"To call it anything less than a classic puzzle game is an outrage!"

If you were to look up "addictive video game," there's a good chance you'll hear tell of how Tetris was almost never released because developers were too busy playing the prototype. This is what it means for a game, not just a puzzle game, to be truly addictive. Tetris gave us the true blueprint for how to make great puzzle games with a lasting appeal. Nowadays, the term "easy to learn, difficult to master" is thrown around so much, we forget what it means; at the time, few, if any video games could hit that elusive combination that had made traditional games like Go, Pente or even Poker so enduring.

Zoop is one of the few games to truly build on this theory while at the same time retaining enough flare and originality as to stand on it's own. Like tetris before it, Zoop takes roughly one minute to learn, and beginners will find the game to be insanely easy to play. Then, you get better at it, learn a little more about what you're doing, and realize that what seemed like the simplest game in the world is actually a bit deeper than you thought. The more you play, the more subtle and intricate the game becomes, and yet it really is the same, insanely simple premise that it was the first time you played.

The Game
1-You are a triangle, standing in the middle of a grid while coloured shapes come at you from four sides (up, down, left, and right, respectively), if you're the same colour as the shape, press one of the buttons to spring out and... well... kill it, or whatever you do to it to make it go away.

2-If you're a different colour than the shape, then you and the shape switch colours. If you switch colours with a shape, the other shapes that are usually behind it are completely unaffected.

3-If there are several shapes the same colour as you, you kill them all at once.

4-If there are some shapes the colour as you, then a shape that isn't, you kill the shapes that are the same colour and switch colours with the one that isn't.

5-Kill a specified number of shapes to progress to the next level.

6-There are also some power-ups to make your life a little easier.

7-The game also comes with in two varieties, level and continuous. In level, the board is wiped clean between levels; in continuous, it isn't.

There you have it, a complete summary of the entire game. This might sound convoluted, but these seven rules make a whole lot of sense as soon as you start playing.

Graphics
Graphics are actually not really an integral part of this game, as you really only need be able to tell one colour from another. Different colours are associated with different shapes... maybe for the benefit of the colour-blind among us, but since you remain a triangle whatever colour you may be, the point it moot.

What is worth mention, however are the ways in which the background uses various asymmetrical elements and clashing colours in order to play little tricks on your eyes. They called it "opti-challenge backgrounds" and claimed to have a patent on the concept. No other game has ever made claim to this technology. I was entirely skeptical about this at first, until one day, when for some strange reason, I couldn't shake the feeling that the TV was slowly tilting sideways. Turns out the vertical stripes in the background were just slightly askew, barely noticeable, until you tried to play the game, that is.

Sound
Again, absolutely nothing spectacular to mention. The music is kind of jazzy, and the sound effects do their job of letting you know what you're doing. Some of the sounds for the different power ups are rather zany, but it's a quirk that I find rather charming.

Controls
This is what makes this game so sweet. So many "could've been great" puzzle games fail to deliver smooth, tight controls. Zoop is really in the pocket on this one, exactly where it counts.

In fact, I've played this game on both genesis and snes, and found the genesis version to be vastly superior in this department. The snes had slightly better graphics and much crisper sound, but for some reason, I just found the controls to be just a tiny bit too loose for me to really get going, and in a strange way, I found the music on the genesis version much more enjoyable, despite it's obvious technical inferiority.

Last Word
This style of game might not be to everyone's taste, but there no denying that it's one of the best in the genre. Zoop isn't just a great puzzle game, it's a great game altogether, and one I would have to recommend wholeheartedly.

If you have the chance to pick this up (on whatever platform) go for it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/07, Updated 01/17/08

Game Release: Zoop (US, 1995)