Gates of Zendocon

"A underrated gem for a doomed handheld"

Introduction

Alright to begin with Gates of Zendocon was released as a launch title along with the Lynx in 1989. That's the same release year as the gameboy for those that are interested. For the launch title of a superior handheld system (Colour, Sprite scaling and back lighting) it's quite surprising that this title is not only not well known but also severely underrated. Since no accurate in depth reviews exist for this game I'm seeking to rectify that problem.

The game is at heart a scrolling shooter but with an impressive list of varied enemies and backgrounds. At a casual glance the game can appear unimpressive but it should be understand that there are 51 levels varying from about 1 – 5 minutes in length.

Graphics 8/10

For a handheld title released in 1989 the sprite detail and in-game effects are rather impressive. While the game is lacking in the animation department (most enemies only have a few frames of animation and share a similar death explosion) the games enemies are extremely varied, most certainly not shapeless blobs.

Throughout the game you'll battle through generic UFO that can shoot lasers, avoid bright and sparkly space dust, they'll be strange snakes dragons but where the game really shines is some of its more unorthodox such as a kind of radar dish that when fired out, reflects a massive wave of laser rounds at your ship and the crystal and black hole slug enemies that take advantage of sprite scaling.

I'd estimate there to be about 10 backgrounds for the game spread across it's levels they could best be described as space, alien flora, cityscape, metal, red underground, warp zone and couple of other areas.

To help prevent complete repetition the game can and does use palate swapping (occasionally in real time) on some enemies and backgrounds.

On the downside the game does tend to lack detail in most of it's sprites but that's also part of a hardware limitation.

Graphics: 8/10

Sound and Music 6/10

The sounds across the board can be defined as adequate, the laser shots sound enough like lasers and the explosions while somewhat poor due to the sound chip are also at a reasonably level of acceptance. The few sounds that the enemies make are also passable.
There are several music tracks repeated across the levels. Nothing really extraordinary or memorable but it's far better then no music. As a nice touch the game lets you turn the music off manually for whatever use that could be. I was a little disappointed that the final boss battle does not contain a unique music track but the ending does. Each song loop is roughly 30 seconds in length and there's about 6 of them.

Sound: 6/10

Gameplay 9/10

At heart the game is a side-scrolling shooter, you move in a single direction and shoot things along the way, it does however have a couple of extra tidbits that make it a lot more interesting. Firstly the level isn't confined to the small lynx screen the game scrolls both up and down a screens length to accommodate a larger amount of enemies.

The ship is equipped with a straight line beam attack that fires continuously when the fire button is held down and a kind of flare that falls forward and downwards in an ark when the fire button is pressed (it can be pressed in quick succession to produce more). The laser however can not kill all enemies and it can be necessary to use the flare, it also helps clear out the area below your screen. The ship also has a shield that protects your ship from most attacks for a limited amount of time or hits (it recharges overtime however there is no indication when it's running out). Also your ship has 2 hits before it's destroyed on the first hit your ship loses its force shield and on the second its main laser it can however be replaced at a any level interval.

Speaking of the ship the game does in fact have power ups (in the form of crude familiars) but the game doesn't just hand you each power up in fact it's quite possible without realising it to go throw the game without finding a single one. There are 4 and are usually hidden such as one is hidden in a green crystal and another is a fixed turret that can be destroyed and collected. For the sake of completion the 4 abilities they provide are a forward expanding wave attack, a forward fireball, a homing ball and a vertical attack. Destruction of your ship or consistent enemy contact with your power ups cause them to be destroy (with the exclusion of the homing ball which is only lost when your ship is destroyed).

The games controls are both simple and responsive direction pad for directions, A is shield and B is fire.

While most of the levels contain few environmental obstacles there are some exceptions such as the machine levels which can contain mazes. Most of your competition comes from enemies who are largely unique and there are some really interesting enemies such as my personal favourite the crystal enemies which are not aggressive they're just fast growing (as in a single crystal grows into two) and then when they become too heavy they fall down. The variation between standard enemies, mazes and environmental dangers makes the first play-through quite entertaining as it is really quite hard to anticipate what comes next due to the gate system.

The gate system in this game essentially means that at the end (and sometimes in the middle) of each level you can fly through gates and you go to the *next* level. This system means you can be reflected around and end up going in circles however it does mean extra replayability because it's almost impossible to go through every level in your first playthrough. In between levels you enter a kind of port with a landing pad occasionally the pad is electrified (!) and your landing must be timed, just holding down is enough to land.

Two difficulty modes are provider, easy and hard, easy is very little challenge except in some of the later levels but hard due to its much faster game play is definitely a challenge. Death at any point in a level removes all your power ups and takes you back to the level beginning which can be infuriating however passwords can return you to the beginning of any level.

Gameplay: 9/10

Story…? 2/10

I'll level with you, there isn't really much of a gatherable story except at the end you return to earth I guess, so it's about being lost in Zendocon or something, I lost my booklet honestly. Though props for bothering to put an intro and even an ending into the game which is far better then just a plain “The End”

2/10

Final Words

And here we come to the end of this review, if I can convince just one person to pick up this reasonable and underrated title for a sadly failed system then I've done what I wanted to do, Gates of Zendocon is a decent shooter with some decent ideas and it's entirely enjoyable. Back when I first played this game in 1992 and carted it around in my lynx it was really something special. It hasn't aged too badly and is still pretty entertaining.

Final score (not an average):8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/06