Review of Sabrina: The Animated Series – Zapped!

Whoa, stepping back into the late 90’s, that’s a trip, right? So there’s this game — “Sabrina: The Animated Series – Zapped!” — and yeah, it’s from Wayforward. You know, the same folks who brought us Shantae and River City Girls. They’ve been around for like 25 years or something, and besides their big hits, they’ve put out a bunch of these licensed things. Anyway, it’s kinda wild how this Sabrina game helped lay the groundwork for Shantae.

Okay, so picture this: you’re playing as Sabrina, the teenage witch. But oops! She’s gone and turned her pals into animals. Can you imagine that chaos? They’ve all gone wild, and your job is to bop them on the head and cast a spell to bring them back. Here’s the fun part: you get new spells as you move along — like jumping higher, controlling her cat Salem (who, by the way, fits into crawlspaces — like, why didn’t I ever think of that?), or this bubble thing that lets her float upwards. Yeah, seriously.

The levels are — how do I put this? — tight. The variety’s neat, too. Like there’s this tall level where you absolutely need that bubble to move up. And then, Salem time! You switch over to him, sneak into spots, and unlock spells to smash through blocks. Mind-blowing? Maybe not. But it definitely shows how platformers did their thing on the Game Boy Color. Big, colorful characters and pretty simple stages. Plus, oh, that password system — makes life easier.

But wait, what about those controls? I mean, it’s a Game Boy Color, so you’re limited to the buttons, which — yeah, might be why I kept getting smacked by enemies instead of firing off spells. Oh well. For a game tied to an animated TV spin-off, it kinda blows my mind how well it functions. Not gonna lie; it’s no Shantae, but you can see the gears turning here for what would come later. Playing through once is cool, but after that, dunno… maybe the magic fades. A fun sidestep down memory lane, if nothing else!