Entering Zanzarah empty-handed, you must rely on the local residents of this mystical land to teach you the ways of the world. While their instructions are helpful and you can't do much without them, their squeaky gibberish jabberings are somewhat distracting.

I found myself looking for a mute button as they squawked their way through my fairy lessons, but was able to distract myself with the soothing Lillith Fair-esque soundtrack. Receiving my first fairy was relatively easy, but I struggled with training him. As the game continues, you are faced with defeating many different fairies of varying strengths, and once you defeat them you may add them to your own fairy squad.

The game controls, utilizing mainly the mouse and the arrow keys, were pretty simple to get used to once I mastered the sensitivity of the camera angles. The mouse controls the camera views as you're walking, and at first it's easy to find yourself looking at the ceiling or the floor. The mouse then controls your fairies in battle, allowing you to cast spells and fly.

One of the interesting things about Zanzarah is how the worlds seem to cross over each other. In level one, I found myself battling fairies at more than twice my skill level, and found still other areas that required items I didn't get until later worlds. While this was frustrating at first, it did make the exploration of the worlds of Zanzarah a little more interesting. Most of the game revolves around battling and capturing the fairies, with decreasing emphasis on the quest to understand the world and explore it.

After a while, the constant fairy battles become somewhat tedious. Zanzarah could have benefited from an increased amount of puzzle solving and exploration and less fairies. Don't get me wrong, I love fairies. Some of my best friends are fairies, but I don't always want to battle them.

The best part of Zanzarah is the graphics. The details are exquisite, especially in the field and wilderness areas where you can see the wind move through individual blades of grass. While I experienced a small lag upon entering some of the initial village dwellings, I was able to lower the intensity of the graphics to run them smoothly on my slow little PC.

Obviously, a better computer would make this world even easier on the eyes. The multiple camera angles really succeed in putting the player in young Amy's shoes and allow this mystical world to be seen through her eyes.

Clearly aimed towards younger female RPG players, Zanzarah is able to create a beautiful world that does' t hinge solely on the player's ability to blow stuff up. There is real beauty in the scenery and the villages and I felt like I was actually responsible for helping save this magical land.