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| PaZeek | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General | |
| Author | SkyRank Games |
| Type | Puzzle |
| Version | 2001 |
| License | Public Domain |
| System | CGB |
| Last Updated | 2001/06/09 |
| Links | |
| Download | |
| Website | |
PaZeek was developed by SkyRank Games with the aim of creating an addictive puzzle game featuring a captivating story about a girl banished to a fantasy world. It allows players to control game settings to suit their skill level.
The game is 85% complete with more then 50 playable levels.
Features
- 50 fast paced puzzle levels to finish.
- Beautifully colorful cartoon cinemas to explain the story between levels in story mode.
- Password system to allow the player to continue play at a later time.
- Multiple Difficulty settings to match the player to a game level that best fits their ability.
- Hours of addictive puzzle game play.
User guide
Story
The once peaceful land of the PaZeek’s has been turned upside down in chaos. Only you can defeat the evil queen Taria and her 8 nasty henchman. Solve all 81 puzzles, recover the hidden keys and free the land.
The evil queen Taria is bent of locating and assembling all 9 of the guardian stones in the land of the PaZeek’s. The PaZeek’s are playful creatures that want nothing more then to have fun and enjoy life. As the queen sits in her castle she is filled with the desire to live forever. She learned that if all 9 guardian stones are collected and merged as one the stones can grant any wish to the one who merged them.
The stone was once one solid perfect stone that had been passed down from ruler to ruler of the land. With it’s awesome power, each and every ruler became obsessed with it’s power and used it for evil. With this problem facing the land as the former ruler passed on the citizens of the land forced the stone to be destroyed and it’s remains scattered around the land. These pieces still omitted power and granted smaller wishes of those who asked and stood before the stone fragment.
The stones for the first time seemed to finally help the citizens of the land and allowed for a great period of piece and tranquility. Each stone is guarded by a series of puzzle based locks. Each lock requires 2 goal keys to open the lock. This system was designed to prevent anyone from freeing all the stones and merging them as one again.
The queen and her 8 henchmen have been searching the land and managed to find all 9 stone locations. Now they are trying to unlock the puzzles and obtain the keys to free the stones. The PaZeek’s realize the danger the land is in and need someone to help. The problem is the puzzle system works too well. And the PaZeek’s themselves can not solve the puzzles fast enough to grab the keys to get the stones first and hide them again. The tool used to solve the puzzle is a special zapper that was designed by the inventors of the puzzle hundreds of years ago.
As a backup plan the pazeeks before scattering the stones in the 9 locations asked for one wish. That a messenger be sent one day to the land if the land and the stones are threatened. Years past, and all seemed well in the land. As the concerned citizens of the land learned of the queens plan they went and asked the stones to retrieve the messenger. The messenger would be chosen as the owner of a unlikely book that was banished to another world, where in it contained the story of the land and it’s history.
The books current owner is young Ariel, a 11 year old girl who received the book from her grandfather weeks before he passed away. As Ariel fell asleep one night with the book by her side, her dreams took her to the land she had read so much about. The messenger had arrived.
Game modes and options
Difficulty - Easy, Normal and Hard. Each level has different preset time completion limits, puzzle ceiling falling speeds, and required number of cleared lines before the goal keys appear to adjust to the players playing ability.
Game Type - Modes are called Mode A and Mode B in the options menu. Each mode changes the way the player has to deal with matching the puzzle pieces. In Mode A the player is allowed to cycle through the pieces in the zapper to shot for a match, by pressing the A button. In Mode B, the computer randomly chooses the next piece in the zapper for the player. The computer makes the player in Mode B, think more careful where to place the pieces because the needed piece doesn’t always appear when the player needs it most. This adds a great sense of urgency and speed to the game for more advanced players. Mode B in hard mode is extremely challenging and quite nerve wrecking.
Story mode - This is as well controlled by the player. With a on and off toggle found in the options menu. We included this feature incase some players want to play the game and not have to deal with the story after they had read it several times.
Music BGM - Select 1 of 3 in game music BGM tracks for the player to choose as they free the PaZeek’s from the evil queen.
