The game was well received by critics and has sold 1.25 million copies worldwide. However, this didn't stop criticism from being a regular occurrence. Mark MacDonald of 1UP.com felt that the series had become a cliché of predictability, with "crate-pushing puzzles" and the "self-destruct countdown during the final boss fight" already appearing in earlier titles, coupled with a "lame" backstory. Regardless, the work done by the backgrounds team was praised along with Zero's item-dropping feature, achieving a "B+" ranking. Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot put much time to discussing the player-zapping feature and, while pointing out its successes in strategy and in puzzle solving, he believed that "the mechanic [didn't] really feel very innovative or interesting", mostly describing its uses as