Remember Zoo
Keepers? Although it sounds like a real-time herding simulator, Zoo Keepers
was the first puzzler for the Nintendo DS. Tiny, cartoon animal heads were
crammed into a box that was roughly 60% of one DS screen. Your mission: help
the heads escape. How? By rearranging the heads (a la Tetris Attack) until
three or more of the same animal are touching.
The
headaches came when you realized that this wasn’t a simple game of move the
puzzle piece. Puzzle pieces can’t be moved, only rearranged. If you move a
piece to a location where others just like it do not exist, be ready to move
on. Your piece will snap back into its original spot, wasting valuable time.
This
enjoyable, Bejeweled-style puzzle game could have easily devoured the lives of
millions of casual gamers – if millions of casual gamers had a Nintendo DS.
They don’t, which might explain why many Nintendo DS exclusives are being
ported to the Game Boy Advance. They’re not calling it Zoo Keepers though, or
even ZK Advanced. Like the sound a cow makes (but with a “Z,” not an “M”),
this game is simply titled Zooo.
If you know
Zoo Keepers or Bejeweled then you already know what to expect. The entire game
takes place on an 8×8 block of animal heads, cramming a total of 64 animals
onto the screen simultaneously. That sounds pretty massive but looks extremely
dated. Should you care? Hardly. When the seventh level of the Normal mode is
reached – that’s when Zooo begins to kick the poo out of you. That’s also the
point when you realize that, simple or not, casual or not, this game’s no
pushover.
Within this
puzzling world of animal disappearances there may or may not be a time limit.
You’ll always have to contend with the success rate bar at the bottom of the
screen. Slowly it empties, sending a message to procrastinators everywhere. (I
assume they’d listen. It’s not like they’re busy doing something.) Don’t
wait! it says.
Squint if
you have to. Get bags under your eyes. Find the Waldo that no one else can
see. There will be times when you can’t imagine that there any moves left, but
you’re always wrong. When the game runs out of moves, Zooo automatically
replaces the board with a fresh set of animals. It does this whether you’ve
used all the blinking puzzle pieces or not.
Blinking
pieces are the ultimate animal head. It constantly flashes through the list of
featured animals. Essentially it’s a random depletion item that will take out
every head of a particular species.
Using a
blinker often leads to chains and combos. Zooo follows the rules of Tetris
Attack where combos are defined as two or more species eliminated at the same
time. Chains are what happens when a row of pandas cause a row of lions to
lock into place. There are no rules and virtually no limitations to stop
players from creating an endless stream of chains and combos that rack up
record-breaking points. The biggest challenge, as luck would have it, is
training your eyes to see the big picture. Getting my thumbs to react as fast
as my eyes was no easy task either.
Right now
Zooo probably sounds like the most well-rounded puzzle game ever made. It
could’ve been … possibly. But it’s a Bejeweled clone. Bejeweled was likely a
clone, or at least a variation, of something else. Zooo is an extremely
addictive experience, but what you read is what you get. There are different
game modes, but the task is essentially the same.
Normal mode
is based on an increasing quota system. Eliminate the designated amount of
animals to level up. Tokoton is based on a specific amount – you’ll level up
every time 100 animals (within a species) have been eliminated. Time and Score
Attack speak for themselves. Quest is the most unique of the bunch, asking the
player to meet specific demands within the time limit. These demands might
include quotas, combo requests, and point totals.
I played
each mode for a while and ended up coming back to the Normal mode, where I
told myself, "Just one more game!" about a hundred times before I finally
stopped to write this review. It was as if I was one of those procrastinators
I mentioned, except that I wasn’t merely sitting around and doing nothing. I
was sitting around with my Game Boy Advance SP. My, what a bright screen you
have!
As far as
the DS version goes, the most significant difference is the lack of a touch
screen. In almost every circumstance I’d say that touch screen gameplay is
superior to D-pad controls, but that doesn’t mean you should feel left out.
I’d recommend the DS to anyone, especially with its new $129.99 price tag. If
you’re not willing to upgrade then by all means proceed. Zoo is very much a
casual gamer’s game. But I’m hardcore and I found it hard to put down, even
without my stylus functions.
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Gameplay: 7.5
Shallow, yet
addictive. Is this some new reality TV show I speak of? No – it’s Zooo, the
game that rhymes with moo. It’s like Bejeweled but designed for the world’s
most popular handheld game system. Challenging and strangely competitive, Zooo
is the best way to get through boring business meetings, especially if you’re
without a decent PDA. You’ll be surprised at what happens when a friend,
cousin or sibling beats your high score. You won’t put it down till their’s
has been topped. Then they’ll snatch the GBA from your hands and the process
will repeat itself all over again.
Graphics: 5.0
Game Boy Advance
is far from dead, but it’s been a year since anyone has devoted time to making
a great-looking game for it. Zooo gets the job done for the type of game it
is, but when was that ever enough for any of us? If Hollywood followed that
rule they’d still be filming entirely in black and white, not just for
artistic purposes.
Sound: 5.0
Cutesy and highly
repetitive sound effects, drenched in music I was quick to forget.
Difficulty: Medium
There’s a real
challenge here, as well as a lot of simplicity. It’s the kind of game that
casual players could be all over and never think of it as being too
frustrating or too difficult. At the same time hardcore gamers who fight their
best will eventually learn that the developers aren’t kidding around.
Concept: 5.0
Zooo wouldn’t be
here had it not been for the PC puzzlers that inspired it. Saying that it was
inspired is kind of a stretch though. I love this game and recommend it to
anyone who wants a handheld version of Bejeweled. The concept, however, is
anything but original.
Overall: 7.0
Worth playing.
Worth buying. Worth letting yourself become engaged in. Although I’m sure the
repetitious screenshots let the cat out of the bag, I must warn you: this is
one seriously repetitive game. The addictive level is high, keeping the game
from an early death. But you WILL get tired of it. Eventually.
