To get a feel for today's game before you download it, please check out the following game play videos of Zzed HERE, HERE and HERE; I've posted more videos in the Other Reviews and Videos section below. You can also see a slide show of over 150 in-game images of Zzed HERE. .

Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; though, a little light banter among community members/friends and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit is acceptable and welcomed. Other comments not specifically about today's game giveaway will be judged by the moderator and if deemed inappropriate, will be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion and usually with no explanation. Comments that may be deleted include anything considered inappropriate or not in the spirit of the site, such as swearing, commenting negatively about other community members and their comments, spamming, posting nonsense or comments with only one, abbreviated phrases or a few words; for example vg, good, thank you, TY, bad, rubbish, this game is ****** etc , or if the comment has nothing to do with today's game or is complaining. If you have a complaint, send it to the giveaway team via the contact form that I've linked to below rather than posting it here. These comments are meant for feedback about Zzed. Please see the moderation policy HERE for details about posting comments.

If you have any problems installing or getting the game to work or suggestions about improving today's game, please read the problems and suggestion sections that are located towards the end of this review for more information, thank you.

Zzed

In Brief

Zzed is a cross genre arcade game that includes match three and pool elements with a touch of the shmup like game asteroids, but much more colorful than the asteroids many of you will remember from decades ago. The character has nothing to do with the immortal character called Zzed found in the Airboy comics of the 1950's, where Zzed an immortal character became fed up of life so tried to destroy the world so as to end his own.

Installation:

Zzed downloads to a 14.8 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 27.5 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Zzed

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Are you ready to combat thousands of meteoroids in the outer space? Are you brave enough to board the space ship and travel into the farthest corners of the universe? If yes, download the game Zzed which is all about waste management in the space. Meet Zzed, a young guy who is desperately in love with a rich girl with a beautiful name Zzuma. It happens that she is the daughter of the richest and most powerful man in the city. Obviously, her father is not very happy with his daughter's choice. So he will not let poor Zzed marry Zzuma until he becomes rich and famous. That's the reason why our young friend decides to start a career of a Space Garbage Cleaner for Zopa-Zola Corporation.

Zzed has successfully completed the Space Cleaners Access course and he comes to talk to the Chief Garbage Officer, Mr. Zzapone. At first he thinks that Zzed is not ready for such a tough job. However, he agrees to give him a test task in an easy zone. If Zzed copes with it, he will be hired. As you see, this is very important for him so please do your best to help the guy! Your task is to shoot meteoroids of the same color to destroy them. But do it quickly! The meteoroids are approaching you with great speed. If they collide with you, Zzed will lose his space ship and, with it, his chance for a well-paid job and a happy marriage. If meteoroids get too close to you, you can push them away by simply shooting at them. When you destroy all the garbage, you complete the level and Zzed gets his much-wanted job.

Reference accessed HERE. 6th Sept 2017

The Game:

Review 1:

Zzed is an excellent cross genre arcade game encompassing at least three different arcade game genres i.e. match three/bubble popper, pool and asteroids. The aim of the game is to clear away space garbage using a manouverable space ship, though there are force fileds that restrict your movement on each of the 60 levels available in this excellent arcade game. These are split into 10 distinct regions, each one having a slightly different environmental look. There is a story board of several pages separating each region, and which can be navigated via the back (prev) and forward (next) arrows situated to the top right of the page, or you can skip the storyboard completely by pressing Esc. At the beginning of a new region you get the game map that maps out the 10 regions, each region being named after a planet e.g. Zexus, Zobos, Zuranium, Zily Way, Zluto etc. Initially you can only see the first seven regions, the last three become visible later in the game. Once a region has been completed you progress to the next, however, you can select to play previous regions to improve your score and to try and beat the default scores of Mr - XRay, Ms. Brown, Ms. White, Ms. Red, Mr. Green etc or if playing with family, the scores of other family members or friends.

The options menu gives you control over the special effect and music volumes, plus you can select to play in windowed mode (full screen is default) and change the cursor to a custom cursor if you wish. You can access the help pages via the info button in the main menu, then select help. There are four pages, covering game play, e.g. shoot meteoroids into the oncoming meteroids of the same colour to destroy them (you must match up to three or more to destroy them)' You can see two more meteoroid colors ready to fire, which enables you to plan your shots to some extent. To fire (or repel captured meteoroids) use mouse button 1 (usually the left). If you collide with any meteoroids, including the ones you've fired from your ship, your ship will sustain damage and with less than several hits your ship will be destroyed. You get three ships at the start of the game, but you can earn more ships for every 50 000 points you score. You'll probably need these extra ships once you pass region 4 because the game becomes a lot more difficult to progress, (personally I've been stuck on region 5:1 for five or six attempts so far and have not come close to beating the level yet). Thankfully, losing the game only takes you back to the beginning of the level you were playing before you lost all of your ships.

