The First Great Puzzle Game For The DS

Review Originally Posted by me on IGN.com - updated for Epinions.

Having owned the GBA version of Zoo Keeper i wasn't sure what new to expect in this upgraded version. As those who've played the game will know it's a fairly simple idea. You swap tiles around to make lines. When you have cleared your quota of all kinds of animals then you progress onto the next level. All this time a timer is counting down and is rejuvinated with the making of lines, combo's and chains. If you can't find the animals to match before the timer counts down then it's game over. And this is never due to having not got the right kind of block like in some puzzle games, there is always a line that can be made on the screen - if you can't see it it's your fault and yours alone.

The game Bejewelled has a similar dynamic but is based around clearing areas on the screen instead of quotas. This makes the game play much faster in Zoo Keeper and it has the feel of a puzzle action game.

While this is simple in theory in practice it can become quite involved. The addition of a new feature to the DS game makes this even more so and that is that the game feels designed for the touch screen. No longer do you have to nudge the cursor over to make lines, now you can move around the screen as fast as you can see the lines. Each line only requires one flick of the cursor to move (touch the animal to move & let go where you want it to move to) and this speeds up play. This allows you to get more than one chain of animals dissapearing at once and can lead to great bonus multipliers. Good for going for those top scores - especially handy when the high score tables have been reduced from the 20 slots of the original to 10 to neatly fit on the DS screens.

The loss of the 200,000 point mode (get this score in as quick a time as possible) is unexpected - as is the bonus option of swapping the Rabbit for the Curator in the tile set. There is however a hidden extra difficulty level which adds to the pacing of the title and allows some amazing scores to be reached.

The new wireless 2 player mode makes up for this and does extend the gameplay somewhat but the single player mode is what will keep you hooked.

Overall I'd say this was the first essential DS puzzle game to come out. If you haven't played the original it is a great value puzzler and one which will last you as long as your desire to beat high scores does. If you do have the original then you've probably already got this by now too! It may not convert people who are not already puzzle game fans.

As it's frequently discounted in stores for £15 you will struggle to find a better game to play for 15 minutes on a commute.