Zapper (Xbox)

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CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
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Product summary

Zapper delivers challenging action puzzle gameplay in a colorful, upbeat setting.

Specifications: ESRB: Everyone; Genre: Puzzle; Number of players: 1-4 Players See full specs

Price range: $19.99

Gamespot editors' review

Reviewed by: Ryan Davis
Reviewed on: 11/11/2002
Released on: 11/03/2002

Blitz Games has never really been the epitome of groundbreaking game design, usually hiring its services out to publishers for low-profile licensed games like Cubix: Robots for Everyone. But this small British development house has been incredibly prolific recently, shipping no fewer than four games in the past six months. Granted, none of these titles have been real award-winners, but the latest from Blitz Games, Zapper, is probably the most noteworthy of the bunch. As the spiritual successor to Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge, Zapper delivers more challenging action puzzle gameplay in a colorful, upbeat setting.

Zapper fulfills its modest aspirations of creating an enjoyable action puzzle game.

The story of Zapper the cricket serves as very thin window dressing, motivating you to stop Maggie the Magpie and rescue your little brother, Zipper. Zapper is basically just Frogger without the license, and anyone who played either of the first two 3D Frogger games should be instantly familiar with the game's controls, and players familiar with the platformer formula should have little trouble figuring this one out. You'll guide Zapper across a series of 3D grids, hopping from space to space, dodging hazards, leaping across chasms, and doing a little bit of zapping, which can stun enemies and open up wooden crates. Your primary goal is to smash all six of the evil magpie eggs placed in each level by Maggie the Magpie, but there are also lots and lots of shiny baubles to collect, and collecting enough of these will give you a onetime superzap, which can be used to reveal secret areas of the map and open up special steel crates. Using the shoulder buttons, you can make Zapper change the direction he's facing without hopping to another square, which makes for much tighter level design all around. At 18 levels, Zapper is longer than Frogger 2, but unfortunately the action generally doesn't change much through the 18 levels, and you'll probably have had your fill of Zapper by the end.

If you indeed tire of Zapper's story mode, the game also offers an arcade mode and a multiplayer mode. The arcade mode isn't much--it essentially just puts a timer on levels you've already played. Though every game in the multiplayer mode is a slight variation on the theme of catching Zipper on the map before the other players do, this mode is made more interesting because of the inclusion of custom rules, which let you tweak the match settings to your liking.

Zapper is basically just Frogger without the license.

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