Zoo Keeper

"Simple and Effective"

First of all, to those who enjoyed the Flash game: Get this now! The DS version of the classic Bejeweled-style game stays true to the formula and faithfully carries on the Zoo Keeper tradition. The commercial game adds the benefits of several new modes and endless hours of puzzle solving. Here's the breakdown:

Controls: 10/10
Can't complain here. Just like Bejeweled was built for the PDA, Zoo Keeper was built for the DS. Slide the stylus to swap animals, or use the D-Pad to move around. The D-Pad isn't as fast, but it works almost as well (and certainly better than in Meteos). Tap the screen for menu choices as always, and also to use the ever-helpful binoculars to search for matches that you may have missed.

Gameplay: 9/10
While much slower than the Flash version (or it seems), modes like Tokoton on "Easy" are too slow to begin with. But play on harder difficulties, and boy, are you in for a challenge! The game contains plenty of additional modes for when you tire of Normal. Tokoton offers the chance to play an extended game, with level requirements of 100 or any one animal instead of 3-20 of each. Quest mode adds unique challenges that you are awarded points for completing swiftly and with few moves. Quests involve making certain matches on the board, such as catching 20 lions but little or no other animals. I haven't tried 2-player yet, but it looks like standard 2-player modes that other puzzle games such as Tetris and Wario's Woods have.

Sound: 7/10
Here's the slam. While the music is entertaining at first, it soon becomes repetitive. The music tracks are incredibly short and loop ad infinium. The addition of voices is a nice idea, but the same person saying "WELCOME TO ZOO KEEPER!" with too much enthusiasm gets old REALLY fast. Sound effects are often annoying as well, so keep the sound low or just turn it all off. Sounds in the game are appropriate, but need more variety.

Overall: 8/10
This game met my expectations. It retained all of the classic gameplay and added a few more features. The sounds started to get on my nerves, though, and I thought the game could have used some unlockables or maybe 2 more modes. A solid puzzler to the end, highly addicting, and well worth $20.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/05