ZUMA!

I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Zuma for Palm OS. I discovered this game for PC several months ago, and have been captivated by it ever since. In my opinion, the PC version is a masterpiece. The graphics and sound effects combined with the gameplay are realistic, exciting, and mesmerizing. With this in mind, I was happily anticipating the debut of this great game on the small screen.

My early impressions of the game were that it is completely faithful to it's big brother.  The screens seem to be exact replicas of the PC version. The object is to clear all of the advancing balls by "shooting" them and making groups of three or more with balls of the same color out of the frog's mouth. If you are successful in clearing the balls before they reach the end of the course, you advance to the next level. There are special balls that cause the balls to slow down, reverse, or explode, and one that causes a beam to increase aiming accuracy.  Shooting is done by touching the stylus where you want the ball to hit. Initially, I thought using the stylus might be too easy, but, as in the PC game, the motion of the balls, and the angles involved make it no simple task to shoot where you want.

Getting used to playing my favorite game in miniature took a "tiny" bit ;-) of getting used to, but before long, I was spitting those balls out of the diminutive frog's mouth with the same zeal that I use with his larger PC counterpart. The only flaw I can even think to mention is the occasional slowdown and choppiness of the movement of the balls. It doesn't hang up for long, and it is easy to ignore this small glitch.

Once again Astraware has worked it's magic in recreating a PC game for the Palm OS platform. The graphics and sound effects are as beautiful as I've come to expect from all of Astraware's games, and the gameplay is outstanding. When I have a few free moments, if you don't hear the sounds of exploding gems coming from my PDA, you'll surely hear clay balls being blown to smithereens by a smiling spinning frog!

Zuma is a winner!

- Jan, Deputy Editor US, (Alpine, UT, USA)