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Cobinee likes his anime, that much has been made clear in other games he has released. With Z my mind immediately went to Dragon Ball. Is this game based on the second series in the Dragon Ball franchise? I tried it out and realised that this is actually based on the giant mech anime, Mazinger Z. While it's not a series I'm overly familiar with, Mazinger Z is one of the many anime characters to already have a few video games based on his exploits. With all the potential that a giant robot has to offer, it must be said that the choice of game style for Z is both interesting and disappointing.

There is no story, as is the case with many of Cobinee's games. However, if you've played Lunar Lander or a variation on that theme, then you should have a good idea on what the goal of the game is. When you begin, you find yourself dropping to the floor with space ships darting back and forth beneath you. I watched the intro to Mazinger Z on YouTube to get an idea of what it is you're actually trying to do in the game. From what I can gather Mazinger Z rises from an underground base and the ship lands on his head, with the pilot on board. That's the goal of the game, to land that ship onto Mazinger Z's head.

Yes, that's it! We have a game about a giant robot, and all this game wants you to do is land the pilot on his head. Once you do that you get to see an image of Mazinger Z, directly lifted from a Fujitsu FM-7 home computer game based on the series. After that you're back at the title screen to do it all over again, if you can stomach it. The controls are pretty horrible, with the ship sliding all over the screen. You move the ship with left and right, while the space bar operates your jets. You are given more than enough time to land on Mazinger Z's head, so my tip is to just hover around the top of the screen until you see an opening, then just drop. Be careful to hit your jets before you touch down, as falling too fast onto the head will cause you to crash.

There's not much to say about the sound. A small segment of the Mazinger Z theme tune plays on the title screen and when you finish the level. Other than that you have the sounds of the jets and your ship crashing. What can I say about the graphics? Well, they're serviceable I suppose, though Mazinger Z's head is not pink.

There is nothing I liked about the game which is a real shame, because I really looked forward to being surprised...

Turns out I was, just not in a positive way. Poor concept, rubbish controls, one life, the game ends too quickly. Should I keep going?

If you feel like punishing yourself you can download Z from Cobinee's website.