Who
ate the Flying Chair?, tiddles, my
ratings, me, Graffiti,
Manga, Computer Games,
deep stuff,
word of the week, other stuff,
downloads, links.
Zoop
(Purple, green orange, blue... I can sing a 4-coloured rainbow.)
//introduction
Zoop is perhaps harder to explain than any other puzzle game I've encountered. And in a genre where coming up with simple and easily understood rules seems to be essential, that might be considered a bit of a flaw.
But it's not so much that it's hard to understand... more that it's hard to explain using text alone. You need to really play it for a few minutes and get a feel for what's going on.
But once you've played it for a few minutes, everything will seem logical and it will all seem just as simple as any of those colour-matching-shapes-that-fall-into-a-pit games.
//the basic rules
Instead of falling into a pit, shapes move from the border of the screen towards the centre. They advance in the form of 4 columns coming from the top, 4 from the bottom, 4 rows from the left and 4 from the right.
You control a triangle moving about the centre and you need to shoot the advancing shapes. But you can only shoot shapes, which are the same colour as you.
The advancing shapes can be one of 4 colours - orange, green, purple and blue. If you try to shoot a shape, which is a different colour to you, the shape remains on screen and you simply swap colours with it. If you shoot a similarly coloured shape though, your shot passes through it, and the same test is made with the next shape.
//strategy
Obviously, this means that as soon as 2 shapes the same colour appear on-screen at the same time, you could delete one of them (provided that they are in different rows/columns of course). So you could quite easily just go about rushing from one row to the next, trying to delete stuff as soon as it appears and get quite far into the game.
However, as you'd expect, the game speeds up as you delete more and more shapes and eventually, you will be unable to keep up with the pace.
The way you're expected to play is for a high score. You get a higher score by deleting multiple shapes at once. And to do this, you need to wait, let the shapes advance, and work at swapping the shapes around to form bigger lines to delete.
The first couple of times, you'll probably die far faster. However, once you get the hang of it and develop a decent strategy, you'll find that you get far more points by making lines and surviving until level 3 than you would by deleting stuff as quickly as you can and getting to level 7.
//special items
To spice up the basic game, you get 4 special items which sometimes appear in the place of normal shapes. You get: a 'proximity bomb'; which deletes all shapes touching the one you fire at; a 'line bomb' which deletes a whole line regardless of colour; a 'colour bomb' which eliminates all the shapes in a quadrant (i.e. above, below, to the right or to the left of you) which are the same colour as the first shape you hit; and a 'bonus spring' which deletes all the shapes on-screen after you collect 5.
These can both help and hinder you, and it is important to use them skilfully.
//options
You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned any 2-player mode. This is because there is none.
The only options you get is to play a 'continuous' game or 'level' game (which determines whether or not shapes are deleted when you advance a level) and after that you select your starting level and how many shapes are already on the screen when you start.
//music
The music is quite jazz-y and changes as you advance a level. The sound effects are comprised of Boings, and other such simple, playful noises.
//graphics
The graphics complement the sound well. The makers have obviously gone for a kind of 70s retro theme, with large fields of solid colours and abstract shapes. There's nothing impressive going on, but the game definitely has a style of its own.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
how far I got: I got a reasonably high score. Which I've forgotten just now.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
rating : 5
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
I personally love this game, as my score will surely attest.
I know of no other puzzle game, which demands such a superb blend of pre-thought strategy and quick thinking.
The fact that each quadrant is independent of the others discounting your influence and that each row is independent from the others discounting the special items means that a strategy can be adhered to.
When you first try creating long rows or columns of similarly coloured shapes instead of deleting stuff as quickly as you can, you will notice that you are sometimes left with a few shapes with which you can do nothing. I tend to leave the rows and try to make them longer whilst deleting the columns quickly.
But ultimately, the only thing I need to say is that I found this game enjoyable. That's all you want to know.
You don't need to know that I consider the look and sound of the game to be stylish and effective.
You don't need to know that it really is a great play for a few minutes or a few hours - whichever you prefer.
You don't need to know all my philosophical tosh about what makes games work and why this works and why I enjoyed it so much.
All you need to know is that I enjoyed it. Loved it even.
In fact, it might even be my favourite 1-player puzzle game.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends