Help Zero Beat Baddies, Save Forest From Destruction

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel

SNES, Genesis, Sunsoft, $49.99-59.99

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, a baddie from the Aero the Acro-bat games, is on his own and on a mission.

Zero’s homeland has been taken over, but when he tells his boss, Ektor (the villain of the Aero the Acro-bat games) that he is leaving, Ektor threatens him and tells him that his job is with him and the Circus.

Zero leaves anyway and the game begins when he is shot down over the coast of his homeland.

There are seven levels in the game. In each, Zero encounters four different baddies along the way (baddies, for those who don’t know, are like bosses who try to stop you at the end of a level, etc.).

Zero’s main rival, the villain of this story, Jacques LeSheets, is cutting down the forests in Zero’s land. Zero is there to stop the destruction and save his girlfriend from LaSheets’ evil clutches.

In the first level (the Beach), Zero can gain experience and should take advantage of all the special items there.

In the second level (the Cliffs), Zero encounters his first baddies, the Bouldermen. These two dive and jump at you until Zero kills them. He then goes to the Mountain Tunnels, where in the first part he meets Skreech, who tells Zero in the Genesis version where Lesheets is.

Then in the second part, he fights with Firebug, who shoots at him with fire balls and laser beams.

After the Mountain Tunnels, Zero comes to the River Rapids, where he shoots past the level on a speedboat. Then on to the forest where he meets Quicksilver, who twists and turns his way around while Zero tries to defeat him.

What makes this level and the entire game so cool is that Zero can fly off of cliffs and trees. The best places are marked off by the Super Dive Test sign, and these tests can either be a necessity or for special items and practice.

Other moves that Zero can do include a dive and/or a spin when he jumps, the Flic Flac, a jump and kick move. Zero also can throw stars.

When Zero leaves the forest, he jumps on a Jet ski and shoots over the Toxic Waste Pool. When he reaches the end of this level, he finally makes it to the final level, the Factory.

In this level, Zero faces a set of doors that he has to open by killing all of the enemies there, and then he has to make it past rolling pins and falling boulders to meet once more all of the baddies he faced before, except for Quicksilver.

After he defeats these baddies for the last time, Zero meets his final foe, the burly logger named Jacques LeSheets. After defeating him the first time, Zero follows him onto a hot air balloon where he will meet him again for all of the cards.

This is a great game, no matter what system you play it on. The Genesis version has more definitive graphics, but since it has fewer colors than the Super Nintendo, it has worse color quality. The music is also different on each system, and I prefer the sound on the SNES to that of the Genesis.

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is a sure winner.

Grade: A