Herocraft has long been a publisher of games for Android ranging across multiple genres. Zum-Zum is an Android take on a popular motif. Reminiscent of the Bon-Bon and Luxor games, the goal is to group together strings of colored balls to defeat wave after wave of enemies. Here is our review of this title from Herocraft.
Gameplay: You’ll find yourself in control of a winged scarab; your task is to fling colored balls into the onslaught of enemies to create strings of the same color. Stringing three or more like-colored spheres together removes them from the playing field. One very cool touch in this game is the ability to move your scarab from one side of the screen to the other as needed to attack the enemy spheres from two sides.
There are two gameplay options: Quest and Survival. Quest takes you on a 35-level long mission to discover the secrets of an ancient artifact. Survival mode lets you test your skills against a neverending flood of enemies. The three difficulty settings determine the number of balls and different colors you’ll have to deal with on each level.
Features:
- Two game modes: Quest and Survival
- Three difficulty levels
- Dynamic gameplay: every level is unique
- Three control schemes; mix and match
Graphics and Sounds: Zum-Zum’s graphics are nothing special, but they don’t need to be and they certainly don’t detract from the experience. They are beyond adequate for this type of game.
Sounds are also quite cool. The background music put me in a pyramid-exploring state of mind and the effects are exactly what I would expect to hear when piloting a winged beetle while fighting an endless horde of oncoming, multi-colored enemies.
Controls: The controls can be a bit difficult to master; I found myself having quite a bit of trouble with them at first. There are two main schemes. Control 1 lets you move your scarab and fire by dragging your finger; this can sometimes be challenging and a double-tap option to fire would be a great addition. Control 2 puts buttons on the touchscreen. These buttons are fairly easy to use after a bit of practice but it seems like you lose a bit of precision and some real estate with them.
There is also an “Accel” option that lets you move your scarab by tilting the phone; this can be enabled with either Control mode. I didn’t have any luck getting this to work accurately and found it to be more annoying than anything else.
At first I found it easiest to lay my phone on a table to play but before long I mastered Control Scheme 1 as long as Accel was turned off.
Overall: This is a good game for the price (2 pounds or about $3 right now). There is a bit of a learning curve for the controls but nothing too challenging. This game doesn’t break much new ground, but it doesn’t do any disservice to an existing genre. I have no problem recommending Zum-Zum for your device – its entertainment value will definitely outweigh the price. Tested on Moto Droid running 2.1.
Rating: 3.75 / 5
Developer Website: Herocraft
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