You can move your ship in two ways; by moving your mouse pointer around a 360 degree turn to direct the meteoroids you wish to fire at and to move forwards use mouse button 2. Movement is restricted to area's outside the force field area's. Some levels restrict your movement significantly because there are more than one force field present in the region you are clearing. These multiple force fileds tend to create narrow passages and are quit hard to beat. It is recommended that you don't move your ship too much because this wastes valuable time, especially in later levels, where every second destroying meteoroids counts towards beating the level, though sometimes you do need to move just to avoid meteoroids from colliding with you. You can also stop meteoroids from colliding with you by firing a captured meteoroid at them, but this can cause problems, especially if there is little room to move.

There are four bonus meteoroids; these appear randomly and present themselves as symbols (which are not easily seen in the examples shown in the help pages. These appear randomly within a normal meteoroid and may blink on and off, so that you can see them more easily. They must be activated by making a match of three or more meteoroids surrounding them to set them off. This needs to be done as quickly as possible because they do disappear after a certain time. The X bonus detroys all meteoroids of the same color when you match the correct color together. The star bonus represents an explosive force that destroys meteoroids surrounding the bonus item. The triangle bonus creates a repulsion field that shoves meteoroids away from your ship and the Maltese Cross bonus gives you a laser sight that enables you to see where a meteoroid will bounce/reflect/rebound and is very useful for attacking meteoroids behind the front of the meteoroid swarms, using the force field walls and other meteoroids. To earn these bonus' you have to destroy a minimum of three meteoroids that include the one you shoot from your ship.

There's are also three other bonus items called devices available. Two of these are fired from your ship, i.e. a rocket that destroys all meteoroids in its path and is earned by completing several combo's in succession, plus a bomb that destroys meteoroids in the immediate vicinity of the bomb and is earned after you've taken a certain number of shots. There's also a power container that detroys all meteoroids around your ship if you are able to hit it. It's usually surrounded by other meteoroids and isn't easy to hit initially, but can be very useful especially when you are heavily surrounded by meteoroids; the best use of this device is to fire at the device when you are closely surround by lots of other meteoroids.

You can see how close you are to earning either a bomb or a rocket via the progress bars located along the top of the playing field. The rocket is next to the zone indicator and the bomb next to your accumulated score. In the middle of these you can see how many lives you have. At the end of each level you get a level results window that tells you your level score, the number of combo's you made as well as who scored the best score and best number of combo's. You can create multiple profiles, so this could be a great family arcade game where you can compete to see who is the best, (if you're that way inclined). You also get a single tip posted below the scores in the level results window that appears at the end of each completed level, for example you may see ''A series of successful hits is called a combo. It gives you additional points as well as a bonus rocket'' or ''A rocket destroys all meteoroids in it's path. Fire it so that it will destroy as many meteoroids as possible'' or ''You can shoot meteoroids at walls and protective fields''. If you manage to destroy meteoroids while using this technique you gain additional points. With respect to combo's, the points awarded increases by ten for each additional combo you create successively, i.e. you get 10 extra points for your first group of meteoroids, then 20 pointss, then 30 and so on.

You can exit the game by pressing Alt+F4. When you boot up the game again you will be given the choice of continuing with your current game at the exact point you left it (unlike in some game where you have to restart from the beginning of a level), or to start a new game. If you don't want to lose your progress but want to start a new level you have to create a new profile. You can create up to eight profiles and if you wish you can change the name of a profile without losing your progress. You can also replay earlier regions, but only when you've previously completed them and when the map is available at the beginning of a new region and the story board once you've completed a region. The first region includes a tutorial, but this can be cancelled by unchecking the check box. Once you've completed region one, which is only three levels long, no more tip boxes appear at the beginning of a level; however, as mentioned above, one is given at the end of each level in the results window.

The physics of meteoroid movement is really well done. When shooting meteoroids at others, they bounce, rebound and ricochet just like real balls on a pool table, though the speed isn't adjustable.

Review by Whiterabbit-uk 6th Sept 2017.

Review 2:

In Zzed you play the titular character who wants to be a professional garbage collector, as that will allow him to win the hand of the girl he loves. The story, such as it is, is played out in fun, comic-panel cut scenes between levels. It’s all a bit silly and totally unnecessary, but you do get an urge to see what happens to Zzed next.

