Zool

An alien ninja from the fifth dimension pushing his way through a world made of sweets. Zool was the Amiga's ambitious attempt to gain its own platforming icon that could rival Sega's Sonic. The acrobatic black ninja of gnome-like build became one of the most heavily promoted characters in computer gaming of the early nineties.

The game was released by Gremlin Graphics in 1992 and bet on speed and acrobatics. Zool can run on walls, climb and shoot, with the pace of the game markedly brisker than many contemporary competitors. The levels are packed with enemies and collectible items, and the first world, set in a landscape of candy and chocolate, became the visual calling card of the whole game.

Zool, however, went down in history not only for its gameplay but also as a textbook example of aggressive product placement. That sweet world was saturated with advertising for Chupa Chups lollipops, whose logo adorns the backgrounds and even the enemies. This commercial collaboration was remarkably conspicuous for its time and became one of the first striking cases of corporate advertising built directly into a game world.

In the context of the era, Zool was presented as a technological showcase of the Amiga's capabilities and the game enjoyed strong marketing support. It received a sequel, Zool 2, and ports to a number of other platforms, confirming its popularity across the gaming market of the early nineties.

Today Zool is interesting both as a solid fast platformer and as an artefact of a time when game makers were only just learning to work with advertising and mascots. That black ninja running across chocolate platforms remains an unmistakable symbol of the Amiga era.

Why play it: A fast, acrobatic platformer that wanted to be the Amiga's Sonic, plus a fascinating piece of gaming product placement history in the form of sweet Chupa Chups worlds.