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Published
by Ignition Entertainment
Developed by Buddiez.inc
Release Date: 11th March 2005
Price: £29.99
At
long last the first of the new handheld consoles is going
to arrive in the UK this week. First to arrive in the UK
is the Nintendo DS, Nintendo's dual-screen console that
allows games to utilise a touch screen as a way of controlling
a game. The Nintendo DS certainly promises to give gamers
a unique gaming experience and we're keeping our fingers
crossed here at Deaf Gamers that the console can manage
to fulfil its potential. We have two Nintendo DS game reviews
for you this week and the first of these is Zoo Keeper.
Zoo Keeper is a puzzle game and as usual for such a game
there isn't much of background story. The game manual gives
only a few words so it's no problem to quote them here.
'In the historic zoo on the outskirts of town, the animals
were fed up with the arrogant zoo keeper and so they started
a riot.' Of course in this game you're a zoo keeper and
you're the one who has been called in to clean up the riot.
Several
reviews have already mentioned the fact, and yes it's true,
that the game bears a striking similarity to the PC puzzle
game Bejeweled. In Bejeweled you had a grid of 8x8 jewels
and the idea was to swap adjacent gems to create a row of
three or more (horizontal or vertical). Doing so would make
those in the row disappear and cause the jewels above to
collapse to refill the now empty spaces. This continues
until you've removed all the jewels or until you can't make
a move. You can't move an adjacent gem if it doesn't form
a row of three or more though and that's what made Bejeweled
challenging. Zoo Keeper takes the gems and switches them
for animal heads. In addition a few extra modes have been
added too. Zoo Keeper also adds the concept of the Lucky
Animal. On the top screen you'll see a picture of an animal.
This is the Lucky Animal and capturing these animals will
earn you double the usual points that you get for capturing
an animal. During a game you'll have a limited number of
hints (shown as binocular icons) that can be used. These
hints will show you all of the animals that can be captured
at that moment. You'll also see special panels from time
to time. These panels constantly change until you touch
them. The animal that is then showing after you've touched
the tile will then disappear along with all the animal tiles
of that type from the grid.
Zoo
Keeper includes five modes for you to enjoy. The Normal
mode sees you having a quota for each level and you won't
complete the level until you've caught the required number
of animals (by lining them up in rows of three or more).
When you've completed your quota it's on to the next level.
Tokoton is a mode where you capture as many animals as you
can. Once you've captured 100 of an animal, you'll level
up. Levelling up not only increases the difficulty but also
increases the amount of points you receive for capturing
the animals. Quest challenges you to complete 10 stages
and doing so will give you results that you or a friend
can then try to beat. Without a doubt the most addictive
mode is Time Attack. You're given 6 minutes to capture as
many animals as possible and create a high score in the
process. It's a great mode to test how good you are by comparing
your scores with those of your friends. Finally there's
the 2 player Battle mode. Essentially it's you against a
friend and when you capture animals your opponent's time
will deplete. The first player to run out of time will lose
the game. Thankfully only one game card is required which
means anyone with a Nintendo DS can give you a game.
Until
now of course this review reads like Zoo Keeper is a game
you could play on any other handheld console and this is
perfectly true. In fact if you want to you can use the directional
pad and buttons to play the game in a traditional manner.
However the game is for the Nintendo DS which has a great
touch screen to use and Zoo Keeper certainly allows you
to use it. Using the stylus on the touch screen is actually
a more intuitive way to play the game as you simply touch
the animals who you want to change places (you can touch
and drag one animal to the next if you want to). This actually
gives you a PC mouse-like precision and is not only quicker
than using the d-pad and buttons but is also much more comfortable.
Everything of importance can be touched (the top screen
only displays information and nothing on it can be interacted
with) and in many ways it shows off the potential of the
Nintendo DS.
The
graphics in Zoo Keeper are perhaps best described as charming,
if simplistic. The lower screen contains the 8x8 grid of
animal heads along with the timer gauge and binocular icons.
The upper screen shows details such as a picture of the
lucky animal, information showing what animals you've caught,
the current score and what level you're on. The animals
in Zoo Keeper are rather square in nature which might seem
too simplistic but as you can see from the screenshots on
the right side of this text they have a special charm and
are easy on the eye which is exactly what you need in a
game of this nature.
Deaf
gamers will be pleased to learn that Zoo Keeper is deaf
gamer friendly. All the information in the game, such as
the story and how to play instructions are presented visually
so you'll have no problems at all in enjoying this addictive
puzzler. Looking at both the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS
I have some concerns because they are both equipped with
a microphone (well in the PSP's case it comes with a microphone
socket) and there are games that are set to take advantage
of them. Could this be a problem for deaf gamers? Only time
will tell but I suspect there will be problems sooner or
later. At least Zoo Keeper doesn't use the microphone so
it's of no concern here.
It's
a fair bet that when the Nintendo DS is released on the
11th March that the games that will grab the attention of
most gamers will be the Super Mario 64 remake and Wario
Ware Touched! For once though there's actually a collection
of puzzle games to please the more cerebral gamers out there.
Both Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits and Polarium are to set
to be released alongside Zoo Keeper. Whilst I haven't yet
played the other two though I can say that Zoo Keeper is
exactly what you need for a puzzle game on the go. No the
graphics don't show off the power of the Nintendo DS and
you could even argue that the concept of the game isn't
highly original. However, what the game does it does very
well indeed and it's an all round great puzzle title with
modes to suit no matter how much (or little) time you have
available. Being able to use the stylus to move the animal
heads makes the whole thing much more intuitive too. Zoo
Keeper might not be the first game you pick up for your
Nintendo DS but it could well be the last you put down.
Overall
Game Rating: 8.1/10
It's not often that a console launches with 3 puzzles games.
Zoo Keeper is the first we've looked at and it's well worth
the money for it's charm and sheer addictiveness. It shouldn't
be forgotten that the game makes very good use of the stylus
and touch screen. If you like a game that makes you think
and also want a game to show you the delights of using a
touch screen then Zoo Keeper is a must.
Deaf
Gamers Classification:
(Click
the letter or here
for details)
No problems at all for deaf gamers.
The Nintendo DS and Sony PSP have the potential to cause
deaf gamers a few problems with the DS having a built in
microphone and the PSP having a microphone socket to give
gamers a way of using their voice as an input device. Thankfully
though there are no such problems with Zoo Keeper.
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