Zapper is billed as 'One Wicked Cricket', though it is unclear why. He appears to be a nice, somewhat clumsy little guy, able to leap and zap well enough, but you would never mistake him for a cold blooded killer. In the main Story Mode of the game, he must rescue Zipper, his little brother, and he does this over 18 levels of collecting Magpie eggs.
Game play consists of moving Zapper around using the cursor keys. He hops one square at a time, either to the same level of terrain, or just slightly higher. By pressing the Ctrl key, he can also make Super Jumps in the direction he is facing. This is necessary for jumping onto higher terrain, or when attempting to jump more than one square at a time, like when he must cross some sort of chasm. Also, by holding down the Ctrl key, Zapper can Buzz-Fly, which allows him to hover short distances.
The cute little cricket can also Zap or Super Zap enemies using the Alt key, and this is necessary for those pesky enemies that get in his way. Super Zap is only available after Zapper gets super charged, which happens when he collects enough Power Orbs for the fireflies freed from them to swarm. If all of the Power Orbs in a level are collected, then a bonus round is unlocked, which gives you a chance to unlock extra lives and let Zapper start the next round with a helmet, which gives him an extra layer of protection.
In order to locate eggs, you can press the Left Shift key, and this will cause Zapper to turn his head in the direction of the nearest egg. You can also rotate him with the Z and X keys, as well as make him chirp with the Spacebar (this last action doesn't seem to have any affect on game play).
Arcade Mode, which allows you to only play levels already unlocked in Story Mode, offers a few different types of game play: Time Trial, Expert Ghost Race, Expert Orb Race, and others. Only Time Trial is available initially, and other modes are opened up after beating the target time for a given level.
