Review - Zuma's Revenge

Zuma - if you haven't played it - is a puzzle game where a winding row of marbles are moving towards a stone skull. Your goal is to stop them from reaching it by firing like-colored marbles from a stone frog in the center of the screen so that groups of three or more marbles of the same color are lined up, where by they explode and the remaining marbles role back to fill the gap. With some strategically aimed shots you can create chain reactions that garner you more points and more time to direct your next shot. Some marbles grant special powers that are activated when destroyed - there are those that create a larger explosion which destroys marbles in a radius around them, some that slowdown the marbles' advancement or downright rolls them back a short distance.

Almost six years after PopCap released this classic they're back with the sequel Zuma's Revenge. The original is one of Popcap's more well know and successful games and it has been released on a large number of plaforms and a Deluxe version is available on XBLA and PSN. Zuma was addictive and challenged players reflexes as well as their ability for tactical planning - like and game of it's ilk should.

So what new features have PopCap put into Revenge to trump it's predecessor? As it turns out, not much. Sure Zuma's Revenge is a good looking and slick game, there are a few new power-ups like: Laser (let's you zap away four unwanted marbles), Lightning (destroys all marbles of a given color) and Tri-Shot (a "shotgun"-type blast that destroys a large group of marbles). The game includes the main "Adventure" mode (60 levels to beat in order) there's the "Challenge" (70-levels where your goal is to gain as many points as possible in three minutes), Heroic Frog (replay the Adventure levels on a higher difficulty) and Iron Frog (a set of extra difficult levels that you must beat with just one life).

Another addition is the boss fights at the end of each of the six stages of "Adventure" mode. In these - like in most games - your goal is to find the boss' weakness and then exploit it to win. This basically involves moving back and forth (on these stages your stone frog is on a rail instead of fixed in the center of the screen) to avoid it's attacks and then find the right tactic to hit it - either directly by knocking marbles out of the way and then aiming for the boss, or by indirect hits by exploding marbles. The bosses are relatively simple but a welcome break from the standard levels, something I would have liked to see more of. With the boss levels it's apparent that the main Zuma concept is flexible enough to experiment with - so it's a shame that PopCap has chosen to play it so safe with this sequel.

If you've played Zuma there's not much here that you haven't already seen, you can happily keep playing Zuma (Deluxe) and not feel like you're missing much. If however you've yet to experience this great action-puzzler Zuma's Revenge is a great place to jump in - well worth at least trying.

My Score: 7 of 10

Review - Bookworm Adventures Volume 2

Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 is a word-puzzle game with some light role-playing elements mixed in. Using a 4x4 grid of random letter tiles the player must construct words that, depending on their lenght and the use of less common letters (think Scrabble) do varying amount of damage to an opponent that the protagonist - the titular bookworm Lex - must defeat to progress.

During the corse of the game you'll aquire magical items and abilities - like doing extra damage when spelling an adjective, or those that affect the letter tiles by increasing your chances of getting possitive effects (in the form of colored gems that do extra dammage or heal ailments) or that reduce the risk of those with negative effects (tiles that deal damage to Lex or don't do anything at all). Lex will also gain new companions that provide their own unique bonuses.

Big Words
When PopCap released the original Bookworm Adventures in November 2006 it was one of the most ambitious casual games to date - A word-puzzler with RPG elements, pleanty of humor and a fair amount of animated graphics was far more substatial than most other titles in the genre. Bookworm Adventures was a big success, much bigger than even PopCap was expecting. PopCap was now growing, both in size and their games' prodution values. The company also grew in the eyes of the so called "hardcore" gamers as well as their more traditional fans.

This does makes it more difficult to be impressed by the sequel though. Very little has changed in Adventure Mode, the games main mode, the graphical style remains the same and several assets look to have been re-used even if new enemies and environments have been added. The three mini-games from the first game: Link n' Spell, Letter Rip and Word Master also make a re-appearance. The animations are stiff and simple and some sounds are a bit grainy. The magical items and abilities that effect the tiles are of little importance - as long as you fairly consistently build long words that are worth a lot of points and avoid the tiles with negative effects the game will just role on.

Choose your Words Carefully
That however, is the main appeal of the game, the fact that it just flows - there's nothing that irritates or frustrates and you can spend as much time as you like finding that perfect word - you'll soon realize you've spent the last twenty minutes working on a single word without the slightest hint of boredom - or perhaps you instead choose to play at a higher pace, focusing more on tactics: using the gem tiles in smart combinations (for example early on you will gain the ability to combine several gems in one word to create rainbow-colored gems which act as wild cards) and choosing which magic items and which companion to bring with you on each level carefully - depending on play style and which potions you have at the moment.

In an interview with Gamezebo lead artist Tysen Henderson said of the original Bookworm Adventures "It was very important to us to make sure that none of the elements do you have to absolutely understand or pay attention to succeed at the game. If you just spelled words and that's all you wanted to do, you will succeed, regardless if you wanted to pay a whole lot of attention to everything else."

The Name of the Game
After games like Puzzle Quest where the role playing aspects play such a large part of the game, their rather shallow use in Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 feels like a missed opportunity. But irregardless your opinion of the philosophy behind the games design, there's no denying that this is a captivating and addictive game, that brings out the wordsmith in even the most apathetic student of English and you will no doubt learn a new word or two in the process. Regarding graphics, as you focus on the task at hand the actual graphics are of little importance and if I sounded harsh towards them, it's only because PopCap has set the bar so high with Peggle and Plants Vs. Zombies.

With a price tag of $19.95 you get a lot of game for your money. Adventure Mode is long, with three "story books", each made up of ten chapters and with a total of over 130 enemies it till take you quite some time to play through them all. Depending on how much time you spend puzzling on each word the total playtime may vary drastically, but expect to spend at least 30 minutes per chapter. During the course of the adventure you'll also unlock six minigames of varying merit - but you'll no doubt find at least a couple of them worth your while. Personally I found the time-based ones all too hectic, the "survival Mastermind" game Word Master on the other hand is more fun than it should be.

My Score: 8 of 10

Translated from original review on PixelPlayer.se

Was it good for you too?

...

Enjoy!

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Where you effected by the story in ICO and Shadow of the Colossus?

If you also appreciated the story, that will get you farther.

If you enjoyed the puzzles of Portal, that will get you some ways.

...that is just the surface.

And while appreciating those games will go some ways towards understanding Braid...

Playing the demo you may well draw parallells to Exit, Crush, or Echocrome.

I'm not sure the demo does it justice.

Yes, there is a demo.

I'll admit Braid isn't for everyone.

OK, so maybe that's a bit too extreme.

fix that.

If you don't own an Xbox 360

you must own Braid.

If you own an Xbox 360

I finished Braid.

Today