Password - Found on the main menu will allow the player to continue on the level they left off. The password system uses 4 digits, ranging from 0-9. There are passwords for every stage that takes the player only to the beginning of that stage. We used a password system instead of backup ram incase the publisher did not want to use cartridges with save ram on them. Here is the chart to the passwords. The player is given a password when the game ends and they made it past level 1-9.
High Score Table - PaZeek will hold the top 3 scores in both Mode A and B. The scores are lost when the system is turned off.
Credits - Short credits sequence showing who was involved in making PaZeek with a thank you for playing scene.
Gameplay
PaZeek is unique from other puzzle games. The player must match the colored block in the player controlled zapper at the bottom of the screen, with the correct colored blocks above in the puzzle. The player must shot the puzzle piece in place to match the pieces and clear away the puzzle as fast as possible. As the player is making matches the puzzle is falling 1 row (9 blocks across) of tiles at a controlled pace that gets faster and faster as the player advances to higher levels.
If players don't make a match and shoot a puzzle piece where there's no match, the piece locks in place, making the puzzle more challenging. To advance to the next round, players must clear all pieces under the goal keys and charge them by pushing up on the zapper 5 times (shown at the bottom of the screen). The goal keys are represented by a (+) plus and a (-) minus in a pulsating sphere to get the players attention. Zapper charges can be rebuilt by making more puzzle matches. As the game progresses, deflector blocks resistant to the zapper will require more strategy and fast action.
In PaZeek, players are given a set time to complete each level, shown at the bottom left corner. The timer adds challenge and stress, as players must finish the level before it runs out. The background music changes to an alarming sound when time is almost up, and the falling ceiling speeds up.
Each stage features a different henchman shown in the top left corner, and their emotions change based on the player's performance. Player emotions also change depending on how well they are doing in the level.
There are 7 different puzzle pieces used in PaZeek. Here is the breakdown of the pieces.
- Blue Sphere - most common piece in the puzzle.
- Red Cube - common piece.
- Yellow Hollow Cube - somewhat uncommon piece, not as much of these blocks in the puzzle.
- Green Diamond - most uncommon piece to appear in puzzle, in mode B this piece is important to clear away as soon as possible to avoid them from blocking the path to a goal key. This piece can make or break the player.
- Gray Deflector block - used to block fast progress of clearing away the puzzle, these blocks require 3 zaps from the zapper to clear the piece from the puzzle. (this feature has not been programmed in as of 6-7-01 however it will be added before the end of june.)
- Positive Goal Key - Sphere with a + plus sign that flashes. To clear this piece the player needs to use zap it 5 times with the zapper by pressing up on the D-Pad.
- Negative Goal Key - Sphere with a - minus sign that flashes. To clear this piece the player needs to use zap it 5 times with the zapper by pressing up on the D-Pad.
Controls
Up - Shot electric charge from zapper to above blocks (only on goal keys and deflector blocks)
Down - Causes the puzzle to fall 1 line at a time (for experienced players, use this wisely)
Left/Right - Moves Zapper left/right
A - In Mode A cycles though the pieces in the zapper (not used in Mode B)
B - Shot the piece in the zapper above into the puzzle
Select - Not used
Start - Pause game
Screenshots
Known issues
Currently there are 2 minor bugs currently. One bug causes the (-) minus goal key to sometimes not appear. And the other bug happens when you shot a piece to the top of the screen in the very top with no block to lock in above it, what happens is the zapper in mode B doesn’t randomize a new piece and allows the player to have the same piece again for the next zap.
Finally, the story for story mode is not 100% complete.
Credits
- Producer - Russ Kumro.
- Designer - Russ Kumro.
- Technical Director - Russ Kumro, Travis Estrada.
- Product Manager - Russ Kumro.
Art Director - Russ Kumro . Testers - Russ Kumro, Travis Estrada, Roberta Bialasik, Jason Eastman, Nancy Brown. Programmers - Russ Kumro (main game engine), Travis Estrada (story mode, menus & sound player programmer). Musician - Jeremy Thizy.
External links
- Author's website - http://www.skyrank.com/games1new.htm (archived)