Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal

"Catch the fairy!"

Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal is a cute little Pokemon clone for the PC. You play Amy a girl, living in London, who is sucked into the magic world of Zanzarah.

Graphic 8/10:
Cute, really cute and very good done. Everything in Zanzarah looks nice and cute. Yes, very cute. Amy looks cute, the Goblins are looking cute, Dwarfs and Elves are cute and the Dark Elves (the evil guys) are very cute too. So if you have a problem with cute games, stop reading this review, because you will hate Zanzarah.
While the characters in this game are all very cute, the landscape is realistic and a fun to watch. No matter, if you travel though mountains, dungeons or dark forests.

Music and Sound effects 6/10:
The music is okay, but it is always the same. The game comes along with just one battle music; so, no matter what you are fighting against you are always listening to the same happy battle music.
The sound effects are okay too, but I miss speech. Only Amy and a few books are talking the human tongue. All other creatures in Zanzarah are using some strange language, which repeats, after a very short time. The sound effects during the battle sequences are okay, but nothing special.

Gameplay 7/10:
While traveling Zanzarah, Amy uses fairies and only fairies to fight. Sometimes against other fairy trainers, most times against wild fairies. When entering a battle, the fairies will fight in a 3D arena. You play these sequences in the first person view. But you don't need to be a good first person shooter to stand a chance in this fights, cause dodging enemy attacks is nearly impossible. The controls are far to sluggish for evading actions. The only way to win is to battle the enemy fairy with the right fairy type. So if you battle a chaos fairy with a nature fairy, the chaos fairy might have 20 levels more then you nature fairy, but you'll still win. But still you have to level a lot to assure a relatively save passage for Amy, while she travels Zanzarah on her search for more and more fairies.
Of course you can catch wild fairies and use them in your own battles. Catching them is simple and very well done. You just have to weaken the wild fairy and then catch it, by touching it with your own fairy. Of course you need special fairy catching items, so called ''Spheres'' to do this.

Story 5/10:
Unimportant and far away from being innovative. Catch as many fairies as possible and save both worlds your own and Zanzarah, that's it.

Difficulty: Easy to medium
When Amy dies or loses a fairy battle, she will reenter the screen, so you can start again. The fairy battles are easy, if you have a good collection of fairies and take your time to level up a bit. Sometimes the game can be a little frustrating if you simply have no idea, where to go next.

Overall 7/10:
Zanzarah is a cute, little game without being great. If you like games where you catch, collect and train creatures, you'll like Zanzarah. It is no big playing experience, neither a game you will remember but it's fun playing it one time.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/04