"For anyone who dreamt of catching fairies"

I told my sister Zanzarah is what you'd get if you crossed Pokemon and the movie Labyrinth, but it's a little more than that. Basically, you're Amy, a London-dwelling teenager who suddenly finds a goblin running around inside her house, and when she gives chase, she finds herself whisked off to the magical world of Zanzarah. Immediatley she learns from the goblin, Raifi, that evil is on the rise, and (tell me you're surprised) only she can stop it. Okay, not winning any points for originality in the storyline.

The game is like Pokemon in that it has you catching and using fairies of various kinds and abilities to fight your battles and overcome special hazards. Whenever you battle a wild fairy or a fellow fairy trainer, you begin a one-on-one FPS battle between your fairy and the opposing fairy, but you and they can swap from other fairies in your immediate assortment any time you like. Which is good because, like in Pokemon, each type has the advantage over particular other types (Fire does extra damage to Nature, Water does extra damage to Fire, etc). The player is encouraged to charge up spells by holding down the fire button to increase the bounty of gold coins that are released when a successful hit is landed, as well as to do more damage to the enemy. The game also lets you swap spells from your fairy's list at any time when you're not in a battle, as opposed to learning new moves as they gain levels.

The graphics of the various locales Amy visits as she searches for the source of the problems threatening Zanzarah are breathtaking. Tiralin looks just like an ancient medevel town, Endeva is a charming little country hamlet, and the mountain area simply defies description. It's a lot of fun finding all the hidden treasures lying around and learning to make use of them all. In fact learning to manage your inventory is paramount, since there are no ''fairy centers,'' and all healing, mana replenishing and poison curing must be done with items.

For the downsides, the controls for both Amy and her fairies in battle feel rather sluggish. She's obviously not on the track team. Using both the keyboard and the mouse simultaneously during battles can be a pain, and makes things like dodging enemy spells almost impossible. Many battles you'll probably win just by outlasting your opponent. Maybe people who play a lot of FPS would do better than me.

And speaking for myself, I would've sacrificed ten or fifteen fairy types to give Amy and her interactions with the people of Zanzarah a little more zest. Basically she listens while other people (elves, goblins, dwarves) talk to her, with the occasional yes/no question thrown in. In typical RPG tradition, though, you usually have to answer a certain way to make the game progress any further.

All in all Zanzarah is an okay game, but it's the kind you play to see the sights and catch 'em all rather than enjoy the scintillating conversation and stuff like that. The controls take a lot of getting used to and sometimes you'll be complaining you can't go five steps without getting attacked by a fairy. But if you're patient, you'll enjoy yourself.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/09/03