Review: Is "wicked" the right word to use?
I really feel that the GBA is the perfect venue for platform titles, much in the same manner that the Super Nintendo was. Look at how well the Super Mario translations have gone and you'll see what I mean. The portable system has just the right amount of processing power and number of control options to push the heck out of the two-dimensional side of the genre. However, just because the system caters to the genre doesn't mean that every platform title on it is a winner. That falls on the shoulders of the developer. Zapper: One Wicked Cricket for the Game Boy Advance makes several strides in the right direction towards being a good game. Unfortunately, a few strides won't win a race, especially in a crowded pack.
Zapper starts off with a fairly decent graphical scheme. Zapper and his chums remind me a lot of the characters in the movie A Bugs Life. They are visually charismatic even though they are a little bit stale. All of the colors are bright and vibrant, much like a cartoon, and do their best to work with the poorly lit GBA screen. Unfortunately, the animations are very basic and wind up feeling either too choppy or too subtle to notice. The overall package does work well and gets you ready for an enjoyable experience.
The gameplay doesn't keep the ball rolling though. It isn't that the game plays horribly, it is more that it feels uninspired. The simplicity of the gameplay, while appealing to less experienced game players, doesn't break any new ground. You will spend most of your time avoiding enemies and collecting coins and eggs. Occasionally you even get to jump between moving platforms. Really, there isn't much to it. There are a few non-story modes that help to give the game a little bit of variety, even a multiplayer mode that operates with one cartridge. But they too seem like more of the same. Once again, none of it is bad, it just isn't anything new. At least everyone had the sense of mind to include a battery save feature to track your progress.
The only real negative point to Zapper is that the gameplay is unusually unforgiving. As the game progresses, you must learn to push Zapper through levels quicker and quicker to avoid danger and navigate the puzzles. Unfortunately, you aren't able to see very far in front of your little insect buddy and often find yourself in inescapable danger. So what do you do? You fall in the pit (or get cut by the chainsaw, or ground up in the grinders, or...), die, and try again. Hopefully you learn from your mistakes and make it a little bit further the next time around. This really cuts into the longevity of the game and will limit most playing sessions to about ten minutes.
