ZUMA!!!

Oh do I love this game! I’m so glad my daddy found this game on Shockwave.com. What this game is basically is that your cursor is a rotating Frog that shoots out colored spheres. Depending on what color that’s going to shoot out of your mouth, you need to match that color with the colored spheres in the moving chain. That chain is heading towards a skull mouth, and if the chain reaches there, it’s game over and you lose a life. (The game will start making a heart beating sound if the chain gets too close to the end) The chain is endless until you hear ZUMA!!! With that, the chain suddenly ends and you’re finishing off the remaining chain. Extra points goes to you at the end of the round by counting off points on how far the last sphere disappeared all the way to the skull mouth.

There’s two games, original Zuma and Zuma’s Revenge. In that game, you’re also up against bosses, you have new powers and you also have a different style in playing.

You see in original Zuma, you’re just going after the chain in various different puzzles and they just add a new color. The colors are blue, red, yellow, green, purple and tan. While in the other game, there’s a challenge mode, there’s bosses... Ugh so much improved from this game!

In Zuma’s Revenge, you get to use weapons that helps you clear the round such as the laser cannon which fires an individual sphere out of the chain (most useful for the spheres that are by their lonesome on the chain and not near any of the same color) and the three sphere blasts in which your froggy character shoots out three bolder-like spheres at the chain, causing it to pry it apart (most useful when the puzzle is in the shape of a spiral so that you can cut the chain in various different ways) You did get some weapons in the original, but nothing like this. You have the accuracy helper that gives you a coned line to help you aim better and the slow sphere that slows down the movement of the chain.

The bosses in Zuma’s Revenge has you pitted down against the boss and a chain, but you’re also making sure that the chain doesn’t get near the skull while you’re fighting against the boss. What’s worse is that they throw things at you that causes your froggy to shoot a lot slower so if your chain is nearing the skull at the same time you’re hit, you’re most likely going to lose a life because it’s SO slow.

The end boss is a challenge, but you’ll survive, just make sure the hoola dancers get hit before they throw things at you as well.

The challenge mode has you going up against a series of hardened puzzles that you need to complete. But of course this is a challenge mode, so what better way to challenge you by only allowing you to have one life. So far, I’ve only gotten up to level eight, it’s REALLY difficult at times.

Lastly, the new style for this game, Zuma’s Revenge has your cursor actually moving up and down a straight line, and hoping back and forth from two spots on the map. The times where you’re moving in a straight line has you fighting against the chain that comes at you in a zig-zag line most of the time, and you cannot tilt the frog left or right just the course it’s supposed to go. It feels a bit stiff at times, but otherwise, it’s a cool different style. And the parts it has you hopping around, there’s more of a difficulty there. Sometimes where they have you hopping, the chain isn’t there at that part of the screen yet, so you’re stuck with just one post. When the chain grows longer and is a bit out of hand well... You’re kinda doommed if you don’t react fast enough because by the time the chain gets to the other post, you’re also hearing the heart beat sound.

So you know what happens when the skull eats the chain!

I have no complaints to Zuma, I really don’t. I occasionally say “damnit” whenever I mess up on the chain. I’m getting rid of all the long chain of blues and greens and then out of nowhere I shoot a yellow sphere right in the middle of a red chain. Ridiculous.