Zuma is a tile-matching puzzle video game published by PopCap Games. It was released for a number of platforms, including PDAs, mobile phones, and the iPod.[1]
An enhanced version, called Zuma Deluxe, was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X as well as an Xbox Live Arcade download for the Xbox 360 and a PlayStation Network download for the PlayStation 3.[2]
Zuma received the 2004 “Game of the Year” award from RealArcade.The objective of Zuma is to eliminate all of the balls rolling around the screen along a given path (the path is clearly visible in all of the levels except for the last level) with other balls before these balls reach the yellow skull structure, which will open to varying degrees as a warning of oncoming balls. The player can carry two balls at a time and can switch at any time. As soon as one ball reaches the skull, the rest follow and the player loses a life. To prevent the balls from reaching the skull, the player can eliminate the balls by firing a colored ball from the stone frog idol’s mouth towards the chain of balls that will continue to push forward until the player fills the yellow bar, which is when the balls will stop producing off-screen. Each regular adventure begins with three lives (represented by frogs in the upper-left hand corner of the screen), but extra lives are earned with every 50,000 points. Shooting a coin with a ball, making multiple groups of balls explode with a single shot, earning chain bonuses, shooting through gaps in the balls, or finishing a level within a certain period of time (called ace time) will give extra points.
The levels are organized into temples, and the initial temple consists of three “worlds” of five levels each (the fifth level in each stage is unique in having two tracks of balls instead of the usual one). No level in the first world contains tunnels, and the first level of each world is tunnelless. Worlds one to three have four colors of balls: red, blue, green, and yellow, worlds four to six add purple, and from world seven on, white is added in the variety. Levels are eventually added to worlds: The second temple, which contains worlds four to six, has six levels, while the third temple, which contains worlds seven to nine, has seven levels. The fourth and final temple (which is hidden until a player unlocks world ten for the first time) contains worlds ten to twelve, which also consists of seven levels each. Worlds ten to twelve are essentially the same as seven to nine, but for each level, 5,000 points must be scored to completely fill the Zuma bar. Also, the balls come out further at the start of the level, and the chain of balls moves along slightly faster. If the player loses all of their lives, the game ends, and they must start again at the beginning of the last stage they advanced up. However, if the player is able to beat all 12 worlds, they are taken to the “Space” level, which is longer than all previous levels, has less color-grouping among the balls, and has no visible path for the balls to follow. This level cannot be accessed without first completing world twelve. Upon beating this level, the player wins the game (if a player fails to beat the Space level, they must beat all of world twelve again before getting another chance to win). All the remaining lives at the end of a game are each worth 50,000 additional points to add on to the final scor
