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Zip is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up set over the five brother worlds of Alpha Centauri, Alien formations are shot in order to progress. Extra features such as lives, smart bombs and extra speed are gained from shooting ground bases imprinted with letters corresponding to their effect.

Vertically scrolling shoot-'em-ups are all too common on the C64, and there's really no excuse to produce one as awful as this, Zip is a wishy-washy, unprofessional version of Warhawk, with fewer, more frustrating levels, and less alien formations - they're simply repeated over and over again.

Graphically it's nothing special; the screen-glitch in the scrolling is amateur, and the sprites are very unimaginative. I can find nothing whatsoever to recommend it.

I find it annoying that some budget software companies still appear to be using their pricing policies to mitigate the production of games such as Zip.

Screen glitches, terrible collision detection and blatantly plagiarised gameplay do not endear me to programs in the slightest. The programmer has used one or two raster tricks on the title screen, but obviously forgot the technique when it came to the actual game, which exhibits a rather wobbly top border while the screen scrolls.

The sprites and sound are particularly unimaginative, and the numerous bugs knock any hint of gameplay on the head. Zip is simply rubbish.

Presentation 24%
Average on-screen display, poor title screen and a generally sloppy throughout.

Graphics 23%
A terrible screen glitch, uninspiring aliens and a feeble ship.

Sound 25%
Weak blips and a mediocre title tune.

Hookability 21%
Annoyingly difficult to play - made worse by the overly-critical collision detection.

Lastability 11%
Few levels and few alien formations: not worth anyone's time.

Overall 16%
A weak game in every department.