Zool

(First Appearance: Zool, 1992)
Mascots.
I recently indulged in a conversation with a friend about the lack of real integrated "mascots" for various consoles in recent years. Whilst characters like Sackboy occasionally rear their heads to no avail, it appears that we are long past the period of sticking a Poochie-esque sunglasses wearing anthro creature in every advert regarding a certain console or company.

And I for one, believe it's better that way.

During the Mario/Sonic wars of the early 90's, companies worked overtime to create these characters that would capture the hearts and wallets of the platform gaming public, hopefully selling a lot of the format or game in question and inspiring a host of terrible drunken tattoos. This brings us to Zool and the Commodore Amiga's attempt to capture some of the cutesy hero glory monopolised by the console giants. Zool, who is apparently "A ninja of the Nth dimension" journeys his way through a series of mysteriously familiar zones vanquishing evil, honing his ninja skills and trying desperately to sell us all a lot of these:



Because Lord knows that until you've rotted the youths teeth then you cannot truly achieve golden ninja warrior status. So the worlds most blatant and unashamed advertising crammed its way onto the screen, especially throughout the first level, the conveniently imagined "Sweet Zone"
Zool runs, jumps and spins his way through each level, pausing only to indulge in a series of mini-games and play a piano (No, really)

But let's call a spade a spade here, Zool was a thinly disguised Sonic clone for Amiga owners. This didn't stop reviewers creaming themselves over the game which, though it didn't nothing for yours truly, was pretty good all things considered. Zool unfortunately failed to become the iconic mascot for the Amiga, mainly because the game eventually ended up ported to almost every other format available, giving the tiny ninja no exclusivity whatsoever.

Our hero returned in Zool 2, where the makers decided he didn't have a family anymore (because having a family isn't "cool") and instead gave him a girlfriend, Zooz, who was pretty hot for a cartoon ant-like ninja. True story, I actually knew a girl who had to wear a Zooz costume and promote the sequel at trade shows. Despite hinting at evils return at the end of this adventure, Zool has yet to reappear on our screens, returning only for a long lost arcade that nobody played.

Zool was one of the few in a crowd of a thousand Sonic/Mario clones that actually stood out and found an audience for himself. In a world of wisecracking, rock n rolling, corporate hip paradigms, Zool was a character that actually sold games and is an endearing memory to many old-school Amiga owners. Zool's day is past and he would get annihilated in today's "super-hip hero" society, but we can sure that somewhere in the Nth dimension, there resides an aging ninja who can be proud of his exploits. I'm sure that comes as a saving grace to a man sitting on a million boxes of unsold Chupa-Chups.