Collecting the trash is the main part of the game, of course, and it’s extremely fun to do. As mentioned, Zzed plays like a weird hybrid of a few genres, but they all make sense. The Bust-a-Move­ part comes from launching a colored orb from your ship into the floating colored meteorites. Make three or more of them collide and they’ll disappear. Make enough disappear and you beat the level.

The Asteroids portion comes from the ability to control your ship through touch. You can turn a full 360 degrees and travel to different parts of the level, or attack a different part of the garbage piles. You’ll also be dodging meteorites flying at you, trying not to lose all your lives.

Finally, the pool part comes from Zzed‘s solid physics, where launching your orb causes the trash to scatter and move in realistic ways, allowing you to make huge combos. This also adds an element of puzzle-solving strategy, particularly in later levels.

Amidst all this, the game gives you power-ups that either help destroy like-colored meteorites, destroy meteorites in the vicinity, or help repel flying meteorites from your ship. Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but when you combine it with the rest of the gameplay elements, they make things a lot more interesting.

On top of all this, Zzed features 60 dynamic levels. The levels aren’t all just wave after wave. Some boards require serious finesse, as they have borders and other hazards to navigate. The meteorites will also cluster in different ways depending on the shape of the board. Mix in the flying hazards, and it gets clearer just how challenging – and fun – Zzed becomes.

The game’s presentation is great. Colorful graphics, pulsing synth soundtrack and cute character design give Zzed a real personality. The panels are well-drawn too, making level progress a real pleasure on top of the natural progression.

The only real difficulty with Zzed lies in the control. It’s not that it’s bad, per se, but rather that it takes some getting used to. Learning to drag your ship around while rotating it, firing it and avoiding collisions is difficult at first. You’ll have some serious challenges by the third zone if you don’t get the control down first.

And in spite of all that Zzed offers, there’s a big omission: multiplayer. The ability to play against someone else, competing for scores, sending meteorites their way… I don’t know why this kind of major gameplay mode was omitted. If this were included, the replay value of Zzed would go through the roof.

Finally, a reminder to all non-English gaming developers making English games: please hire localizers. The grammar in Zzed gets a little weird, and words like “catched” shouldn’t be there.

Zzed is a fantastic arcade/puzzle/action game that’s really a blast to play. It’s definitely worth the download, and shows some great creativity from another independent developer. Keep ’em coming, folks!

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by David Stone on Jun 17, 2011. Edited and reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 6th Sept 2017.

Other Reviews and Videos of Zzed:

You can see BFG community reviews of Zzed HERE, and you can see some videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

I played this game for hours when I first came across it about 10 years ago. It's got most of the elements of what makes a good arcade game apart from a level editor. This is a cross genre game, that will hopefully appeal to a wide range of community members. It's easy to play and will give you hours of entertainment and is also ideal for the whole family. I'd score this a good 8.5 out of 10 for game play and family entertainment. The only suggestion I would make to the developer would be to add a button to access the map so that you can return to previous regions whenever you wish instead of having to play through to the end of a region to access the map.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it directly from the developer Nevosoft HERE for £7.20 (or approx $9.40) or from the Big Fish's European site HERE for 9.99 Euro's (couldn't find it on the UK site).

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Zzed with the toolbars etc removed and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play Zzed please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback about the game; for example, what you liked or disliked, or how improvements could be made to make it more enjoyable and perhaps change your mind about this game? If you don't like Hidden Object games at all, please explain why? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience. These comments will always be accessible for as long as this site is open and provide a valuable resource for game developers, thank you. To access the comments once the giveaway is over, open up the game giveaway to its home page then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open up the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

The rest of the information that used to be posted here can be found in the forums HERE. Also, check out Delenns thread over in the game discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE

Having problems installing today's game?

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Zzed to work please visit the problems section, which which you can find in the FAQ's thread HERE. Also read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted. The main issue we have is with the giveaway wrapper, which uses a Themida based code to protect the games executable. Unfortunately Themida is also used to hide malware; so, as a precaution, some security software may block the installation and sometimes even delete the executable file. Blocking or deletion is usually determined partly by the way your computer is set up. Usually you'll get a message saying ''the file is corrupted'', but in reality the files are okay. There are a couple of things you can do to overcome this issue. The first is to reboot in safe mode with networking, install the game then reboot, or secondly you can (at your own risk) temporarily turn off your security, install the game, then turn your security back on. A note of reassurance to those that choose the latter and quicker method. The game giveaway team have been giving away games for over a decade (Dec 2006 & prior to that, via the main site 2 or 3 times weekly from Oct 2006 to Dec 2006) and have 'NEVER' given away a game infected with malware; they always test every giveaway with several of the top anti-malware suites to ensure all games are free from malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, if you have a problem getting the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve or if you have a game to offer the community you can do so HERE