ZooCube

"A new, original puzzler."

Most puzzle games seem to borrow elements from Tetris in one way or another. I don't blame them, since Tetris is a good puzzle game. This game, while using the traditional drop an object onto another object method, is very different actually.

Gameplay: The basic premise of Zoocube is to move the cube to pick up incoming animal shapes that fall onto the cube, which is stationed in the middle. Every time you match two animal shapes on the cube, the shapes disappear. In the first few stages, it starts out very easily. There are only a few animal shapes, and they only come towards the cube from 3 directions. (above the cube, bottom left of the cube, bottom right of the cube) Obviously, since it is a cube, it only has 6 sides. Each side can hold a maximum of 5 animal shapes. Once a stack is filled, and another shape hits the long stack, it's Game Over. In the later stages, it does get harder with the addition of new animal shapes, more directions in which the animal falls toward the cube, and of course, faster speed. The creators don't want to make this too easy for you. As the result, the difficulty is very hard, especially in the later stages. Being hard though, makes it fun. Finally, there are powerups that will either raise your score or blow up animal shapes of the Zoocube with a rocket.

The controls are fairly simple. The control stick rotates the cube up, down, left, and right. The C-stick rotates it in and out. Using both sticks is very useful as it provides easier routes of getting the animal shape where you want it quickly. However, since you are using both sticks, the controls are very hard to get used to on your first few tries. Once you get the hang of the controls though, it is very fun to attempt to get through the rest of the game. Pressing the A button allows the shapes to fall faster. The catch is that whenever you press the A button, the animal shape will ''paste'' onto that side of the cube. Even though, it will increase the speed of the shape, ''pasting'' an animal shape to the cube is very useful since you can rotate the cube to get other animal shapes while the ''pasted'' shape automatically tracks down the side you ''pasted'' it to go to. Pressing the B Button will juggle a stack so you can get the shape you want at the top. Once again, there is an added catch. Each time you juggle the contents of one stack, you juggle them all, which can prove deadly in later stages. Finally, the Z button activates a smart bomb which will help destroy the animal shapes.

Rating: 9/10

Graphics: Graphics aren't too important in a puzzle game, but here goes nothing. Each of the animal shapes represent a body part of the animal, more than likely the head or mouth. Whenever you match two animal shapes, it forms an animal head that does a neat little action such as roaring. The animals you can see are including, but not limited to: Lions, tigers, bears, (oh my!) rabbits, pandas, apes, and bats, just to name a few. The neatest part is the background, however, which features different places of the earth, such as the China Sea and the Arabian Sea.

Rating: 9/10

Story: Let's face it, the story is hardly important to a puzzle game. For those interested anyway, you are trying to save animals somehow by matching groups of two animals onto the Zoocube which then go to the ark. As I said before, the story only provides a background to setup a fun game.

Rating: 5/10

Sound: The background music is actually relaxing in a way. The tunes aren't exactly catchy, but at least they aren't annoying. The music tends to be exotic.

The actual sounds are the interesting part though. Whenever you match two animal shapes, they make a little sound which would be their respective animal noise such a roaring, snickering, or laughing. Each sounds true to the animal. In the later stages where the action gets more fast-paced, you may hear many animal noises at one time. It's like having your own little zoo!

Rating: 9/10

Replayability: This is an important part of puzzle games. The answer is, yes, you may have fun with this game months or even years from now. There are about 7 stages which get progressively harder to try and halt your progress. In addition to that, there are 4 modes. Classic, (which is the basic game) Blind, (where each shape you put down loses color and you must match shapes just by memorizing the actual shapes) Knockout, (which basically puts animal shapes already on the cube where you must get rid of most of the shapes to continue) and Knockout Blind. (a mix of knockout and blind modes) Also, if you have a few friends, you can play multiplayer which also proves to be fun.

Rating: 10/10

Rent or Buy: Though this game is very fun, I would recommend it to mostly puzzle fans. Since this game is a new concept, not many people may find it appealing. If you want to give it a try, I suggest you rent it. If you are a hardcore puzzle fan, buy it immediately! You won't be disappointed!

Final Rating: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/02, Updated 07/30/02