What is the Zoocube?

Zoocube reintroduces players to an innovative atmosphere which has been absent among many of today's titles currently available on the market. The premise is straightforward and easy for anyone to get into. Though make no mistake, under the surface lies an abundant degree of depth. Addiction and enthusiasm is considered to be normal and welcome - the game is simply a blast to play.

Usually puzzle games forgo any storylines, and the way I see it, many of you will naturally overlook the back story (much like no one bothers to refer to instruction manuals). In any case, the prelude is mildly cliché; Zoocube is based upon a pilot selected to save parties of endangered animals, subjected to controversial research by a mastermind who's blown a few lightbulbs in the cranial dept. In accordance with the genre, these animals have been cruelly locked within unnatural three-dimensional forms. The Zoocube was designed as a means to reverse the process, by using pairs of animals of the same species. The cube consists of six sides and must continuously be rotated in order to collect animals (shapes) of like pairs, but will overload (read: end the game) should you stack more than five shapes on any given side.

More effort than saving a whale, no?

As highlighted earlier, Zoocube takes but seconds to learn, and is relatively easy to pick up. Using the default controls (up to four configurations are available to your preference via the Options menu), the D-pad navigates the cube corresponding to the directions - up, down, left and right respectively. The game engine has been constructed in a pseudo-3D environment, thus manipulating the axis of the cube will rotate on a three-dimensional axis. Shapes will appear from all four planes on the 3D-axis and converge toward the center of the screen. The key is to rotate the cube and collect pairs of similar shapes together which will make them disappear (the manual states that they're transferred to a carrier ship referred to as, the Ark. Heh, ok. Darn clichés.) Dissimilar shapes will form a line pointing away from the Zoocube, thus making it difficult to rotate the axis and pair up matching shapes. Once a sixth shape has fallen upon an axis with more than five shapes, the game is over.

'Round and round we go…

In addition to the core objective, understanding the point system and secondary gameplay elements to the game may feel somewhat complex (maybe obscure even). Compared to Tetris, Zoocube presents a greater level of depth and challenge. Simply put, there's a lot to remember - power-ups, "goodies" (more on that shortly), to the various types of bombs. Unless you're planning to freestyle without any concern as to what you should be doing, be sure to refer to the manual.

To briefly outline some of the aforementioned elements, points are awarded for every successful pair you match up. The closer they are to the Zoocube, the more you'll earn (the point range varies from 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5) for the final position. The points can be doubled by accelerating the incoming shape towards the cube, using the A button. As the shapes fall toward the Zoocube, you'll discover various objects which vary from lollipops to rocketships. These are referred to as "goodies", consisting of three types which can launch bombs/power-ups, alter the speed of the shape advancing towards the Zoocube, or add points to your current score. There are 24 "goodies" in total, each which are fairly easy to recognize (would be even easier provided the manual was in color, but that's just a personal quip). The standard bombs are the key to clearing a stacked line. These can be manipulated in several directions - forward, reverse, and double-sided. I've yet to fully understand how to properly juggle the shapes to set up reverse/double-sided actions to clear a line…it just takes some time and practice. Finally, Smart Bombs are reserved for instances where you want to clear an entire line (recommended for when you're stacked a set of dissimilar shapes). You won't need them in the early levels, but once the intensity begins to pick up, you'll find yourself depending on them often. But don't waste them foolishly, because you're only given a limited supply.

My eyes are happy, but my ears were not…

Graphically, Zoocube is very basic in appearance and style. The background varies from cloud compositions to designs that resemble a Windows desktop appearance selection (the ones that are pleasant of course, not those obscure types which make our eyes bleed). I am actually spoiled after recently checking out the Gamecube edition, which featured a brief clip of the game in action (shameless plug to GameCube puzzle fanatics, you're in for a treat!) With the game being wholly pleasant overall, I was curious as to why the music was absent from the game.

As it turns out, the "Sound" default setting is configured to "SFX" (other choices are Off, BGM, and All). "Great!" I thought…"the game has music." So I enabled the setting to "All"…saw no harm in that. A few minutes went by and I began to understand exactly why PuzzleKings opted to the default setting they selected. The music, which is rather decent is just too darn redundant. No really…it's just too much. I've played Tetris for hours upon hours, but as strange as it may sound…I never grew tired of humming that theme. I couldn't get a grasp of the default music; and since a music selection is absent from the game, the best solution was to turn it off. Forever. The sound FX are substantially more tolerable, though contemporary; just never, ever enable the background music. You've been warned.

Bottom Line: Gamers looking for a new puzzle game are highly recommended to pick this game up (and if you have a Gamecube, get that too!) Capturing the essence of old-school gameplay, and delivering a fresh, unique twist toward the puzzle genre, Zoocube is the type of game that's easy for anyone to pick up and enjoy.

· · · Bahn