Zuma
Zuma is a fast paced puzzle game that has a Aztec, Mexico theme. The game play involves shoot colored balls as a moving line to make a line of three or more of the same color. You have to get to a certain point level before the ball line cuts off, but you still need to get rid of the rest of the balls before the level ends. The game starts out fairly easy but there are more colors along with faster moving lines as the levels increase, making the game more and more difficult to finish the level. This makes Zuma a fun but challenging game.
History of Zuma
Zuma was released from PopCap Games in late 2003 and is available to play for free on several platforms. Zuma became very popular almost immediately and even won the "Game of the Year" award from RealArcade. Zuma's popularity continued with the release of sequels. The first sequel, Zuma's Revenge! was released for Windows and Mac in 2009. The second, Zuma Blitz is a Facebook game that was released in December 2010, which added a social aspect to the game.
Zuma's history does have a bit of controversy in it. A Japanese company, Mitchell Corporation, claimed that Zuma was a clone of their game Puzz Loop. PopCap Games insisted that Zuma was not a clone and the case never went to court. This allowed Zuma to move forward with their sequels and to be able to continue to offer the game free to play.
How to Play Zuma
The game play of Zuma involves having to shoot different colored to a line of balls that is moving. You need to make a line of three to earn points and to stop the flow of the line. You have to get enough points to fill up the gauge. Once this gauge is filled up, the line ends. You do have to get rid of all the balls before you can finish up the level. You can fill the gauge up more quickly if you try and aim the balls so when you get rid of one set of colors, you can do a series of other balls in one stroke.
During the first few levels, the line of balls only have a few colors and are on tracks where it is easy to pick out the balls to shoot towards. This gets progressively harder as the levels go on as the tracks get more complicated as well as there are more colors of balls. You need to be very fast when you are shooting the balls, because if the line of balls gets close to the mouth, they could fall in causing the level to be over. Zuma takes little practice to get used to the game play, but once you play some you will find that you can progress to higher and higher levels.
Play Zuma for Real Money
If you play Zuma often and you find that you are very good at going through the levels, you may want to think about playing Zuma for real money. There are several websites that will allow you to play in a head to head competition. Since Zuma is a one player game, you play for a certain time period. At the end of the time period, whoever has the highest score is the winner of the real money prize.
Even if you have been good when you have been playing alone, it is a good idea to try your hand at a few practice games before going up for the real money. This can give you an idea on how your scores are when you are playing against another person.
After you have played some practice games and won, you can feel fairly secure that you will be able to win. You can start playing games for real money at that point. This will let you be able to earn some money in your free time while you are playing a very fun game.
Strategy for Playing Zuma
While you can just shoot balls where ever you see a color match, it is a better idea to have a bit of a strategy. This is especially true if you are playing Zuma in a timed game because you need to get the best score if you are playing in a competition.
One of the best strategy you can use is being careful where you shoot the balls. This can allow you to be able to make more combos which will give you more points, and will allow you to finish the level faster. You can switch the color of the balls by left clicking with your mouse which can make it easier to make the combos that you need.
Some of the balls will turn into different boosts that will help. If you make a combination with one of these balls with a boost then the effect will happen. Some of the effects are freezing, pointer, going backwards and more. This can really help save your game if you line of balls are getting close to having your balls sucked into the hole.
If you follow these strategies along with getting use to the game play in Zuma, you will be able to get very good at playing this game. If you do you get good enough, you should be able to become a great player. This can give you a lot of fun if you play Zuma in your free time, and you can even earn money playing this game. This makes Zuma a great game to learn and master.
