QUByte Classics: Zero Tolerance Collection by Piko

Once a technical marvel, Zero Tolerance Collection is now severely dated. Fans who live to relive days gone by might get a kick from diving back into the Planet Defense Corps facility, and the new Underground set of levels is a nice, if limited, bonus extra. But tweaks to provide an updated graphics option, improved frame rates, audio tracks, and true button remapping would have been greatly encouraging for existing fans and newcomers alike. As it is, this collection is largely just a ROM set thrown into a lacklustre zip file, with a frustrating level of non-effort.

Ultimately, for a “Collection”, you do get everything… But with none of the historical context these retro games requires, and as arguably the biggest and most remembered of the Qubyte line yet, it’s a shame almost no extra work was done in this compilation besides compiling these three together and adding achievements. If you liked the original game and just want to play that, you’ll have a fun time, but otherwise, if you were hoping for the other two to be anything substantial or for any bonus content to be here, I’m sorry to say, that ain’t the case.

I’m sure that there are people out there that have fond memories of Zero Tolerance and will appreciate having the collection available on modern consoles. Far be it for me to criticise the developer and publisher for preserving more niche art like this. However, beyond being a curiosity of the era and something worth experiencing, briefly, for people who are interested in the history of video games, there’s no modern entertainment value to Zero Tolerance. Once, it was probably impressive. Today, it’s impossible to have any tolerance for it whatsoever (yep, of course I wasn’t going to resist the temptation to make that pun).

Zero Tolerance Collection is a really weird retro compilation. Technically speaking, you are getting a bunch of really dated, janky, poorly performing first-person shooters that haven’t managed to stand the test of time. On the other hand, they are a fascinating achievement for their time, being better first-person shooters than even the titles available for the Super Nintendo. The sole fact they exist, and run as well as they do on such dated hardware, makes this collection worth checking out if you’re a retro enthusiast.