Let's say you were handed a game where the hero was a cricket and the villain was a magpie. It's a safe guess that many of you out there may be inclined to not even give the game a second look; that would be a mistake. Blitz Games' Zapper: One Wicked Cricket is an interesting action/puzzle game with some unique ideas that all seem to click together perfectly.

The graphics in Zapper are simple and attractive, without being overly mundane or boring. There's enough glitz and humor to keep you entertained. The graphics also do an amazing job being very involved in the actual gameplay. You'll have to navigate logs, spinning gears, and outrun some cute little cacti. There is also very good use of lighting throughout the game. Very often you'll be navigating areas lit only by fireflies or the antenna on your head.

As I try to think back to the audio side of the experience, I can't really think of anything bad to say. Funky describes both the effects and music very well. Zapper comes off as being something of a smartass visually, and I think the sound relates that irreverence very well. The stages themselves don't really tend to have too much music in them, but the music that is there is again, funky and hip. Either that, or it's funny. A remix of a certain classic western song while you are fighting in a desert corral comes to mind.

A magpie named Maggie has kidnapped your little brother, Zipper. Zapper's got original gameplay, and when it works that's usually pure gold. The basic idea is that you go around the level trying to find and squash 6 eggs. You'll also be collecting fireflies which you'll need certain amounts of to accomplish particular things throughout the level. There are also gold fireflies which you'll have to collect in a certain order to power switches. While that may not sound like a lot, Blitz found many interesting ways to twist this simple idea for an interesting experience every time.

An important thing to note about Zapper is that the game's movement is tile-based. You'll move square by square when you press that digital pad (or analog). You can also do a super-jump, which will jump you over a square; this is used to cross pits. You can also hover a bit to maneuver over/around certain enemies. There are even certain enemies, like those cacti I mentioned, which will only move when you do, and this movement is usually straight for you. This leads to some rather interesting conundrums you have to unravel to get by.

Now, I did mention that Zapper has some action qualities to it. There are some enemies you have to contend with, and some of those eggs you need to squash, well, some will start hatching. You deal with most of these problems with your antennas. No, he doesn't beat them down with them; Zapper can shoot electricity from them. Hello? His name is Zapper. Many of the more mundane enemies will also drop fireflies when you kill them. Most of the harder enemies require a powered-up zap to dispatch. Most don't drop fireflies though, so it's up to you whether you want to avoid them or to keep walking back to firefly swarms to repower your super zap and just kill them all. You will also unlock secret levels, etc, by finding all the fireflies within a level.

If I had to sum up the difficulty of Zapper in one phrase, I'd have to go with 'not too bad'. It's very forgiving; on normal you get 20 lives. Just getting through the levels isn't all that tough. It's finding all the fireflies in a level that's really going to wrack your brain. The puzzles do, of course, get progressively harder as you go further into the game. While most of the difficulty will come from the puzzle aspect, there's also the action aspect you have to deal with. At the beginning, most of your enemies will just be things like slow moving slugs, crawling along in a square. Soon you'll be dealing with giant Spiders that hunt you down to big shootouts with 'tiny?' gunmen. Most of it's 'not too bad' however. The game also has the usually 'normal', 'hard' mode options, in case you want more of a challenge.

Nothing about this game is really very complicated. Anyone can just pick it up and have a good time. The game saves itself automatically whenever you win a level or lose all of your lives (it will save how many fireflies you got). You get unlimited continues; losing all our lives just means you'll have to start the stage over from the beginning. The game is divided into four worlds. Each consists of three normal stages and one secret stage.

Zapper: One Wicked Cricket is a game for the entire family. Anyone and everyone can have a good time with this one. It's not a cinematic experience or anything, but it's got gameplay, and it's pure gold.