Zen: Intergalactic Ninja

"The ninja trash cleaner is here in GameBoy!!!"

This game is one of the first few game I bought for the gameboy.Well,I don't know why I bought it,just by looking at the cover,I decided to try the game out to see the game's good or bad.So I bought the game and played for a while,then I realize the game's actually from a comic fictional character,so I thinks it's cool.The game is not bad as I played the game for some days before I actually stop playing and decided to switch to other games.Zen's attacks are cool,but the attacks are rather jaded as it is rather slow but the game's fast and furious which makes the game good though.

Story line:

The story is like this. The universe is fighting the losing battle against pollution led by Lord Contaminous until a kid came into the picture. Jeremy Baker, the holder of the Geocrystal, who can destroy the army pollutants with the Geocrystal.

Now he’s been kidnapped and Lord Contanminous wants the Geocrystal that it is his only threat as well as killing the star child (Jeremy). So the Gordons need you and Zen’s help to save Jeremy as well as aiding to decimate Lord Contaminous.

Braced yourself to trash the four stages of grime fighting. After wasting bosses at each stage and finally meet Lord Contaminous and defeat him to save Jeremy, the holder of the Geocrystal, which is used to destroy all pollutants. Well, if you read Zen comics, you should understand the story plot or by simply reading the cut scenes or the booklet also gives basic understanding about Zen comics.

Gameplay:

This game is a action fighting game that fight through stages with some environment cleaning to do. The stages fits the bosses of pollutants and the bonus stages are fun because it's a rescuing mission, which is based on real environmental situations which allows you to save the world from it's pollutants which is cool in my view. There's one rescue mission tough which is the oil stage,so it may take a while before you succeed in the game for maximum points.

The game is easy with some simple strategies to complete this game, but, it can be frustrating at time because it's rather hard to complete rescue missions due to traps and some obstacles that is rather tough to crack and need to be observant in order to do well.

Zen has a few decent attacks,like photon burst,sliding,attacking which makes the game rather bored as I think there should be a wide variety of attacks.The power-ups are okay like the crystal which allows you temporary invincibility but I think they should add more power-ups like increase in attacks which makes the game better.

It's rather difficult and frustrating, at times, as some situations are rather tricky and one wrong move will cost your life when you play the first few times. There are all sorts of enemies ranging from robot dogs to sensor traps.The game's rather short as you only play about 5 stages before you complete the game.

Controls:

Controls and moves are easy to learn, just read the instruction manual and you will do fine or just play the game for a while by playing around with the controls and you will learn the game's control fast.In any aspect,you won't find much difficulty to deal with this area of problem though.

Difficulty:

Like I say earlier,the game's not really difficult as long as you know the basics of the game.You will need to go through some tough situations before you can excel and complete the game.It may be frustrating at first as one mistake may led to death,but you will overcome it with a clear mind and this game is very easy after you gain some experience though.

Video and audio:

Video:

The video is okay because of Gameboy's capability, it's quite clear images of enemies which in turn brings some enjoyment to the game. The background is nice a it suits the stages you are in but there's always room for improvement like make the background more lively instead of it looking 'dead'.

Audio:

The audio is great, especially the Oil and Dust stages. Overall, the video and audio is okay for anyone. However the sounds effects are poor,there's no much in this game except for drums rising and acid rain noises.They lack enemies' sound effects so I hope they improve in this area though.

Replay value:

Unfortunately, this game does not worth any replay value, because it has nothing to offer much so once you completed this game or after you played a few times, you will likely shove it aside unless you are real addicted to this game since there's nothing much to play for so I hope they improve on that.

Should you try out the game?

Overall, this game is okay but it's not worth buying it because of the replay value. Renting this game is better rather than buying it unless you are a fan of Zen comics and want to own the game.

Gameplay:8/10
Video and Audio: 7/10
Replay value: 2/10
Entertainment: 6/10

Overall score: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/02, Updated 09/22/02