Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal Demo

The fantasy genre does not deviate too often from the somewhat common universe in which most of the books, video games and movies place, which means that elves, dwarves and evil spirits are all too familiar in almost anything that revolves around magic. However, each take on the genre comes with a variety of changes and new ideas as well, which makes the stories that much more interesting.

Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal is a third-person RPG/action-adventure game in which you get to be a part of one such story, as well as witness some very creative tales about magic, different races and a great evil that looms over the universe. The main idea, however, is the fact that the world is actually split into two and the humans are trapped in the non-magic one, while elves, dwarves and goblins are enjoying their magical powers in the second world.

The story kicks off when one of these goblins gives a rune to a teenage girl from London called Amy, a rune which can be used to teleport in Zanzarah, the magical world. Here, she finds out that everyone uses fairies to augment their powers and even to duel each other, especially since these fairies are not too smart and they can be captured out in the wild, if you are skilled enough.

As previously mentioned, the game is played from a constant third-person perspective, which means that Amy is constantly on the screen and you can properly control her around the map. However, once you get into a duel with someone, the view changes and you enter the first-person point of view, in order to efficiently guide the fairies. Speaking of which, these can range in both looks and abilities, which means that almost each type can be more or less effective against certain foes.

Once the battle begins, you can switch between fairies using the scroll function and the fight is over whenever one of the duelers runs out of fairies. While you are controlling them, you can use the mouse to attack the foes, although it is also possible to charge the attacks for a while and unleash much more powerful hits. You can also fly for a while, which makes for some very interesting tactics, as long as you can concentrate on multiple things at once.

Although Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal targets a slightly younger audience, it can be played by anyone, especially if you are interested in fantasy worlds and magic as a whole. Moreover, the combat system is quite ingenious and it deserves a bit of praise, even if it lacks any kind of graphical violence.