Zero 5 review - Atari Jaguar

`Zero 5`

Zero 5 by Caspian Games, published by Telegames
Players: 1
Levels: 15
Difficulty: INSANE, even on easy!
YOR: Late 1997

The Story

The Battle for Earth has begun...

The year is 2044. On the far reaches of the galaxy an invasion force is assembling.

On-board is an alien race, an army of elite warriors.

Their destination, Earth.

Their purpose, to destroy all human life.

As if one entity, the fleet of alien battle ships slowly moves silently through space, trying not to be discovered. Strange alien technology reaches out scanning the darkness, continually looking for anything that might give their position away.

An Europa III satellite from Earth was speeding it's way out of the solar system and beyond into the unknown. Its mission was to collect and send back data continually streamed from it's sensors. A sudden blast rang out as the Europa III was blown out of existence. Scanners from the approaching alien force had detected it's presence, locked onto it, and blown it clean away. Nothing was left, the only sign that it ever existed was the last data-packet it had managed to beam back in the direction of Earth before it's destruction in sector Zero 5.

Its last act would not be in vane, because once decoded, the data would alert Earth to the approaching alien threat. The Nations of Earth quickly form DEFCON (DEFense CONtrol), a huge network of defensive stations. Each one is a single node in a network that encases Earth and it's outposts. This net provides a service base for defense craft, commonly know as BAMBAM fighters and HIT-PAK cruisers. All operations are directly linked to a central Data Core. Detection of any irregularity within Earth's space is relayed to the awaiting defenses. On-board are Earth's best space pilots known as Space Hounds. it is your job to be the main gunner in the HIT-PAK and the pilot of BAMBAM and to engage the approaching alien forces. Destroy them, before they manage to reach Earth. Only the best survive, and remember, the fate of Earth lies in your hands!",

Zero 5 was one of the last Telegames releases for the Jaguar, right before Worms. Among the games this is in my opinion, one of the best out of the bunch, and definently ranks among the Top 10 Jag games. On with the review...

Z5 is a wild space-shooter, taking place among a variety of perspectives. In level 1 you take control of a BAMBAM fighter craft which can point in basically any direction on the screen, although it pretty much stays in the same place(looks like it moves because of the starfields). At first, you'll probably be overwhelmed because of it's strange way of doing things, like the patterns the enemies attack you with. They are usually fixed patterns that variate a little bit with a group, then a new group of ships comes in with a new pattern. The action is fast! It's fast throughout the entire game. I do not recommend Zero 5 for the light-hearted gamer, because they'll probably put it away after too long. If you're going to play, you'd better be ready for the long haul, and you'd better like shooting.

The gfx are 3D, and are colored in 256-colors, which allows for a quite nice poly-count on-screen. The rendering is what lacks for it in some areas. There are some nice T-maps, some of which are animated. There are also some cool real-time sequences which show you launching from your ship or whatever, which are some cool additions to the game. Also, this game has tons of speed. Especially in the trench levels!

There are three basic types of modes you play in. Some levels usually include two of these modes. They are:

BAMBAM Mode - Fly around in the fighter shooting things in all 360°. Includes power-ups for weapons, shields, and score.

HIT-PAK Mode - Somewhat like a variation on the Missle Command 3D VR mode. You are in a turret with four guns to blast everything that comes your way. Has a cool asteroids like part to it in a couple of levels.

Trench mode - In the BAMBAM fighter, you run a long a trench(like in Star Wars) and blow the crap out of everything that comes in your way. Most people quit after(well, during) the first trench level because it's so intense. It's a mode that takes practice. Also includes power-ups.

I absolutely LOVE this game. It gives you the feeling you get when playing T2k on the later levels, it's such a rush. But it does have it's frustrating side. It can get very hard. I have the greatest trouble on level 10. I wonder what the programmers were thinking when they made this level. Many people quit on level 3(even the guys at GameFan did when trying the game, same as everyone I saw play it when it was demoed at a local store). There is no auto-fire function, so you have to press the button each time you want to fire.

The music is also great. I agree with Gamefan when they commented on the music being better than 90% of the n64 games' music out there. Has some techno-intensive music like Tempest, although it's a little different style. It's very great though, andd the game wouldn't be the same without it. The sound FX are also done very well.

The control takes some getting used to, but more especially if you're a beginner gamer or a soft-core. It's responsive, but you need to get used more to how the ships move. It'll take some practice in each mode. A good gamer will get used to it fast though.
RATINGS-

GRAPHICS- A- - Yeah it's 256-colors, but it's fast, had some good T-mapping, and lots of polys.
Music/Sound- A+ - WOO-HOO! Just like Tempest 2k. I love techno! "All this housed into a cartridge"
Control- B - Like I said, depends on who you are really. If you're used to the JagPad, that'll help out.
Fun Factor- A- - Always fun, unless you play for a long time and get swarmd by tons of enemies and die. You only get one life...