Zoop

Moby ID: 8817

DOS version

Puzzle games are oh not that easy to design

The Good
Zoop is one of those puzzle games that were so popular mostly during the early 90s and somehow disappeared on the new decade until the indie scene gave them a new life. Viacom invested quite a lot in marketing (the campaign, with catchphrases and admirable design, was something that I still can remember) for a kind of game that was just about to go out of fashion, just because everyone still wanted to have the next Tetris.

I love the aesthetics of this game. The DOS version used the rare hi resolution VGA with 16 colours (only used by Maxis games, some Windows 3.1 experiments, A-Train and not much more) and a jazzy soundtrack that sticks in your brain for hours. And the game itself is fun, not extremely original, but fun in the way you control a ship that must eliminate rows of somethings that approaches you. If you want to know the exact mechanics, I think a video does it better than my prose.

The Bad
But the released game had a few problems. Some other reviewers mention the lack of multiplayer, but the single player has a problem with the pacing: it has none. You start the game, you are getting familiarised with it, and soon everything is going too fast. Why? Because it is the only way to dress up the actual lack of ideas: you can remove the pieces on the table, you can use three power ups, aaaand that's it. With Tetris this worked mostly when the dress-up was Russian dancers or other backgrounds, with Lumines this works with other songs, colours and backgrounds, with Zoop the only change is in the colour palette of the background which consist of something very basic.

They had an idea, they did not develop it. It is way too much of a basic game for such a luxury package.

The Bottom Line
I consider Zoop a very interesting failure, because it shows that doing a game like Tetris, Zuma, Klax, Breakthru!, etc is way more complicated than it seems, as you must involve the player for a long amount of time giving they rewards that can be appreciated. Zoop does not give rewards for playing more: it punishes you with speed at the second minute you are playing. It seems it did not sell bad back then, but no wonder why it is barely remembered right now.

by Risingson (15) on August 14, 2018

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