DAVESAST.ZZT

“Oil”

You play as Peisinoë, a mermaid in an oil spill. There’s a lovely graphic with a tanker on the ocean at night, and some nice coral houses in the mermaid village. Then it turns into an endless game of Copter, dodging bullets in an oil-tainted cave. Tricky, and no reward except death, but pretty well made.

6/10

 

DISASTER.ZZT

“Disaster: The stampede76 story”

Five static graphics boards about why the author didn’t make a proper game. It’s a bit sad. I hope stampede76 tried hard and made a good game eventually.

2/10

 

ERN56.ZZT

“Fallout”

The ZZT Capitol City has been nuked! You play as Kevin Bosman, a survivor stuck in a bomb shelter. You’ve got to turn on the power, gather food, and beat a mutant intruder to death before the military come and rescue you in their helicopter. I really enjoyed this little whimsical adventure, despite the infuriating backtrack through an invisible maze.

9/10

 

KEWLIEZ.ZZT

“The Krushing Disaster Elite Edition”

A mess of early 2000s cheezburger memespeak, a quest to pick up four kittens from a cluster of default bear enemies, and a flashing, multicoloured background to finish. Yeah nah not for me.

1/10

 

OOFAUT03.ZZT

“Paper Wisdom”

You play as Eubus the Bean Sprout, attending a cocktail party that goes horribly awry. I really like the art boards’ wacky comic book style, which would have been nice to see in the almost monochromatic gameplay boards. The comedy is crass and dated (at one point you ride an ejaculation to the moon) and it’s unfinished, but the different enemy types are pretty good.

7/10

 

SIDDIS.ZZT

“Sid Disaster”

Lovely little art showcase. Neat animation of the apocalypse, a beautifully crafted horse graphic, and some amazing title screen font. Not really a playable game, but nice to look at. It’s a shame that some authors spent time apologising for their games.

5/10

 

SILICATE.ZZT

“Silicate”

You play as Lieutenant Sato, an unwilling participant in an experiment to bio-engineer human soldiers to kill aliens. I liked allocating my nanobot-enhanced stats at the beginning! The game plays like a tradition ZZT world, attempting to gather keys and escape the facility. Like most of these worlds it’s unfinished (I could only find 6 keys in the editor) but good fun.

8/10

 

SMITH24.ZZT

“Virus”

There’s a mysterious virus loose that causes people to cough a lot and then attack in a frenzy! The visuals in this are incredible, I absolutely adore the cute spaceship you spend the first act in. It’s a shame the author ran out of time, I would love to see where this was going.

8/10