Zapper

"Never have the life of a cricket been so exciting"

Story: 3

Zapper: One Wicked Cricket is as the name suggests, a game about a cricket. The story is almost non existent and only briefly shown in a cutesy movie before you start of. But the bottom of it; The land where Zapper lives is terrorized by Maggie the Magpie who steals things and leaves behind eggs, which hatches new magpie babies that also will begin to steal things.
But one day Maggie steals Zipper, Zapper's brother. So Zapper sets of on his quests to rescue his brother. And that's it... that's the story. So don't expect any in depth interesting story here.

Gameplay: 8

Zipper is a platform / puzzle game. It controls almost as the old Frog game. Where if you push forward, Zipper takes a small jump forward. You push to the right and he takes a small jump to the right. And if you push the ''A'' button, he does a long jump which makes him jump two squares at once. The ''B'' allows Zap to use his antennas to shot away a small electric charge to kill certain enemies or open boxes. Which if you collect enough fireflies and find a firefly nest you can upgrade to a single use super shot. ''L'' and ''R'' turn Zap 90 degrees to left or right, in case you need to jump over a small pit but is facing the wrong way.
The controls are very easy to learn. But in my experience, playing with the analog stick is not a good choice. Sometimes when using the analog stick and wanting to make Zapper jump forward, he takes a leap to the right or left instead. Often plummeting to his doom since this game requires a lot of precise movements in certain levels. This problem gets eliminated when using the D-pad however

So this isn't the sort of freedom walking platform like most others. Here you jump a square at a time. Avoiding enemies, traps, pits and more.

The story mode game consists of 4 worlds, each world containing 3 stages and a hidden stage with a special mini game.
Every level requires you to collect 6 eggs to complete it. And there's also 100 fireflies on each level, which often requires puzzle skill and good reflexes to get a hold of them all. And if you manage to collect every firefly, you're rewarded with a bonus stage to win different helmets that Zapper can wear.

The arcade mode is basically the same, but this time you need to race through the stages as quickly as you can. Which can be fun if you enjoy challenges against time.

If you happen to have some friends, the game also sports a few multiplayer options. Sadly, they aren't very fun nor very good. They have a basic football game (soccer for the US, football for the rest of the world).
Last Man Standing and Death Match, which is just zapping your opponent till death. Unfortunately, the stages are completely square and small so it not very exciting at all.
Then they have Strangle Hold, which is just to try and hold Zipper for as long as you can while the others try to zap you. And the one holding it the longest wins.
The last game is probably the most fun, Death by Zipper. If playing with four players, four blue larvas is released into the stage. And you need to do your best at avoiding them as they seek out whom ever they are closest to. Which can turn pretty hectic if you're being chased by all four of the larvas, trying to make them hunt another player instead.

Graphic: 7

The graphics aren't really pushing the Gamecube to its limit. It seems to have used polygons quite sparingly as a lot of things looks blocky. The levels look very colorful and well put together. The textures stands out and makes the game visually good to look at despite the lack of polygons. All the stages are very different from each other, anything from a high tech science lab to a haunted western town.

Sound: 5

Honestly, I didn't listen very much to the music. Reason being that I didn't find a lot of the tunes in the game any good. Some music bits were good though, but some of them got very repetitive quickly. The sound effects are what you can expect in a game like this, they get the work done. Nothing more and nothing less. Only annoyance is Zapper's death cry, after hearing it for the twentieth time it gets on your nerve.

Lifespan: 5

Oh my... this is ugly. The game is short. very, very short. If you're a skilled gamer you'll have jumped through this game in a few hours. Even if you try to collect all fireflies, all secret levels, cheats and helmets. The game will not last you more then a full day of playing. And since you start of with 20 lives and have unlimited continues if you lose all, the game won't be very hard to complete.
But if you're into arcade racing against time or enjoy its multiplay against friends. Then that will make the game last a little longer. But there's a lot better multiplayer games out there then this.
If they'd slapped a few more stages into the game it would have helped some. Perhaps also a mode where you race against others on the same stage would have helped the lifespan.
Myself, I had a good and fun time playing the game. Sadly it ended to quickly for me and even after completing the game to 100% I thought ''Was that all...?''

Rent or buy:

Rent. You'll complete this during the rental period without any problems. And if you loved it extremely, buy it then. Or if you can find it for very cheap it can be worth a purchase. Just remember that it's mainly aimed for kids. But if you're like me and enjoy puzzle and platform games. You'll probably enjoy Zapper for the time it lasts.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/03