By Jim Rossignol on September 16th, 2009 at 8:29 am.
Zuma’s Revenge, the sequel to PopCap’s original ball-blasting puzzle game, has now been released for $20. You can judge whether it’s worth such an outlay of cash by playing the 100mb demo, which can be found over at the official site. The new game features new modes, power-ups and such, but it’s very much in line with the original, and perhaps not the finest hour for our favourite puzzle gaming company.
A whole hour and no replies, popcap have returned to shovelware. Wonder if it’ll sell like crap and they will consider raising the bar.
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Everythign Popcap do is shovelware, it’s just some of it [peggle] happesn to be a gem in the rough [this game].
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Revenge? Did someone steal his machine-gun?
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Plants vs Zombies was not shovelware.
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“Mya HEE, Mya HOO, Mya Hah, Mya HA HA…”
*gets tap on shoulder.
Oh… ZUMA’S REVENGE, not Numa.
Sorry.
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Most of Popcaps stuff is not their finest hour since they seem to be just making pretty much the same games into sequels. I think Plants versus Zombies is there only new title so far and I bet that gets a sequel which doesn’t really change anything later.
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By the by, the links to Splitreason in the T-Shirts section appear to be broken.
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PopCap declined to provide a review copy of Zuma’s Revenge because of my less than enthusiastic reviews of Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 and Bejeweled Twist that suffer from sequel-itis: tryin’ to make an extra buck off the same game.
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We need more games about indigestion. I don’t know what frogs and colored balls have to do with gastrointestinal problems, but that is clearly what this game is about, right?
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Oh, and I can’t help but defend PopCap a little. Calling this “shovelware” is a little over the top. I own a Nintendo Wii, so I know what true shovelware is. This is may not be worth $20 to an RPS reader who owns the original (even on just their phone), but some fresh levels and minor improvements in gameplay are all that an insane number of people want. This may be a “cash-in”, but so what? Is there something wrong with a company proving their customer base with what they want? Maybe not spending too much time reinventing Zuma will give them time to work on something cool like Peggle, PvZ, or BA.
Casual != shovelware
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“I own a Nintendo Wii, so I know what true shovelware is”
God, I hear ya. My Wii now gets used for (a) Wii Fit boxing, (b) Wit Fit body test, (c) Wii Fit jackknife and, er, that’s it. (HOTD: Overkill was a bit of fun for the cheap price I got it for but that’s all I’ve played on it lately).
P.
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Ya, M$#@!F##$%^ HOTD was F&^#$ ok, you f&*%$ing #$%@##! $$#@!
There are a handful of good games for the Wii, but mountains and mountains of absolute garbage. I actually played the first episode of the new Monkey Island on it and it thought it went really well though. I was stuck without a PC for a weekend so I put out $10 to try it out through WiiWare.
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Not their finest hour? Shovelware? What horrible alternate dimension did I fall into, where Popcap is not the single most consistently great developer out there?
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20$ is a lot of money, but the original Zuma is a pretty good game, certainly better than the overrated Peggle
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Bob, you fell into one where Valve exists. Which means the best popcap can do is a close second.
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Valve being the uncrowned king of RPS readers, apparently. Oh sure, they make some fine games, but that doesn’t make them the be-all and end-all of gaming developers.
Okay, okay, it’s true I’m a bit bitter Bungie, a mac develper of old, sold out and got most of the good bits stomped out.
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It’s a fun little puzzle game, but it’s not remotely worth $20. I think the response would be less hostile if the price was less ridiculous.
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Personally speaking this game is my dirty little secret, my guilty pleasure if you will. Worth $20 dollars? No, but for me it has nostalgia of playing its predecessor late at night, and when my friends would ask me why I wasn’t playing Diablo 2 the next day at school, I’d lie knowing I would take it to my grave.
That’s not to say its a bad game, it’s really fun and makes you feel like an Aztec god stuck in a frogs body, if you’re delusional. I would wait for a price drop.
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I played through 56 levels of this before I even lost a life, which was sort of surprising given what a crushingly difficult time I had with Zuma at certain points. It feels rote to an almost shocking extent, and I’m pretty disappointed in it. There are a few new mechanics–boss battles, linear rather than radial aiming on some levels–but certainly not a new game’s worth.
I’ve never really played a direct sequel to a “casual” (call it whatever you want, you know what I mean) game before, and this has sort of soured me on the experience. I just completed Bookworm Adventures the other day and after Zuma’s Revenge I no longer have plans to pick up BA2.
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Honestly, if Bookworm Adventures didn’t leave you wanting more, there’s no reason to to buy BA2. Personally I adore both of them, but BA2 is a minor refinement with a few neat new features and new campaigns/mini games. I’m fine with that and happy to have more BA, but it sounds like you probably wouldn’t be.
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PvsZ was less (half?) and was not a sequel to a game which is very limited and which is limited itself.
I don’t own zuma, i didn’t even run out of time on the hour trial, so yes i’m not the target market. I still think its overpriced crap.
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Overpriced? certainly, but garbage? I don’t think so.
I’ll just wait until this goes on sale for $10.
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It lacks the simple humor of the original. However the high resolution mode is an extremely welcome edition.
Most annoying powerup: laser. Right clicking cancels it! GAH!
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Zuma’s Revenge will run natively in 1920×1200 – how awesome is that? The details are amazing, all the marbles now have small, rolling graphics on them. They didn’t change much of the sound effects and game mechanics, so you feel instantly at home again. Of course it’s more of the same with a few added bells and whistles, but I guess that is was every Zuma fan expects from a sequel!
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