There are actually a few things more important to consider - when looking at megapixels, try to find out the size of the sensor (manufacturers don't always like to put that one on the little advertising tag). 14MP on a larger sensor is much better than 14MP on a tiny little sensor. Megapixels is unfortunately one of those bullet points that have captured the general public's attention, and most assume more is always better...and the manufacturers have bent over backwards to cram ever more pixels onto itty bitty sensors while the general buying public eats it up. There are a few websites for digital cameras which will give you the 'pixel density' - this can be a convenient way of comparing two cameras with the same 'MP' rating to determine which one has the right MP count versus which one has far too many for the sensor size...which usually results in worse performance.
As for zoom - as mentioned, OPTICAL zoom is good - take as much of it as you want. DIGITAL zoom is bad - don't even look at how much of that a camera has as it is nothing more than cropping done in camera, and will degrade the picture's resolution and image quality. Sometimes, manufacturers will post the 'overall' zoom number as a combination of the two - so a 15x camera might actually have 5x of optical zoom and 3x of digital zoom which combine for a total of 15x. Ignore the total figure, and look at the optical zoom only.
Also - remember what that 'X' figure means - a 10x zoom doesn't necessarily reach farther than an 8x zoom. The 'X' is a multiplier...in order to find what it is multiplying, you need to know the camera's widest angle, and the crop factor of the sensor. For example, a typical compact camera might have a lens that starts at 6mm. So a '10x' optical zoom means the maximum telephoto of the lens is 60mm. So the lens is a 6mm-60mm lens...BUT, now you have to consider the crop factor to know how that compares to the typical film cameras or full frame digital SLRs. A typical compact will have a 'crop factor' of 6...so to know the '35mm equivalent' range of the lens, multiply the lens
range by the crop factor. That means with a crop factor of 6, a 6mm to 60mm lens is actually the equivalent of a 36mm to 360mm lens. Compare that to a DSLR with an APS-C sensor that has a crop factor of 1.5...an 18-250mm lens on those cameras will be equivalent to 27mm to 375mm (18 x 1.5 and 250 x 1.5). A 'full frame' DSLR camera doesn't have a crop factor - the lens' range is exactly what it says.
So why would a 10x sometimes reach farther than a 12x zoom? Use the example above, with the compact camera that has the 6-60mm lens (10x). Now take another compact camera that has a 12x zoom with a 4.67mm wide lens. Assume the camera has the same 6x crop factor common to most compact cameras...that means the widest setting in 35mm equivalence is 28mm, and the 12x zoom will give a maximum range of 56.04mm, which adjusted for the crop factor would be 336mm. So the 10x camera goes to 360mm, while the 12x camera goes to 336mm...not farther as you might assume!
That was all probably somewhat confusing...just try to remember when dealing with zoom, to 1. only look at the optical, not the digital, 2. Look at what the wide angle is, and multiply that by the zoom amount to know how far the lens will reach, and 3. Understand when dealing with comparisons with different cameras that different sensor sizes can mean different crop factors, so adjusting for the crop factor of the sensor is the best way to compare the lens range of a little compact to a large DSLR.