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It’s time for another installment of Palm Discovery’s wReview Wednesday!

Chuzzle for iPhone and iPod Touch

There’s something unique when you find a game that singlehandedly transports you into a certain period of time. Such is the case I found with Pop Cap’s Chuzzle, a puzzle game that involves the usual object matching found in other similar games like Bejeweled. However, rather than matching three gems in a row, you are given the task of matching three or more Chuzzles, cute, furry, fuzzy fluff balls with bulging eyes that squeak and honk when matched up. No, I’m not referring to being transported into a world of fluff balls although yes, the game is obviously doing that, I’m referring to being taken back into the eek! Disco ’80s, with the bell bottoms, flared collars and all that bling. Okay, to be fair, there are no bell bottoms in the game, but the entire feeling and atmosphere is undeniably 80s.

When you run the game, you’ll quickly notice something different about this game. When the Pop Cap logo splash screen comes on, you’ll notice that there are some cute bits of “info” that is displayed on the screen like “Chuzzles love playing Peggle”, “When Chuzzles pop, they smell like cinnamon” and other “cute” items like that. Although not terribly “trivial” I have to give it to Pop Cap to come up with an interesting way to use the game load up time in this way. The next thing you’ll likely notice is the unmistakable distinctive repetitive rhythmic beat and the cheezy synthesizer sound of eek! Disco! Adding to the music is the dated insertion of background voices combining with a mixture of syrupy, cheezy, flashy presentation, which creates quite the discotheque atmosphere you can’t escape from. Well, I find hard to escape from being someone who went through the disco era. For those that are a bit younger, you may find it amusing and even “cool”. But enough of the presentation, the game is not really focused on the 80s even if the music and presentation is.

You’re given a screen of a grid-like formation of a bunch of fuzzy, furry furballs called Chuzzles of various colors. Your objective is to slide them by rows (horizontally left or right) or columns (vertically up or down) to create a match of three or more of the same color Chuzzle. You can match them in a vertical column of three, or a horizontal row of three, or even in an “L” shaped form with two Chuzzles on one row and one Chuzzle on another, forming an “L” or a mirror image form of an “L”. Matching them in such manner will obviously earn you points, but not before the Chuzzles create such cute sounds like squeaking, and popping and of course being shown on the screen as popping. Each time you match Chuzzles, you will fill up a flask (located at the very bottom of the screen) by a certain amount. Your objective is to fill it up completely and go onto the next stage. If you’re stuck, you can tap on the “Hints” button located at the top right, but each time you do that, the contents in the flask will be emptied, so you’ll need to make more matches to make up for the “cost” of the hint.

Depending on the game you choose, there are four different ones: Classic, Speed, Zen and Mind Reader, you may encounter certain obstacles that may make the game harder. In the Classic game, you are playing with the objective of matching Chuzzles and filling the flask up and the longer you play, the more obstacles you’ll encounter such as the lock, the bomb, and others. The Speed game as the name indicates is based on time and speed. At the top of the screen, there is a timeline indicator that will fill up from the left to right over a certain period of time. When the timeline is completely filled, one of the Chuzzles will be “locked” and the entire row or column will be locked and unable to be moved, making it much harder to create a match. If the entire screen is filled with “locked” Chuzzles, you’ll see a message indicating so and you’ll need to “shake” the iPhone to scramble the Chuzzles to continue playing. Obviously, you are only given a limited number of “shakes” so if you run out of them, it’s GAME OVER. In the Zen game, you are playing a never ending game of Chuzzle and it’s also a great way to win and collect trophies and a good way to get yourself better at the game as well since the game never ends. You can exit out of the game at any time by pressing on the Home button or the Menu button and the game is automatically saved. The next time you play the game, it will ask whether you want to resume a saved game or start a new one. This is great for those who want to play without worrying about losing their stage or spot in the game. The last game, called Mind Bender is a bit different from the rest. It is really more of a puzzle game in which you are given a choice of five patterns and you will need to figure out how to move the Chuzzles around to create them in that same pattern. I personally enjoy this game over the others in the fact that it does use the brain a bit more than the others and it’s a bit refreshing from the squeaks and squeals that the other games offer.

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More details of Chuzzle for the iPhone and iPod Touch (taken from Apple iTunes store)

It’s a non-stop explosion of adorable action!

