Zuma's Revenge

Developer: PopCap Games, Inc
Steam Release: Sep 2009
Hours Played: 9.3
Similar To: Atlantis Sky Patrol / Luxor Series / Sparkle 2 / Zuma Deluxe
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Although Zuma's Revenge is not an indie title, it's such a well-known classic that I didn't have the heart to omit it from this collection. Players of the Luxor series will know the drill: in top-down view and taking control of a huge statuesque frog, you're confronted with a winding path consisting of a string of marble balls slowly making their way to the exit-hole. With more getting added by the second, you swivel your frog up to 360 degrees on a fixed point or move it left and right while shooting at the path with an endless supply of marble balls of your own. Connect three or more of the same colour to destroy a chain in your attempt to clear the path completely. The flow of the game makes it one of the most addictive 2D shooters around as it's full of absorbing sounds and interesting bonuses. 
 

BALANCE & PACE

The cross-hair itself helps to give off the feeling that you're an expert sharp-shooter as it's always the same colour of the ball you're about to fire so when you pick off the desired link with a swift swivel and pinpoint accuracy - that sense of control and power really starts to build. In other words, it's a game that knows how to lift confidence and give the player faith in their abilities. Generous bonuses and power-ups such as firing a salvo of missiles, slowing the speed down and reversing the flow of the path also get showered down in a cacophonous display of smooth animations and bright colour. Adventure mode, consisting of 60 levels, starts you off on your journey but you may break off to complete a further 70 challenges at the excellent Challenge mode if you wish. There is also an unlockable Heroic Frog mode which is the adventure mode on a tougher difficulty and Iron Frog mode which is a kind of survival option.   

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 

Zuma's Revenge comes infused with the spirit of the Aztec culture. The playing area is filled with plenty of colour and various patterns with the balls themselves being rendered in a wide variety of distinguishable colours. A feel-good tribal chant greets the player on successful completion of each level. What the game also gets right is the way the balls strike and collide with each other which gives the real sense that we're dealing with heavy bowling balls; all of which help create the illusion that we're thrashing about with real objects. Additionally, the menus are intuitive and very well presented with the game whisking you off on clearly defined paths from the start-screen.  

 

PROGRESS SYSTEM

With all modes bar one being locked at the beginning, the game encourages you  to go through the Adventure mode as an appetizer. This is an excursion through 60 levels - that's 10 levels split into six areas. You have "lives" shown at the map screen underneath your present score which get lost if the balls fall down the hole. Luckily, the game has checkpoints every five levels so you shouldn't have to start the whole campaign again. You get a stats page at the end of each level plus the option to do earlier ones but there seems no reason to do this and the score seems largely irrelevant. Challenge mode however, which records your best score for each of the 70 time-based levels (conveniently displayed in batches of ten and by grades of difficulty), has plenty of replayability not least in making an effort to "ace" it. 

CONCLUSION

With Heroic mode and Iron Frog mode thrown in, there is plenty to explore once you've completed the main adventure. Progress can also be tracked in the game's excellent Tiki Temple feature available from the home-page. This area essentially answers the prayers of all geeks and nerds out there who crave stats for each mode. For a small download and a game that demands little by its low specifications, Zuma's Revenge does pack quite a punch. Its adventure mode may seem like an extended tutorial by some standards (I made it to Level 34 before my first "death") and it may initially pass as more of a therapeutic game to bust some stress, but take a deeper look under the hood and it will definitely reveal enough challenges for the hardcore. All this plus a great prequel in Zuma's Deluxe and you can't go wrong.