Review - Zuma's Revenge

Somewhere in Seattle, deep beneath the headquarters of PopCap, there's a well spring of mini-gaming genius pouring forth with gushing abandon. Whether that's the product of the developer selling its soul to Bjorn the Unicorn for a shot at the big time or some other machinations of witchcraft that brought both the undead and a range of flora to life, I'm not sure but whatever it may be, there's definitely some kind of black magic emanating from the studio.

The truth is that very few games mange to captivate audiences with apparently so little on offer. Bejewelled, Peggle, Plants Vs Zombies, and now Zuma's Revenge should be, by right, little more than mildly diverting half-attractions of the gaming environment and yet instead, they are all-consuming, serious threats to free time and consistently brilliant. Personally, I call devil worship – let's burn them as heathens before they bring about the apocalypse! As we gather the wood for the bonfire though, having more than brief play of their latest creation to hit Xbox Live Arcade only serves to confirm the greatness and dark wizardry of PopCap further. Packing in some context to the otherwise fairly familiar premise of the original Zuma, Zuma's Revenge is the tale of a militant frog taking on a Polynesian god armed only with a few coloured beads and a monkey or two. It's mad, frantic and feels more than once reminiscent of the Chuckle Brothers' gameshow To Me, To You!, which may not be a good thing. And yet somehow, this latest adventure is utterly engrossing in every way.



Just as in the first game, levels are cut up into ten stages only this time, each culminates in a boss battle. The premise remains the same though: clear rolling strings of balls by firing the corresponding colour at them, getting three in a row of the same colour to make them disappear, granting bonuses and upgrades while also alleviating the build up of balls as they march towards the end of the track. Fail to clear the stage of these brilliantly coloured nuisances in time and Zhaka Mu, the game's antagonist, will eat you up. Simple really.

But like any PopCap excursion, while the concept is devilishly easy-to-grasp, mastery is as elusive as ever. Balls move forward at unexpected rates, clearing one sequence of colour can cause a build up of odd one outs and, as expected, trouble is never far away. The challenge is such that by the end of a level, sweat begins to pour, nerves are fraught and a sudden, unexplainable hatred for all things green begins to grow.



The genius behind all of this, undoubtedly, lies in the popcorn-like nature of every game from Peggle to Zuma that the developer makes. Although it's designed for quick-fix play, clearing one level only leads to compulsively finishing off the next and before you know it, the night has disappeared along with any plans you had (and possibly your other half if they're not particularly patient). And yet even when the handful of stages are cleared, the real campaign starts when you begin chasing medals and high scores…

Each time a level is finished, up to three medals can be awarded: one for clearing the stage, another for points and a final token for completing within a time limit. These golden coins can then be spent on one of four talismans that act as stat increases - for example, the monkey increases the reward and appearance of bonus fruit that often litters the environments around the beads, the cheetah makes your shots faster and so on. And even when you've exhausted each stage for collectables, there's more with Zuma's Revenge boasting the obligatory survival mode and, more interestingly, weekly challenges for you to have a go at. Like any PopCap game, the compelling nature of the game feels less like casual fun and more like a full-time addiction to the XBLA equivalent of skag… although at least this feels far more gloriously fulfilling and less likely to have negative side effects. Well, maybe.



The only complaint of this latest outing is that fans of the developer will find little else to differentiate this from the 2009 PC original. It's a flashy remake with nice visuals and new power-ups, but that's nothing to turn a veteran Zuma player's head… it's just more of the same in slightly prettier wrapping paper. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing in this case.

So, yes – there's some bad juju up in them there PopCap hills, the kind that demands we offer the developer to the flames as such brilliance and imagination must not be allowed by the gods. Zuma's Revenge proves again that the Seattle-based studio is too good at what it does and with a mere 800 MSP price tag, this kind of thing must be unholy; after all, no god-fearing upright 360 gamer should be able to stand for that kind of nonsense.