Zuma Deluxe

The Good
As you may know from the description, you control a frog idol whom you rotate with the mouse and use to shoot balls at a track to eliminate all the balls before they reach the skull. Sound boring? No.

Zuma is extremely addictive, and it's very hard to stop playing (unless you're just making some quick screenshots, but that's sort of an abberation). It starts out innocently enough with a spiral shaped track. Each level gets gradually eviller until you see some of the most outrageous possibilities. One level has the track overlapping itself and then going through tunnels. In fact, many do. One is shaped like a triangle, another has two tracks, and while I haven't played through all the levels yet, I'm pretty sure there's eventually going to be a monkey. Okay, maybe not a monkey, but you get the idea.

As the balls get close to the skull, its mouth begins to open and warning music begins to play. I haven't played straight for five hours, but if you were to, that warning music would probably begin to haunt your dreams. Gameplay does get very tense as the balls near the skull. The only way to stop them is to add more balls, which pushes them closer until you can make a set.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to earn bonus points. Points are the key to winning - when you have enough points, no more balls will enter the level, leaving you to eliminate the remaining ones. Eliminating a large amount of balls at the same time, eliminating a chain of balls between two chains of the same color so that they are in turn eliminated, eliminating balls by shooting a ball through a gap, and hitting coins that occasionally appear all give you more points. Points are gooooood.

The Bad
The music is well done, but it isn't very varied. That's a minor nitpick, but I have to say it. Playing the game also may drastically hurt your social life.

The Bottom Line
If you don't have anything to do within the next day or so, give Zuma a try. However, if you're not single, have children, and/or have an important job, stay away, because it will probably keep you away from those things for a while.