'Zee' is for Zorro - not 'zed' and I'm not zorry to zay zo because Zorro is an all-American hero. To protect the poor and innocent he dresses in a floppy hat, cape, black silky shirt with ruffles, tight trousers... and are you sure this is 'all-American'?
    Though he isn't so well known in this country, Zorro is a sort of trans-Atlantic Robin Hood, vanquishing villains along the Mexican border and carving his initial into their chests by way of a calling card. He's swashed his buckle in films and books and now it's time for Zorro to meet the Z80 in an arcade adventure.
    The plot. Evil Sergeant Garcia (Boo, hiss - never trust these Hispanic types - he probably already has a 128K Speccy too) has kidnapped a beautiful Senorita and before you can say Ole he's holding her captive in his castle. In fact you get the whole drama played out before you as this fair Sprite-orita is hustled to the hacienda. So you grab her hankie as it floats to the ground (hope it's a clean one) and set off to rescue her.
    It's important to say right from the start that Zorro won't win any awards for its graphics. Unlike the Commodore version, which looks rather nice from the screen shots on the box (naughty), all the characters are silhouettes, scuttling around a primarily black on yellow landscape. It's a pity the setting couldn't have been more atmospheric because the game itself plays rather well.
    What you have is a platforms and ladders game but with some rather clever puzzles. Many of these involve doing things on one screen then backtracking to another to benefit from their effects. It gives you more of a sense of place and less of a feeling of just clearing screens. There are objects to pick up, though what they're used for is unlikely to be immediately obvious, plus lifts and even trampolines that guarantee Zorro will always bounce back.
    Combat comes when you meet the guards. And sword play or driving them off ledges leads to a ghostly 'zee' appearing. Actually they're not at all hard to hack and you're more likely to need your four lives to experiment with tricky leaps. Here's the game's other potential failing. Once you've solved the problems all you can do is race against time for a higher bonus. That said though, Zorro is fun to play and surprisingly addictive.

Ratings given by other magazines

5/10      6/10    Crash Review ---

Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database