The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

thoo2’s free Bejewelled Deluxe from last year’s Popcap Mother Day giveaway has somehow expired and I have to find a similar clone to fuel her matching puzzle game addiction. And thanks to her, I’m now hooked on Zookeeper that I found for her.

© Kiteretsu
Even the title screen is so cute

Created by Japanese developer(s) Kiteretsu, Zookeeper is a cuter Flash variant of Bejewelled with brightly coloured cartoon animal faces instead of the classic gems. Personally, I find the graphics in Zookeeper much more appealing and a refreshing change over Bejewelled’s boring gems.

Gameplay is akin to that of Bejewelled with a slight twist to the level up process. Instead of matching a set number of gems in Bejewelled, you need to clear a specific number of each animal in the playing field in order to advance to the next level.

© Kiteretsu

While this variation in gameplay makes the levelling up process much faster if the position of the pieces is favourable, you sometimes find yourself continually clearing animals of already completed sets in the hope that new animals of uncompleted sets come into play. Due to the inherently random nature of not being able to forecast or control the type of new animals entering the playfield, a player not only needs to be pretty quick on matching pieces but suffficiently lucky to advance to the higher levels.

© Kiteretsu

There’s also a quest mode, but I’m stuck at Quest 4 (above) where I’m supposed to clear exactly one set of each animal which is nigh-impossible all thanks to the entry of random animals into the playing area. The instructions for the 10 quest levels have been helpfully translated from Japanese by the wonderful guys at JayIsGames.

While occassionally frustrating due to the randomness, I still recommend it as a game for quick breaks due to the cuteness and the funky background music and sound effects

I originally learnt about Zookeeper from 4 color rebellion’s list of 33 cool games but only the version linked to by JayIsGames has the Quest mode.

Play Zookeeper.

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