The success of Mario and Sonic through the 16-bit wars spawned a massive wave of platformers featuring oddball mascot heroes. Some of them were pretty good, a lot of them were pretty bad, but most of them sat in that awkward space and were simply lost to time. One of the games in that middle category is Zool, which is somehow staging a comeback with assistance from the legendary fan translator Hilltop.
Zool was originally developed by British studio Gremlin Graphics for Amiga computers in 1992. As is typical for platformers with that kind of origin, it's got massive, often meandering levels, colorful graphics, and a banging soundtrack. The original Amiga version earned some acclaim, but its eventual console ports were quickly lost in the shuffle. Zool got a sequel in 1993, but that was pretty much the extent of its enduring legacy.
