Zaku is a homebrew scrolling shooter video game developed by PenguiNet and published by Super Fighter Team exclusively for the Atari Lynx on 24 October 2009. Taking place on a futuristic setting where Captain Bran and his minions plan to oversaturate the worldwide market with poor quality software using the "Rarity 9" programming tool, players assume the role of the titular character in an effort to retrieve the stolen tool from Bran. Zaku was conceived by Osman Celimli at a young age during his time working at PenguiNet, who wanted to create a project for a handheld game console, initially focusing on the Game Boy before shifting towards the Atari Lynx and was influenced by Air Zonk, lasting over a course of six years under development prior to release. The game was met with positive reception from reviewers since its initial release, with praise towards the presentation, audio, plot and gameplay, but criticism pointed to its length and some of its design aspects. As of 2018, the title has sold over 1,000 copies in total. Gameplay Zaku is a futuristic science fiction-themed scrolling shoot 'em up game reminiscent of Air Zonk, where players take control of the titular character through sixteen stages across five worlds, each with a boss that must be fought to retrieve the "Rarity 9" programming tool from Captain Bran. At the title screen, players have access to the options menu where various settings can be changed such as the difficulty. Players are free to proceed with the game's worlds in any order. Zaku can charge her shots to fire a more powerful attack and charging longer causes to activate a force field capable of damaging enemies. Zaku is also equipped with rear thrusters to attack enemies from behind. There are no power-ups to acquire besides capsule-shaped items. Zaku can sustain a number of hits before her health depletes and the game is over but players can choose to continue playing after dying. Development and release Zaku was the creation of programmer Osman Celimli, who started development of the project in 2003 at the age of 14 working at PenguiNet. Both Celimli and PenguiNet wanted to make a game for a handheld game console, initially targeting the Game Boy for development but focus was shifted towards the Atari Lynx instead due to the former platform's lack of documentation and programming tools, while the Lynx had an already