Zapper: One Wicked Cricket!

Zapper: One Wicked Cricket!
This cricket isn't wicked at all!
Genre(s): Platforming Platform(s): Microsoft Windows PlayStation 2 Xbox Game Boy Advance GameCube Release Date: NA: October 9, 2002 (PC) NA: November 3, 2002 (PS2, Xbox) NA: November 5, 2002 (GBA) NA: November 16, 2002 (GC) PAL: March 14, 2003 AU: August 9, 2005 (PS2) Developer(s): Blitz Games (PS2, NGC, Xbox, PC) Atomic Planet Entertainment (Game Boy Advance) Publisher(s): Infogrames

Zapper: One Wicked Cricket! is an action platformer game developed by British studio Blitz Games and published by Infogrames for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and the PC in 2002 in North America, and 2003 in Europe.

Why It's Not Wicked

1. The gameplay is very uninspired and rips off the Frogger franchise, especially Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge, which Blitz Games also developed.
   • In fact, according to an ex-employee of Blitz, the game was meant to be a second sequel to Frogger 2, but was changed to an original IP when Konami re-acquired the licensing rights to the franchise from Infogrames.
2. A boring plot and storyline that involves Zapper attempting to save his brother.
3. Zapper is an unlikeable character on his own behalf as he is very mean to his brother and is quite selfish (although he seems to be as happy on the front cover and title screen).
4. The level design can be quite confusing and is way too bright on its own behalf.
5. One-hit deaths.
6. To move you can't just hold the analog stick or D-pad in the direction you want. You have to tap it for every individual tile you move to. Even Ratchet & Clank which released in the same year lets you either hold the analog stick or D-pad in the direction.
7. Cheap enemy placement which can make it very easy to die, which in turn makes the game unfairly difficult.
8. The hard mode makes the already frustrating game worse, as the game's antagonist Maggie the Magpie follows you and will drop eggs as well.
9. Bland soundtrack.
10. The framerate drops fast when there is too much stuff going on.
11. Silly and uninspired Multiplayer mode.
12. There is no voice acting, just annoying gibberish sounds.
13. The mini-game level "Atmospheric" is very hard.
14. To make the problems far worse, the game can be completed in only a small number of hours, as there are only 20 levels altogether!
15. No replay value at all.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The graphics are good.
2. The music is catchy.
3. The level design is passable.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews on all platforms, it has Metacritic scores of 55, 56, and 58 for the GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and PC respectively.

According to GameZone, it gave both the Xbox, PC, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance versions 5.4, 6.5, 7.1, and 7.3 out of 10 respectively, IGN gave the console, GBA and PC versions as well as the Xbox version an unfavorable review 4.1, 4.5, 5.5, and 5.8 out of 10 respectively, GameSpot scored the PS2 and Xbox versions 6.6/10.

GameInformer gave it an 8.75 out of 10 for the GameCube version, it also scored a 2.5/5 on Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine for the PlayStation 2 version, it gave the Xbox version a 6/10 on Official Xbox Magazine (US), the GameCube version of the game gave it a 2.5/5 on Nintendo Power, Nintendo World Report gave the GBA and GameCube versions 4/10 and 5/10 respectively, and the PC version has a 60% on PC Gamer US.

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