Reviewed: April 19, 2005
Reviewed by: John DeWeese
Publisher
Garage Games
Developer
Garage Games
Released: January 5, 2005
Genre: Action
Players: 2-8
ESRB: N/A
5
4
3
4
4.5
System Requirements
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
You only have to see the latest K-Swiss commercials on television to realize the retro-80s look is back. Retro computer games seem to be the rage with many indie developers, and Zap! is no different. Available for download at GarageGames.com, this ship combat game mixes Asteroids with Pac Man with the multiplayer action of PC online shooters.
According to the game’s website, lead developer Mark Frohnmayer wanted to take his experience working on Sierra’s Tribes series to “… bring the Zen of retro 80’s arcade action game play to today’s internet multiplayer gamer.” Some critics absolutely love this back-to-basics approach, considering Zap! won the 2004 IndieGamesCon 2004 “Player’s Choice Award” for best overall and best multiplayer game.
I can agree with the developer that this title looks and sounds like an early 80s arcade game, with simple geometrical shapes done in bright neon colors for spaceships and loud bleeps and blaps as the only sound effects. But despite the old-time look and feel, I never felt anything approaching a “Zen” moment while playing this title. A great retro game can make the hours disappear, yet Zap! kept me glancing at my watch as I played through its various levels. Even with the bonus of decent multiplayer action, I just couldn’t shake the feeling I had done this all before too many times.
First and foremost, I recommend grabbing a game pad controller for Zap! since it’s pretty tricky using only mouse and keypad. Getting around the screen using the WASD keys wasn’t so bad, but the tricky part is at the same time you’re zipping along trying to use your mouse to line the other guy’s ship up in your crosshairs for a perfect shot. Firing randomly doesn’t cut it unless you catch an opponent in a cross-fire between your team-members.
There are several different missions available in Zap! from capture the flag scenarios to team zone control to a cut-throat game of hunter. You pilot your ship around a maze looking for flags to grab and enemy ships to “zap” between your crosshairs, all the while trying to avoid obstacles like enemy mines and turrets. There is some strategy involved in deciding how to arm and equip your ship – shields are always a good option but you can also take a repair module that will allow you to capture turrets. There’s also stealth mode for those matches when everybody’s out to get you.
Your weapons range from single phaser shots to bouncing shots to explosive shots, with a few mines you can plant at strategic intersections. Depending on the mission, you could encounter hyperspace tunnels that will transport you across the board, force fields that will block your way, or load-out zones where you quickly switch out that repair module for a new cloaking device.
The most popular missions seemed to be hunter, where everybody starts with a flag and the whole idea is blast the other guy and take his flag back to the starting portal for points. The portal only opens for a short time, ensuring a major bloodbath when everyone returns to cash in flags. Team play seemed hard to coordinate because nobody has time to type commands in the middle of the action.
I liked how Zap! offers a decently challenging AI to keep things interesting, and that its multiplayer servers all seemed very stable. Yet game play tended to get pretty repetitious as I realized using a basic phaser and shield combo was the best strategy most games. I didn’t like the controls, such as having to aim with the crosshairs instead of “spraying and praying,” which in my mind killed all the reckless fun I used to have back in Atari’s heyday. The missions could have used more obstacles or floating dangers (asteroids you could blow apart perhaps?) and the mazes seemed much too small for a good multiplayer match.
Regular scheduled games are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4:30 p.m. EST, making it impossible for somebody like me on the West Coast to participate in them. There didn’t seem to be a large community of players the afternoons I was able to log on, only a few hard-cores who were insanely tough to beat. That’s a shame, because Zap!’s main selling point is the online action.
Zap! is about as barebones in the graphics department as you can get – triangle ships, oval turrets with a line on the top for a “cannon,” bright blue maze walls that seem traced from Pac Man. I enjoyed the bright neon colors but wished for more details. Perhaps the developers could have added different insignias you could pick for your ship, or drawn more detailed obstacles instead of childlike symbols. I understand the whole “back to basics” and “looks shouldn’t influence game play” argument, but I would have preferred some modern touch-ups to the graphics.
The sound is as simple as the graphics, with no music and old-school bleeps to represent phaser fire and explosions. At least the graphics don’t detract from game play; the same cannot be said for the sound. Zap!’s developers, in their infinite wisdom, decided to model sound effects after Asteroids, one of the most grating sounding games of all time. Without even a basic musical score, this game is best played with the sound off.
The full version of Zap! goes for $19.95, a cost I find hard to justify even if the game offers a stable multiplayer platform and an easy-to-use level editor. As I’ve discussed in recent reviews of similar retro titles such as Invasion Pinball 2, this is a tough market for independent developers. Companies like Namco are offering full package deals of Atari classics for about the same price. With the lack of a vibrant player community except during peak hours, Zap! falls into the “pay-what-you-will” category for me. The upswing is Zap!’s demo allows you to try out the game exhaustively before buying it.
Any marketing major will tell you it’s not enough to copy the past – you need to add a new twist. K-Swiss might be offering new colors and patterns for today’s generation, but Zap! doesn’t add any new or interesting features on the arcade classics it draws inspiration from. Even the multiplayer options feel too much like shareware games I used to play over LAN networks back in the early 1990s. If I hadn’t read about the developers’ professional experience on the website, I would have guessed this game was a well-done senior project for some computer science program.
I will give the developers credit for creating a stable multiplayer platform (that cannot be said of many big-named games), and with some added detail and depth I could see a future version of Zap! becoming a cult classic. In the meantime, I’ll boot up my Atari classics edition when I’m jonesing for some Asteroids action.