Slide, prod and nudge chuzzles to match three or more and send fur flying. Once you start popping chuzzles you won’t want to stop.

“Well designed and endlessly fun.” -Gamezebo

Game Features

FOUR FURRY MODES OF PLAY
Go for high scores in Classic, or slide chuzzles into puzzle patterns in Mind Bender. Race the clock in Speed, or pop ‘em all day in Zen.

KNOW YOUR CHUZZLES
Color-match Giant, Rainbow and Super chuzzles for uproarious fur-flying fun.

CHUZZLE TRICKERY
Watch out for puzzle locks and other ploys that could block your next move. Break free to boost your score with colorful cascades and combos.

WIN COOL CHUZZLE TROPHIES
Track your scores on the in-game leaderboard as you pop your way to an overflowing Trophy Room and a spot in the Chuzzle Hall of Fame.

More Apps from PopCap:

BEJEWELED® 2 – Match sparkling gems in the world’s #1 puzzle game.

PLANTS vs. ZOMBIES™ – Soil your plants in this award-winning action/strategy game.

PEGGLE™ – Clear the orange pegs in this epic blend of luck and skill.

Bookworm for iPhone and iPod Touch

Slideshow of Chuzzle for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Video of Chuzzle for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Video review of Chuzzle for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Here are my observations:

I Liked:

Splash screen shows Chuzzle tidbits

This is one of the few games during the game loading splash screen that there are random bits of Chuzzle tidbits or trivia that’s displayed. Each time you run and load the game, you’ll find a random tidbit displayed. Of course, there’s a limited number of tidbits so you’ll eventually find it repeating itself but it’s still a new and unique way to start up a game. Kudos to Pop Cap for doing this.

Very good presentation of 80s disco atmosphere in the game

The game developers have done an excellent job of presenting a game where you’re practically immersed in the 80s disco era atmosphere. Starting with the undeniable and distinctive cheezy 80s music and beat, and adding the font and style of the signs and letters to the bling factor of the borders and the incoming star fading when going into various screens really exudes the whole 80s retro feel. If you love the 80s, you’ll love how this game transports you into that whole 80s scene. If you don’t love the 80s, well, you’ll find it a bit irritating. However, you can block out the music by sliding the music volume to the very left.

Simple to play

The game itself is very easy to play. You slide a row (horizontal: left or right) or column (vertical: up or down) of Chuzzles to match up three or more of the same color. They can be in a line or in an “L” shape form (two on a line and one in the next line). Match enough Chuzzles to fill up a flask (located at the bottom of the screen) to get to the next level. As you continue playing, you’ll find and uncover various different obstacles that could hinder your matching.

Challenging game play

The game although simply and easy to play in nature, with various obstacles like the lock, can add some interesting challenges as you play on. You’ll find more and more different obstacles that can make it much harder to make matches which offers more challenge to the game.

Four games to choose from: Classic, Speed, Zen, Mind Bender

There are four games to choose from: Classic, Speed, Zen and Mind Bender. Classic and Speed are similar in game play in that you are matching Chuzzles of the same color to fill up the flask to get to the next level but Speed has a time limit. Zen is also similar in the Chuzzle matching but it is an unlimited game and you can play forever. Mind Bender is more of a puzzle game in which you are given a pattern design and you’re expected to create that design by moving your Chuzzles left, right, up and down by their rows or columns to do so.

Mind Bender game offers great puzzle challenge

I find that the Mind Bender game, being a very different puzzle game than the rest is the most interesting game of them all, as you are given the task of re-creating a specific pattern design by moving the Chuzzles around to create that design. It takes a lot more brain power and I personally find it a lot of fun.

Cute rendering of Chuzzles

The game does a lot to make the Chuzzle ‘cute’. Not only do the eyes of the Chuzzle look different in each one, they look around, roll their eyes around, blink and even pulsate. They squeak, squeal, roll and make popping, whooping and blipping noises when matched. Plus, some Chuzzles are huge, taking up the space of four regular sized Chuzzles. If you take a look at a screen of Chuzzles, each one of them look different. They are very ‘cute’ and the game developers has done a great job of rendering them very individual yet as a collective group.

