Zuma Deluxe is a puzzle game in which you are a frog that shoots out color balls that have to be matched with other color balls on a rail coming down to a pit. The goal is to match a row of three colors that match and make more combinations while trying to stop the balls from falling into the pit. The game was released in 2006 for the Xbox 360 console and was followed in 2010 by the sequel Zuma Revenge.
General Gameplay
Zuma is a puzzle game to its core, actually it is a fun puzzle game. The game mechanics is simple, you are a frog that shoots balls out of your mouth to make combos to stop the other balls from falling into a pit and losing the round. However the game can get quite challenging in later rounds. This game mechanics set up the game to be a easy pick up and play style of game, honestly a causal game to its core.
Audio
Being a casual game, not much in the sound in this game. You have your Mayan chant in the background as you have your popping sounds when the ball is shot, not much else going on. There is some in level music but nothing that you have not heard before, for a causal game the sound effects are very minimum. For families that have a 5.1 surround sound system, you will be disappointed to know that the game does not support 5.1, only 2.0 sound.
Visuals
The game is great with its presentation. A heavy Mayan influence with the patterns and design within the game as well the balls that come down the rail. Also the games colors are very vivid with colors that represent the balls, however one of the main problems with the game is that we faced was that some colors were washed out and for some gamers that have a problem seeing colors it made the game very hard to play in later levels as there were multiple balls on screen and the colors seem that they bled into each other (We will touch on this later in the review)
Controls
The controls are very simple, one controller stick aims, where one button shoots. The game is design for anyone to pick up and play this game and the developers did a great job on making this games controls very easy to pick up and play. The controls also within gameplay are very accurate, however we did encounter some misfires in later levels (we suspect that it was the speed of the later levels that may have cause our misfires) but parents be aware of this. Also with a simple control set up we seen it for our family gaming members with special needs that it was easy for them as well to play the game.
Delivery
If you are in the market for a rail based puzzle game, then Zuma Deluxe will do the job. However in the market we have seen other games like this (Zuma Revenge, Sparkle, Ect…) that can do the same and more. Don’t get us wrong, Zuma is the king of rail based rail puzzle games but the game is showing its age. The game does a great job of doing this style of gaming, however with some legacy issues, this may be a title for some families to pass on. Also there is no co-op or multiplayer to this game, so for families that are looking for a game to have all family members to play, you will not find this here.
Family Friendly
As we said before in our review, this is a good puzzle game however with other games like this on the market that you can go with a better title that gives you more. Some of the concerns that we had is that with the colors bleeding onto one and another, no colorblind mode and steep difficulty, which this may be too much for some family gaming members to play as it may cause some frustration in some gamers. Also in a very saturated market of puzzle games, there are other ones out there that are more family gaming friendly then Zuma Deluxe, for example in our reviews, we did a review on Zuma Revenge which is a far superior game. Also as concern of a lack of color blind mode in this game, it makes it harder for family gaming member that have trouble seeing colors to play this title and for younger family gaming members that the level of difficulty gets very steep in later levels that this was an concern to us here as well. For our special needs gamers, they did enjoy the game but some of the troubles that they ran into was the level of difficulty and also not able to see all of the colors on the screen. For parents that are planning to get this title, please keep this in mind before purchasing this for your family. Also with the lack of co-op and multiplayer this title has limitations.
Closing
Zuma is a decent old school puzzle game, however with other games out there that are far more superior in gameplay, design and also co-op/multiplayer this may be a game that you may pass up.
