With the rise of mobile devices, we've probably all found a favourite little game that we got ourselves addicted to. It was just this week that I had to delete Jetpack Joyride from my phone because I was playing it too much. The game isn't gone, though. I've got the recent board game release: fewer adverts, more human interaction, much less addicting.
But Jetpack Joyride is still a good few years away from us here in 2003. The addiction this time around comes in the form of colourful, blocky animals desperate to buddy up into groups of three or more in Zoo Keeper, a match-three 'action puzzle' tile game.
You are the Zookeeper. The animals need rounding up. I'm sure you can figure the rest out.
Fun Times
There are no barriers to entry for this game. If you know how to count to three, you're good to go, and you can do so on the platform of your choice, with versions of Zoo Keeper having been released all over the place.
I'm emulating the Nintendo DS release here so that you can see all the cute animals as they go crazy reacting to your gameplay.
The aim is simple. A timer ticks down on the left, and animals litter the board in the middle. You can swap any two adjacent animals, and if you line up three or more of the same animal in a line, up or across, they are captured, refill your time limit a little, and start the count towards the end of level animal quota. If nothing matches, the return to their original spots and you can try some other pairing instead.
As the levels increase, you'll be tasked with matching specific animals to progress, but if you don't see any to match up, you'll have to keep matching the other animals in an attempt to manipulate the board in your favour. The more you match, the more time you have to match others, whether you need them to meet the quota or not.
If you run out of time, all the animals escape, and your boss bemoans your incompetence.
And then you hit continue and keep going because it's such a simple game that you just want to see how far you can get before your final life is lost and it really is game over.
Frustrations
There were multiple game modes available, which should be enough to keep anyone busy and entertained for a while. I was playing for 40 minutes by the time I finally ran out of time, but as P2 will gladly tell you, Zoo Keeper was annoying to listen to if you're not playing.
Well, it can get annoying to listen to if you are playing, too, but the music is really the only negative point I can find with this game. That and getting addicted to it, maybe.
Final Word
There are so many variations on the match-three genre that finding one you like shouldn't be a problem at all. They're usually gems or coloured blocks, so Zoo Keeper's animals stand out as an appealing alternative.
I don't know what the other modes are, so they might need to be investigated at some point. Might. I mean, I got what the game was within seconds, and there can't be that many different twists on the gameplay, can there?
If you want a distraction for a while, Zoo Keeper is an excellent choice. It might turn into a rather long distraction, but it's there, and recommended, if you want it.
Fun Facts
The first releases of the DS version would keep running, even if you closed the DS, making Zoo Keeper a very literal definition of a battery-draining game.
Zoo Keeper, developed by Success, first released in 2003.
Version played: Nintendo DS, 2005, via emulation.