Shake Chuzzle feature

In the Speed game, when all the Chuzzles and their respective rows or columns are “locked”, you will be given a pop up message telling you that there are no more moves and you’ll need to “Shake” your iPhone to scramble the Chuzzles around to unlock them. However, you are given a limited number of “shakes” in the game. I like how there’s this utilization of the iPhone accelerometer to make the game more fun.

Game auto saved when exiting

The game will automatically save when you exit, whether you press the Menu button in the game, or simply exit out of Chuzzle completely by pressing the Home button on your iPhone. When you next play Chuzzle, it will ask whether you want to resume a saved game or start a new one.

Option of resuming or starting new game

Similar to what was mentioned previously, with the auto save feature, Chuzzle offers you the option of resuming a saved game or starting a new one. Plus, it will ask whether you want to play the Casual or Expert mode when you start a new game.

No time limit game in Zen

For those who don’t want to bother with challenges and obstacles, you can play the Zen game and simply occupy your time matching Chuzzles. This is a never ending game where you are only focused on matching Chuzzles and won’t need to worry about time limit or other obstacles found in other games. This is a great way to win and collect medals or trophies or just brush up on your Chuzzle matching skills.

Trophy room

For those who love winning and collecting medals and trophies, Chuzzle offers a vast collection of medals and trophies you can win, thus the screen or “Trophy room”.

Volume and music slider

I can never say enough about how much I appreciate having the volume and music slider option in a game. Especially with this Chuzzle game where I am not particularly fond of 80s disco music, I can adjust the music to a low enough level that it’s still playing but not loud enough to irritate me. Plus, I can also adjust the volume of the sound effects. I like.

Hint available

When you’re stuck, there’s a Hint button available up in the top right. When pressed, it will tell you where to slide your Chuzzle row or column to make a match. However, you’ll find out that you lose a certain amount from the flask every time you ask for a Hint. So only use the Hint when you’re really stuck.

High scores display

For those who enjoy looking up their high scores and stats, you’ll enjoy being able to view your score stats and keeping up on your bragging right.

I Didn’t Like:

No Facebook Connect to play with Facebook friends

It’s unfortunate that there is no Facebook Connect feature in this game as it can greatly enhance the attraction and game play, to play against friends who may also have this game installed on their iPhone and have a Facebook account.

No bonus stages or side games

This is one game where I crave for a bonus stage or other different side or variation of the game to keep me entertained. When three of four games are very similar in objective, it’s not hard to understand how anyone can get bored of playing it after a while. If there were bonus stages or “side” games or even different variations of it, similar to making it like a rubics cube in 3D or in a pyramid or circle or other shapes. That can somewhat add a bit of something “different” to change things up a bit.

No landscape support

The game is not supported in landscape. Not much else I can say about that.

Can get boring after a while

As mentioned previously, when the game play is simply sliding the Chuzzle in various directions to make a match, there has got to be more features and things you can unlock that will make it more challenging and fun. Unfortunately, after playing a few stages, I found myself bored. I need some variations in the game to keep me playing.

Doesn’t support playing tunes from your iTunes library

Understandably so that since the game is going for the 80’s disco retro feel, it’s not surprising that it doesn’t support iTunes music library playback when playing the game, unlike many other games that offer this feature. For me, since I’m not a fan of disco, this is one of the few times when I *wished* there were such an option.

Review Summary

Chuzzle for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a very ‘cute’ matching puzzle game that transports you back into the the 80’s disco era with the distinctive disco music, the bling and flashy presentation that can unmistakably be so retro and 80s. If you can get past the cute factor of the Chuzzle furballs and the 80s disco music, you will find a typical object matching game that offers some challenges and fun along the way. However, with three out of four games with a similar Chuzzle matching game play, you may find yourself quickly bored in playing it. The redeeming game of Mind Bender is what saves this game from boredom as you are given the challenge of creating a pattern design by moving the Chuzzles around. If you like cute things and the 80s, you’ll love Chuzzle. If you don’t, you may find that the game gets tiring very quickly.

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: archives categories software-review reviews iphone ipod-touch popcap pop-cap pop cap popcap-games pop-cap-games chuzzle furball puzzle game classic speed zen mind-bender 80s retro disco matching-game matching wReview-Wednesday