Looking for a game that you can jump into? Zuma’s Revenge by Popcap (DS $19.99) allows you to do just that. You need to destroy color balls by shooting them with matching ones. You must shoot balls of various colors at their matching balls as they roll by.
You must have at least 3 balls of the same color to have them disappear before they get to the end of the track. You can also destroy balls by having them connect when you destroy balls of a different color in the middle.
Adventure mode allows you to play six island zones. Each zone has 10 levels and a boss at the end. Challenge mode has 70 levels that increase in difficulty. The Daily Dungeon gives you three challenges everyday by spinning the wheel. Versus mode allows you to play against three of your friends. You can also play Iron Frog, once you complete Adventure Mode. In Iron Frog you have only one life for 10 levels. If you lose, you restart from level 1.
The game starts out simple with only one track for the balls to follow. As you get further into the game, the track increases in number. You can jump and slide from one side to another to get the balls. Your ball shoots out of a frog’s mouth. You can change the color of the ball by tapping the back of the frog. The next ball color is shown in a little spot on the back of the frog. As you progress through the game each level gets progressively harder.
By the time you reach level 9, there will be two tracks of balls to clear, and at level 12 your frog will jump from side to side to get different balls. You have X number of lives; when you run out you need to start at the latest save point in the game. When you reach the end of each level you will get a screen that tells your max combo, max chain, gap shots, fruit, ace time, your time, bonus points and best perfect level points.
By completing this mode, you will also unlock Iron Frog and Boss Daily Dungeon. At the end of each zone, you must battle a boss who will throw stuff at you. When you get hit, you will be stunned and disorientated and unable to make an accurate shot. These battles are much harder than the prior levels. The boss’ life appears as 5 hearts and will turn from red to blue. The bosses will have defenses that make it harder to hit them. Once you defeat a boss the next island will open up. You can see your progress on a map when the game loads.
Challenge mode consists of 70 levels where you must get certain scores to beat them. This is unlocked when you pass level 10. Once you beat a challenge a new one will open up. There are boss battles that you must defeat in order to open up the next zone. There are 70 challenges that range from easy to insane.
The Daily Dungeon has 3 areas to choose from: Astro, Blitz, and Boss. Astro has 10 waves for the challenge condition. For each challenge condition met, you will get a piece of a calender. If you want to up the antie, you can try for the Ace Condition. At the end of the 10 waves you will see your: Max Wave, Max Chain, Bonus, Max Combo, and Gap Shots.
In Blitz, it will show the different powers that each ball has. You can use up to 3 per game. You only have a minute for this challenge unless a time bonus is received. There is a Challenge Condition and Ace Condition. You will see how your extra time, multiplier, specials, max chains, fruit, balls cleared, powers, speed, max combo, and gap shots helped with your score. When you achieve the challenge condition, you will get a piece of the calender. You need to complete adventure mode to use the Boss daily dungeon.
You get grey stone pieces when you get a challenge score and colorful pieces for Ace scores. You can fill your calender by playing each mode everyday. Under Tiki Temple you can see your game stats. It shows each section; it will show you how well you did.
One interesting thing that Zuma’s Revenge has is an option for people who are color blind. The colors of the balls are normally pink, yellow, purple, blue, and green. In the colorblind option they are pink, yellow, blue, black, and grey. I tried colorblind mode and found it difficult to determine between grey and black a few times. You can access this mode by going into options and clicking on Colorblind Assist.
Power ups are earned to increase your score. These include bombs (it blows up itself and other balls around it), Rewind (all balls roll in the opposite direction for several seconds), Tri-shot (fires three balls at once), among others. Each power up has its own symbol on the ball.
Zuma’s Revenge is fun to play. I found that when I was shooting, I was more accurate when I used my stylus to draw a line from the mouth of the frog to my desired spot. I was very challenged and did not get bored or felt like the game was repetitive. Looking for a fun DS game for you or the whole family? This is it, so jump in and let the fun roll.
DaniP
Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Popcap
Publisher: Popcap
ESRB: E (Everyone)
Price: $19.99
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |   |
| Beautifully drawn with vibrant color and it's easy to see the ball colors. | |
| Sound | |
| Very upbeat and fits the game perfectly. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Easy to get the feel of the game and to learn how to play. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Zuma's Revenge is an excellent game for one person or the whole family to enjoy and play together. The addition of making it friendly for people with colorblindness makes this game perfect for anyone. | |
