, but still it's way too easy to take hits. You also can only jump with the up button or up on your gamepad, which is terrible; this isn't an Amiga, PCs support more than one-button joysticks! Come on. Gamepad buttons all shoot. And maybe even more annoying, the game does not have both sound effects and music at the same time! You've got to choose one or the other in the menu. I usually choose music, so you're running around grabbing stuff without much sense of interaction with the world around you. It's weird stuff, in a bad way. I really hope that isn't common on the Amiga, it's no good. No other PC platformer I have played is like this. If you want to play a version of this game with both sound AND music, your only option is the Atari Jaguar port, but few people have that console of course. I don't.
As for the gameplay, it's okay, but also flawed. "Collect" is the operative term, here, from my description above, as your goal in each level is to get the pickups-collected number in the bottom left up to 99; before that point, even if you reach the end of a level you cannot exit. So, grab everything you can, get up to 99, then go to the exit. The game starts in a candyland world, and perhaps takes that too far, as the game has a license from British lollypop company Chupa Chups, whose logo is all over the game on pickups. It's kind of silly that this American release of the game still has advertising all over for a company I've never heard of here in the US, but it does. The levels themselves are large and full of enemies, lots of small pickups that look like teddy bears, worms, chicken legs, and all kinds of other weird stuff, bounce pads which look like odd things like eggs, and secrets to find behind hidden walls you can break if you attack them. So yeah, this game is for item-collection fans only! Exploring levels, finding secrets, and picking up the mountains of items can be fun, and the game thankfully has few to no bottomless pits, always a plus in fast-paced platformers like this one. The game is somewhat repetitive, however, particularly when you have to backtrack to find more items to pick up to max out that percentage. Oh, and enemies respawn, too, unfortunately. As a result of all this, the game quickly gets hard, and you have no saving in this game frustratingly enough, and only have any continues if you earn them ingame. There are cheat codes for level-skip, lots of lives, and the like, but without them I've never gotten past world two in Zool 2. Most PC platformers have saving, so the absence of a save system always has been one of my biggest complaints about this game; it has other issues as well, but saving is the worst one. If I could save my progress between levels, the game would be more fun for sure, it would help reduce the frustration factor. You can cheat, but that's not as satisfying. There are some good points to this game, including decent VGA graphics with some okay background designs, large levels to explore which can be fun to find the secrets in, and nicely bouncy music. However, Zool 2 has many issues, including the overfocus on collecting, the too-fast movement and jumping, the absence of both music and sound at the same time, the up-to-jump-only controls, and the inability to save your game. On the whole Zool 2 is an okay but below-average game I can't really recommend except for huge collection-game fans who like European platformer design or for people who want to see all the Sonic-inspired games out there. Also available on Amiga, Amiga CD32 (Europe only), and Atari Jaguar. The Jaguar version is the best as it is the only one with both music and sound at once.