Post by benwayshouse on Apr 16, 2005 18:38:11 GMT -5
Hey, and welcome to my review of Zoo Keeper. I hope you enjoy it.
Welcome to Zoo Keeper! Since you probably don't know, Zoo Keeper began its life as a Flash game, known as (what else) Zoo Keeper. In it, you had to catch animals in a puzzle form, to stay in the game for long enough to gain a high score and gain top honors and all that stuff. If you haven't played the Flash Zoo Keeper, there's always Bejeweled, the Shareware game that Zoo Keeper comes from. If you've played Bejeweled, you've played Zoo Keeper.
If you haven't played Bejeweled or the Flash ZK, then here's the idea of how to play: there are cute little animal faces. Your job as the Zookeeper is to capture the animals, or, get three animals in a row by using the stylus to remove them from the playing field and continue with the game; in several modes you must capture a set number of animals to progress to the next, each earning you points to add into the high scores.
About those modes; there are quite a few. There's the Normal Zoo Keeper mode in which you have to get a set number of animals for you to capture, with the timer running, forcing you to be quick about your work. Then there's Tokoton, where you have to catch 100 animals every round, time ticking. Then there's Quest, an endurance test requiring you to perform various tasks, such as capturing 20 lions or perform 30 chains as quick as possible, gaining mondo points depending on your performance. Then there's Time Attack, simply making you work faster. And then there's Two Player Mode, where you and another player go at it trying to catch animals quicker and winning battles.
Zoo Keeper mode is the mode you'll be coming back to again and again; this is the mode that is the most challenging and most addictive, which as stated above, just has you capture a set number of each animal in each round. Sounds easy (and it is), but it gets tough; your time and number of animals required to capture keep getting raised or lowered (With that spec of brain you've got, I'm sure you can figure out which increases and which decreases ;-)). It's always fun because you never know what suprises lie around the corner, when there are plenty of combinations/chains bound to happen, if you play your cards right, which you can if you act slower than normal. But just capturing animals rapidly will still get you somewhere.
And then there's Wireless multiplayer. Ahh, sweet, sweet multiplayer. With just one card (Only twenty bucks, people!) you and a friend can play against each other through the DS' Download function, which is fun, though I'm never able to pick up a competitor; Virginia is so anti-Nintendo. :-( Still, it has to be fun, considering this game schools Mr. Driller in every way.
Now, after bragging about the good, let's talk of the dissapointments: The music. Oh, the music... it's alright, but it's sort of loud and for most of the modes, the track of choice is obnoxious. And then the voicework: like the music, it's okay, but the announcer says things in a high pitch and can be a bother. But you can turn both off, so no biggie, right? Right.
But anyhow, Zoo Keeper is addictive. Very, very addictive. Excellent GamePlay and fluid controls, decent graphics (Do puzzlers need this to be good though?) and so-so sound/audio make up the worthwhile package that is Zoo Keeper, and since it's twenty dollars, why not? It's got a fair amount of variety, and with the features it packs in, you'll play it time after time. I reccomend this game to you, it's gotta be played, and when you do, convince your friends to play a couple versus matches with you! If they like the game, they'll be bound to go searching for it, and you better hurry if you don't already own it; it's leaving stores fast!
Score: 8.1/10
+ Best DS Puzzler
+ Simple Stylus controls
+ Wireless Single-Card multiplayer!
- Music/Voicework aren't always good.
- Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
- Developer: Success Corp/Buddiez Inc
- Release: 1.17.05
- MSRP: $19.99
- Genre: Puzzler
Welcome to Zoo Keeper! Since you probably don't know, Zoo Keeper began its life as a Flash game, known as (what else) Zoo Keeper. In it, you had to catch animals in a puzzle form, to stay in the game for long enough to gain a high score and gain top honors and all that stuff. If you haven't played the Flash Zoo Keeper, there's always Bejeweled, the Shareware game that Zoo Keeper comes from. If you've played Bejeweled, you've played Zoo Keeper.
If you haven't played Bejeweled or the Flash ZK, then here's the idea of how to play: there are cute little animal faces. Your job as the Zookeeper is to capture the animals, or, get three animals in a row by using the stylus to remove them from the playing field and continue with the game; in several modes you must capture a set number of animals to progress to the next, each earning you points to add into the high scores.
About those modes; there are quite a few. There's the Normal Zoo Keeper mode in which you have to get a set number of animals for you to capture, with the timer running, forcing you to be quick about your work. Then there's Tokoton, where you have to catch 100 animals every round, time ticking. Then there's Quest, an endurance test requiring you to perform various tasks, such as capturing 20 lions or perform 30 chains as quick as possible, gaining mondo points depending on your performance. Then there's Time Attack, simply making you work faster. And then there's Two Player Mode, where you and another player go at it trying to catch animals quicker and winning battles.
Zoo Keeper mode is the mode you'll be coming back to again and again; this is the mode that is the most challenging and most addictive, which as stated above, just has you capture a set number of each animal in each round. Sounds easy (and it is), but it gets tough; your time and number of animals required to capture keep getting raised or lowered (With that spec of brain you've got, I'm sure you can figure out which increases and which decreases ;-)). It's always fun because you never know what suprises lie around the corner, when there are plenty of combinations/chains bound to happen, if you play your cards right, which you can if you act slower than normal. But just capturing animals rapidly will still get you somewhere.
And then there's Wireless multiplayer. Ahh, sweet, sweet multiplayer. With just one card (Only twenty bucks, people!) you and a friend can play against each other through the DS' Download function, which is fun, though I'm never able to pick up a competitor; Virginia is so anti-Nintendo. :-( Still, it has to be fun, considering this game schools Mr. Driller in every way.
Now, after bragging about the good, let's talk of the dissapointments: The music. Oh, the music... it's alright, but it's sort of loud and for most of the modes, the track of choice is obnoxious. And then the voicework: like the music, it's okay, but the announcer says things in a high pitch and can be a bother. But you can turn both off, so no biggie, right? Right.
But anyhow, Zoo Keeper is addictive. Very, very addictive. Excellent GamePlay and fluid controls, decent graphics (Do puzzlers need this to be good though?) and so-so sound/audio make up the worthwhile package that is Zoo Keeper, and since it's twenty dollars, why not? It's got a fair amount of variety, and with the features it packs in, you'll play it time after time. I reccomend this game to you, it's gotta be played, and when you do, convince your friends to play a couple versus matches with you! If they like the game, they'll be bound to go searching for it, and you better hurry if you don't already own it; it's leaving stores fast!
Score: 8.1/10
+ Best DS Puzzler
+ Simple Stylus controls
+ Wireless Single-Card multiplayer!
- Music/Voicework aren't always good.