Alright so it's not a hidden gem.

I picked it up for my SNES well over a year ago. But really all I did was test it and put it on the shelf. I didn't even really consider it to be part of my backlog of "need to play" games.

Well, I fired it up about a week ago and gave it a fair shot. And I've gotta say--it's pretty fucking good.

The graphics are great. The level artwork is varied with some nice attention to detail. The character animations are all fluid and natural looking. 

The music is memorable but not really amazing. It sets the mood and then kind of just stays out of the way. 

The controls are responsive, which is good because Zero actually has a pretty deep move set. He's got a double jump, a glide, a nunchuck move, and a dive bomb maneuver. And all of these moves can be used to attack enemies.

The controls do require some getting used to though, mainly because the physics are a little stiff. 

Zero is a platformer but that doesn't mean it's a standard "run right and kill bad guys" affair. Thanks to some solid level design you'll be doing a fair bit of exploring. And the game encourages exploration with all the hidden areas strewn throughout each stage. 

Another level design aspect I'll mention are the blind jumps. There are times during a level where you'll encounter a high platform and a jump into the unknown. This is where Zero's dive bomb technique comes into play. You hit the dive button and you start shooting head first straight to hell. Then, before you reach the bottom, you hit the dive button again and start flying straight ahead. Then, before you smash into the wall in front of you, you hit the dive button again and shoot straight up like a fuzzy rocket, landing safely on a waiting platform. 

Now normally I hate blind jumps in platformers, but I forgive them here for two reasons. First, when you pull these maneuvers of its soooo satisfying. Second, Zero is a fucking kamikaze--leaps of faith are in his nature.

Overall, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is a pretty great game. It's got some cool ideas, lovely graphics, solid platforming action, and well thought out level design. 

Check it out.

TL;DR -- Play Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel 


 

Your review really makes me want to go back and try it again. I tried playing it a while ago and the bouncy camera was a huge turn-off for me and I didn't sink much time at all into it.  However, it sounds like s a game that is right up my alley

Good review, I actually played this for the first time a few months ago while tinkering with some FPGA stuff and really enjoyed it. I got really confused in the final boss fight because at one part I just couldn't do any damage to him. Had to look it up to find out what I was supposed to do.

Still don't have it. Nearly got it this year but it just didn't quite work out

I bought this game a few years ago from a seller in Brazil, cart only. It does have an awesome soundtrack, which I downloaded onto my pc. The game is a really fun platformer. This is a rare hidden gem of a snes game. Sadly, I sold it because I needed money last year. But I may buy it again. The Genesis version is about half the cost of the SNES version. Not sure yet if/when I will buy it again, but I hope to.

It's an OK platformer, but just not the style I personally like. I like games that are a little tighter/focused. However, the graphics and music are pretty great. Unfortunately this is one I traded what felt like the night before it spiked in price. Oh well, it was to a good member and I had nothing invested in it.

It's fun, man. I think you'd dig it. It seems like the price has leveled out on it.

Do you see it rising anytime soon?





 

Anything's possible.  Look at what all the NES games did.  $150 becomes $250 becomes $350...

I think Pocky & Rocky 2 is still higher on my radar for big games though.  Could go either way if/when a Christmas bonus though

I played it for the first time a few years ago on emulator, liked it a lot. Never finished it but definitely want to give it a proper completion one day.

Nice review.  

Sounds like it's worth a play.

i played it on my everdrive a uear ago but wasnt really my cup of tea. but then again i tried to play it like a sonic game and hold right and jump

I picked this up again recently. There's many different moves you can do, so I like the game-play as much as I like the music.