Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel Review

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is a spin-off of the Aero the Acro-bat series. The game was originally released in October 1994 for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive (PAL version would release in July 1995) and Super NES. Given the game’s events take place at the same time as Aero’s adventures in Aero the Acro-Bat 2, both games released simultaneously. Back in the day, the game was overall well received averaging 80%. Does that score still hold up today? Let’s find out.

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel tells the story the titular character, Aero the Acro-bat’s antagonist, who’s currently assisting Edgar Ektor’s evil plan (same evil mastermind as in Aero the Acro-bat). While conspiring with Ektor, Zero receives a letter from his girlfriend saying that their forest is in danger and his dad’s been kidnapped. Despite Edgar’s refusal, Zero runs to the rescue.

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is a 2D action platformer where players can use their nunchuks or shurikens, throwing stars, to defend himself against the onslaught of enemies. The shurikens can also be thrown at a 45 degree angle in order to take down flying threats. Beware as you are limited in terms of ninja stars. You can also bounce on enemies, but again, the detection required is extremely precise.

Our tiny fury protagonist can walk, run, jump, double jump and glide. Annoyingly enough, you have no control over the running. Holding down the joystick or d-pad either left or right for a few seconds will make Zero run automatically. It’s incredibly easy to bump into enemies or obstacles causing damage because you have little to no time to react.

Double jumping comes in two methods so to speak. Pressing A a second time while in the air, will perform a “medium” size double jump. But pressing it twice at a perfect timing will throw Zero even higher. It does feel random. Same with the gliding; but no matter how many times I tried pinpointing the perfect timing to glide, it never happened.

While typical platformers offer linear level design, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel’s levels are mini-Metroidvania in themselves. Yes you can zip through and reach the end to process to the next one, but the game is somewhat score based. So picking up items and fruits will increase your score. And as with other re-release published by Ratalaika Games, you’re given access to a rewind feature and save states.

Each level has a handful of hidden areas and secrets to find; so completionists will have a field day with this one as they explore every nook and cranny of each level. Some secrets are easier to find than others. Secret areas are spotted by an air pump; pumping it will blow up a special door which can be entered. Others will require you to bounce on palm trees like trees or jump into a mini hot air balloons.

The game looks the same as it did back in the 1990s. Given this is a straight port of the 16-bit game, the publisher nor developer didn’t do any updates or visual changes. That being said, it looks great even by today’s standards. There’s decent level of details in each levels and characters. Despite some brighter, outside levels, the overall color tone does look a bit dark. The soundtrack is fine; nothing really too special. It does have that Genesis/MegaDrive

In terms of problems, where to begin. The fact that you can’t walk at normal speed for a lengthy period of time is annoying. You’ll spend your time start/stopping so you don’t get into the run animation and bump into enemies and obstacles that will damage you. Also the fact that gliding and double jumping requires such a precise timing is infuriating. Also if you don’t master all of Zero’s skills, you’re absolutely fucked and won’t be able to progress too far into the game. Apparently it was someone’s first game to code. I wonder that got through QA.

I can see why Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel was well-received back in the 1990s. The game was surprisingly deep in terms of exploration and gameplay mechanics, but by today’s standards (and multi-buttoned controllers), it feels archaic and held back by the limitations of the time. You’ll waste a lot of time trying to grasp the double jump and flying/gliding mechanics, which is the complete opposite of fun. If the developer (porting studio?) had the opportunity to re-work the initial code to adapt it to today’s standards, this game would’ve scored much higher. As it stands, unless you want to (re)live some of the frustrations us gamers who grew up in the 1990s, this is an easy pass.