Zorro
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MrFlibble
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Re: Zorro
This game is one of the rare attempts to duplicate gameplay of Prince of Persia, which is why it had caught my attention in the first place. While having a great visual resemblance to Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, Zorro isn't as successful in recreating the intricate puzzles and smooth gameplay of the original game. Playing through a level gets rather chaotic, and only the ability to save the game at any point, and infinite lives, somewhat compensates for clumsy controls and random arrays of traps that verge on the brink of Nintendo Hard. Whereas Prince managed to perfectly balance careful exploration, solving puzzles and sword-fighting action, all of these elements, re-imagined by the creators of Zorro and adapted to the different setting of the story, seem to have been thrown in without any global design in mind.
Once you got accustomed to controls in moving the eponymous Zorro around the maze (those who find the control system of PoP inconvenient will be introduced to a new level of "hard"), you can get to your first fighting scene, with two weapons available to you: the rapier and the trademark Zorro whip. The rapier might sound cool, especially when Zorro shouts "en garde!" whenever he draws it, but the smooth sword-fighting action sequences not unlike those in adventure movies, characteristic of Prince's gameplay, are nowhere to be found here. Zorro is, in fact, much safer using the whip to damage opponents from a distance, rather than risk engaging in a melee and getting beaten by an opponent without the slightest ability to hit back, or, at best, getting a "swingandamiss" every time.
Nevertheless, the game has some fun potential, and the graphics are pretty nice overall. The effects like the main character's figure getting better lit whenever he moves close to a lantern in the wall are all neat little additions here and there. The credits state that Bobby Prince did the music, and the tunes are rather catchy and atmospheric - if only they would not swap randomly whenever you load a saved game. Zorro is worth looking at if only as one of the scarce "clones" of Prince of Persia - perhaps the reason why there are so few of them is that the classic game is pretty hard to duplicate successfully.
Once you got accustomed to controls in moving the eponymous Zorro around the maze (those who find the control system of PoP inconvenient will be introduced to a new level of "hard"), you can get to your first fighting scene, with two weapons available to you: the rapier and the trademark Zorro whip. The rapier might sound cool, especially when Zorro shouts "en garde!" whenever he draws it, but the smooth sword-fighting action sequences not unlike those in adventure movies, characteristic of Prince's gameplay, are nowhere to be found here. Zorro is, in fact, much safer using the whip to damage opponents from a distance, rather than risk engaging in a melee and getting beaten by an opponent without the slightest ability to hit back, or, at best, getting a "swingandamiss" every time.
Nevertheless, the game has some fun potential, and the graphics are pretty nice overall. The effects like the main character's figure getting better lit whenever he moves close to a lantern in the wall are all neat little additions here and there. The credits state that Bobby Prince did the music, and the tunes are rather catchy and atmospheric - if only they would not swap randomly whenever you load a saved game. Zorro is worth looking at if only as one of the scarce "clones" of Prince of Persia - perhaps the reason why there are so few of them is that the classic game is pretty hard to duplicate successfully.