Game Review: Zub (ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic / MAD)

Loading Screen and Presentation

The loading screen is very well drawn with plenty of colour and detail.  The only thing that slightly ruins it is when the main game starts to load, a bar goes halfway through the middle of it.

Onto the presentation side, well I’d say that this is excellent!  I get the feeling straight away, that there could be 007 fans amongst the programmers.  This is because you will see a yellow spotlight moving from right-to-left.  As it moves across the screen, you soon see Zub running along and then turn and run back to the middle.  Once he is in the middle, he faces you and then there are eight gunshots leaving bullet marks on the screen.  The screen then gradually turns red as it travels down the screen.

Once it’s ran through the credits as if you were almost watching a movie without the credits moving upwards, you can start.  This can be skipped at any time by pressing any key.

Storyline, Confusion and Humour within the Instructions

Now whoever wrote the inlay tape storyline certainly has an active imagination and sense of humour.  Yes, it is actually a good read and are in the form of a conversation about why you’ve been summoned by The King to perform your mission.  One of his crown jewels has been nicked by another agent and you need to retrieve the stolen green eyeball of Zub back.  It also mentions about powerpills [sic] and a dramatic library of bonuses and a bomb that looks “ZIRKISH”.  Well, the imagination boggles!

The instructions are there to both confuse and humour you.  For example, it’ll describe why Zub doesn’t have a nose!  Why the confusion, you may ask?  Well so many Zub’s with similar titles (eg. Sergeant Zub, Private Zub and Prime Minister Zub as well as others).  It’s a flowing but deliberately hard to follow long conversation.  Do read it if you get the time and you’ll see what I mean and probably enjoy it.

Fairly near the end of the instructions, it says that the programmers have told you how to control the game but wanted to just make it all blank to let you work it out for yourself!  To be honest, how many of us really read the instructions back then anyway?

Graphics and Animation

The instructions make it quite clear that there are 100 frames of animation and parallax scrolling as well as enemies that you won’t believe.  Although the walking part is a bit jerky along the planets’ surface, it improves as you move up the levels with nothing being jerky on the screen.  The parallax is the background starfield display.  Not only do they move left to right at different speeds when you jump or fall, they also travel upwards and downwards respectively too.  It looks good and adds a nice touch to the game.

The main character is rather well drawn.  In the top-right corner is a nicely drawn and animated Zub.  Depleting energy sees you gradually deteriorate into a skinny skeleton and if you run out of energy, Zub jumps in the air and collapses into a pile of bones (which is game over as you get one life).  Energy by the way can be regained after teleporting of the planet and a bit of skill and timing can depend on how much of it you get back.

Colour is fairly well used with minimal colour clash.  Yes, there is some, but ironically, it could be said that it adds to the effect of colliding with the enemy!  Pressing the pause button results in a nice colourful scrolling border effect too.

When you have completed a planet by reaching the top platform, you’ll see a nicely drawn teleportation screen.  You can watch and you’ll see you travelling along (what look like stepping stones) to your next planetary destination.

Playability

The aim of the game is to reach the top of the planets level using the platforms.  You can move those left and right when you are on them and can jump up or diagonally onto the next platform.  The controls for Zub are extremely responsive and if you make a mistake, you know it’s down to you rather than the game letting you down.  It can be a long way down if you fall!  You either land on a platform or back onto the planets’ surface.  It doesn’t matter how far you fall, you don’t lose energy or die doing that.

When travel in a left and right direction on a platform, you can face the opposite way.  So for example, when you move leftwards, you can still face right if you want.  It depends really on which way you may want to shoot and is all seamless and instantly.

On each planet, the far-left and right hand sides have an invisible fence which zaps you if you collide with it.  At first you think that’s a bit harsh (as its invisible!) but fortunately, you can change the energy box showing Zub into a scanner and see where the sides are.  It has a neatly animated line in this display mode, so you still tell how much energy you have remaining as well as seeing the direction of the enemies approaching too.  There are 5 skill levels and each is appropriated named.  Obviously, the harder the levels, the more enemies you get, and some can shoot back rather than just nudge you around!

Sound Effects and Music

In 48K mode, there are some sound effects on the opening screen when the bullets are fired with a screeching noise when the very fast-moving text scrolls in different windows.  During gameplay, there is the occasional tapping firing noise and when you hit an alien.  Moving along the platforms also creates a zipping noise.

The 128K version not only has those sound effects but a few musical soundtracks. These are on the fast-moving title screen, during the main game and on the teleportation screens.  Fortunately, my favourite was the one during the main gameplay, which makes sense.

Point of Interests

If you load the Zub in 128K mode, there is an Easter Egg game.  No, not the chocolate kind, but an additional bonus game call Lightfarce.  If you read the high-score table, it’ll tell you about how it was written in just an afternoon before the deadline for Zub has to be completed.  It’s effectively a spaceship shooter with aliens moving from the screen of the screen.  It’s not great but you can’t really complain, as its free after all and therefore an additional bonus!  You can access this by pressing   The game can be accessed by pressing 1, 3, 5 and 7 together at the same time.

To enable the inbuilt cheat mode press 2, 4, 6 and 8 together at the same time.  This effectively turns off the collision detection (except for when you hit the perimeters of the levels on the left and right).

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Zub is one of the many games released as part of the main Mastertronic line but released with MAD branding to imply a higher quality release. This was accompanied by a higher £2.99 price point. – Editor

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You know what we think but why not share your thoughts on this game! Let us know what you think of it in the comments below, or add your own score using the slider in the summary box at the top of the review!

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