I don’t know about anyone else, but I firmly believe that Tetris has a lot to answer for. Until that fateful day puzzles were either linked to really cheaply made crossword/word search books used for going on rickety old bus trips to the Zoo or an actual physical game in front of you, on a table that you could do with whatever radio station or cassette album you chose at the time.
Ok, so I may be acting a little bit on the long-winded side here, but there is a bit of reasoning behind all this. You see, I feel that since the three current gen. consoles unleashed their virtual gaming shops upon us we seem to be getting a hell of a lot of puzzle games chucked in our faces to the point of turning into a cerebral pandemic. Bejeweled 2, Puzzle Quest, Elefunk and so on all seem to add to an already cluttered genre on these marketplaces. PopCap clearly don’t agree and have given us Zuma, a game where you have to match balls of the same colour in a chain before it’s too late.
It does feel like it has a hand embedded in the Bust A Move pie here, as the main concept is near identical. It’s just the way in which you clear the levels that varies, choosing a direct shot to hit the spherical convoy as they move along in a line rather than them raining from the ceiling and hoping for a lucky deflection off the walls.
As there are so many of this style of game kicking about these days there has to be that little added ingredient of originality to separate it from all it’s rivals. In this case it would be that your saviour projectiles come from a frog with big eyes, who although set firmly in one place on the stage map can rotate a full 360 degrees to attack the multicoloured chain, not to mention that these said chains can move in many directions and have some covered areas meaning you have to wait to attack, adding tension at the same time.
As the levels progress the speed gets faster, culminating in the final part of each set of stages, which gives you a second chain to eliminate. As a hardcore piece of puzzling frustration it works pretty well, with the good old “I know I can do this” mentality running through your head as you lose out on your latest attempt. Further on in Zuma you’ll also find extra colours being added in to ramp up the difficulty even more. It has to be said that the curve they’ve set here is pretty fair and you do find yourself getting stuck in as time goes on without feeling the urge to give up very early.
There are certain things that can help you in the game, namely the special ability balls in the chain which appear randomly. These can vary from slowing down the game to help clear your feet or maybe even reversing the direction for a brief period, to an accuracy one which speeds up the shooting mechanism. Explosions, coins and combos also make appearances to help boost your score up, which you NEED to help you get through with every 50,000 points giving you an extra life.
There are 75 levels in the Zuma, each split into 12 temples and it has to be said that it will take a fair time to get through them all. There’s also a survival mode to test your resilience as you attempt to get through each level without stopping. It all sounds pretty good so far, but there is one glaring omission that really should be here in this day and age, especially considering how you’re purchasing this game in the first place.
Online, hell, even an offline multiplayer simply doesn’t exist here and I find that quite surprising. A lot of the games in this genre nowadays thrive on the competitiveness of playing against another competitor, Puzzle Fighter II, the aforementioned Tetris and Bust-A-Move, as well as many others proved that theory rather well, so you have to wonder why there isn’t anything like that here. It does have a leader board option, but it does feel like it relies a little too much on this and it’s just not enough to me. It just feels a little lazy.
If I had to be hyper-critical I’d also have to say that even though it may be in 1080p, there is no real need to keep it trapped within a border which nigh on eliminates half the screen. I’d much rather have it take over the TV and give your optics a nice little blast of colour and get the endorphins running. This is not the case here and it does feel like it’s been more of a port over than a properly fresh conversion.
The core part of Zuma is very fresh and the mechanics do work very well, but the lack of multiplayer and the dinky playing area hold it back from being a great addition to your PS3’s hard drive. It’s not to say it’s a bad game, but in a day and age where we’re all trying to bring the gaming world together it feels like a big gap. As a single player title though, I’d recommend giving it a go for whiling away a few hours and would suggest adding a mark onto our score if this is the case for you.
VideogameUK verdict: 7/10
This could have been a belter of a title for all lateral thinkers to purchase and have a jolly hoot online with their like minded friends, but the irony that someone forgot to put this into a game which involves a lot of thinking leaves a taste in the mouth.
