Zuma’s Revenge (Popcap Games) is the sequel to the original game, Zuma. In it, you must survive a newly evolved world of Zuma that is ruled by evil tiki bosses. You play as a frog spitting colored balls to knock out paired matches of balls traveling along a predetermined path toward a skull. The balls which are traveling along the path consist of both the colored ones and special power up ones entered randomly and according to the game mode. If the balls create a consecutive match of at least three, the segment disappears. The object is to keep performing this action until a meter is filled, causing the train of balls to stop. From here, simply clear out the remaining balls to finish the level and move on to the next. Its repetitive in its simplicity, but that’s to be expected in a casual game.
The DS version boasts five game modes including the all-new, DS-exclusive, Daily Dungeon and Versus modes. Daily Dungeon is a daily mix up of game modes that change every day via a slot machine that allows you to play a randomly generated game from three categories. The Versus mode is a simple game played against another player using three game types but your opponent needs to have his own game cartridge.
Adventure mode is like the “Story” mode of the game as it explains how the frog ended up on the island with the malcontent Tiki bosses, and the consequences of his actions for the next 60 levels. In almost every level, the frog is stationary to one corner, but there are a few where he is actually able to alternate spots, and in some levels you are given a track to slide along. That comes in handy with some of the more tricky boss stages.
Completing Adventure mode opens up more levels in the challenge mode and unlocks the Iron Frog mode as well. Iron Frog is similar to the survival mode of the previous entry in which you are given one frog and 10 levels to complete as you try to score as many points as possible.
The DS version of Zuma’s Revenge works very well with the touch screen, and is very responsive. The only thing that lacks in this game comes from the overall appearance of the game. At times it can appear very grainy, and dull. However, this does not deter from the fact that it is a fun game for a quick pick up & play puzzle game.
Zuma’s Revenge is a Nintendo DS game and can be played on the Nintendo 3DS, but does not have 3D features.
