Zuma’s Revenge
The sequel to the best-selling classic doesn’t disappoint!
Zuma’s Revenge! Is a sequel to the smash hit from 2003 that sold over 17 million copies. Those of you that are familiar with the original will find yourselves right at home with this sequel as PopCap Games hasn’t messed with the original formula all that much.
Like the original you play this stone frog that, except for a few exceptions, usually sits in the middle of the screen. The frog can rotate around 360 degress and fire, or spit if you will, multi-colored balls, usually one at a time. On most of the levels that you’ll encounter the frog is surrounded by a swirling trench of sorts that starts to rapidly fill up from one end with multi-colored balls of its own. At the far end of each trench is this sort of skull pit that all the multi-colored balls are rolling towards. The object of the game is to stop the multi-colored balls from reaching this pit. To do this you need to have your frog fire his multi-colored balls at the moving, snake-like line of balls and try to match up at least three of the same color. When such a match occurs those balls will explode, temporarily creating a gap in the "snake", and buy you some more time to stop the balls from reaching their destination. If enough balls of the same color are on each side of one of these gaps when the gap closes those balls will explode as well. So if you’re quick enough you can use some strategy here to create some double explosions. If you’re able to eliminate all of the balls before they reach the skull pit then you advance to the next level. If you fail to do so then you have to start over at the beginning of the level.
Also like the original there are some power-ups available to spice up gameplay, including three new ones in this sequel. Some of the familiar ones are the ones that slow the movement of the snake temporarily, reverse its direction temporarily, or explode all other balls in the immediate area. Some of the new ones include a laser that will obliterate any balls you aim it at and another one that will put three balls in your frog’s mouth that will fire simultaneously and spread out. Power-ups really add a lot of fun to the game and can really get you out of tight spots at times!
Perhaps the most exciting change in this sequel is the addition of boss battles. The game takes place on a Polynesian island that is separated into different sections. When you finish one section you unlock the next. However at the end of each section you encounter one of these bosses. On these boss levels your frog is positioned at the bottom of the screen with the boss at the top. Between you and the boss is another moving line, or snake, of multi-colored balls. So now you not only have to worry about stopping these balls from reaching the end but you also have to try to blow openings in the moving snake of balls so you can take shots at the boss. But the boss moves back and forth and throws projectiles at you as well! These boss sequences are actually kind of reminiscent of the old classic Space Invaders arcade game. They can be rather challenging so might take you several attempts to defeat. The Adventure game mode has 60 levels and 6 bosses so will probably keep you busy for quite a while. But there are other modes for you to tackle when you finish that. There is a Challenge mode and Heroic Frog mode for example.
Visually the game is very pleasing to the eyes. Resolutions of up to 1920 x 1200 are supported. So now you can finally play Zuma in widescreen! The sound is also really well done, especially where the explosions are concerned. It’s great when you manage to start a chain of explosions! The music is nice but it does get rather repetitive after a while. Fortunately you can turn it off on the options screen.
I’m happy to say Zuma’s Revenge! can be played entirely with the mouse. In fact, due to the nature of how you control your frog (rotate, aim, and fire) the game kind of lends itself to head-operated mouses, like the Headmaster Plus or HeadMouse Extreme. It’s not often that those of us that are forced to use these types of mice have an advantage when playing a game but in this case I think there is a bit of an advantage which is awesome! KeyStrokes does actually float above the screen in full screen mode but even though the cursor is there when you hover over KeyStrokes you can’t see where it is. Fortunately this isn’t an issue since you only need KeyStrokes to enter your name at the beginning. You can simply set the game to windowed mode from the options screen to do this then you can switch back to full screen mode and play the game in all its glory. I should note that right-clicking is used during gameplay for switching the color of the ball that is loaded in your frog’s mouth. But if right-clicking is an issue for you there is no need to worry because you don’t have to do this to be successful at this game. In fact, I didn’t even know that you could do that until after I had beaten the first 30 levels or so! Because timing is such an issue with this game I would not recommend it for those that use dwell clicking. However since there’s a free demo available you’re welcome to give it a try and see for yourself.
I really enjoyed Zuma’s Revenge! despite the similarities to its predecessor. It’s extremely addicting so you’ll lose a lot of time playing it. That said, it’s a steal at $19.95 in this reviewer’s opinion. Zuma’s Revenge! is available for Windows PCs and Macs. A free 60 minute trial demo is available from the PopCap Games website.
Mac System Requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later
- 1GB of RAM
- 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
Windows System Requirements:
- Windows XP/Windows 2000/Windows Vista
- 700 MHz Pentium 3 or equivalent
- 256MB RAM
- DirectX 8.1
Paul Natsch
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