Game: Zooplop
Genre: Hidden Objects, Casual, Indie
System: Steam (Windows, macOS)
Developer | Publisher: Venturous
Controller Support: Yes
Price: US $2.99 | UK £2.49 | EU € 2,99
Release Date: November 17th, 2023
Review code provided with many thanks to Venturous.
Zooplop is a 2023 puzzle game developed and released by Venturous.
Gameplay of Zooplop
Have you ever fed coins to a claw machine on the slim chance of getting that plushie? Well, Zooplop is like a reverse claw machine. We drop animals from a mechanical claw to merge two of a kind into a new animal. On the right-hand side, we have all the animals in a circle of evolution: from the smallest, a mouse, to the biggest, a whale. Two mice make a duck, and so on until we merge two elephants to create a whale and then two whales to start the circle again. I am still working on the last one.
The gameplay is quite simplistic; we can move the claw left and right, drop the animals every few moves, and rotate the tank with the fallen animals in the hope that unmerged animals will merge. The game lasts forever or until one of the animals touches the top side of the tank. Then, a timer starts counting down from 5. You can stop the timer and save your progression if you clear the animals touching the top of the tank; for example, if you can rotate the tank and merge a few animals.
The hardest part about the game is space management; the more animals you have in the tank, the harder it will be to merge them. They are also bouncy, so when an animal lands on top of another, it bounces around.
Cute and Fun
Zooplop is an adorable game with a catchy soundtrack. The animals are colorful and charming, almost like a child’s drawing. It’s a game that would suit playing on a tablet or phone while commuting. As it is on Steam, I mainly played while doing other things. The fact there are no time constraints, and you are just playing against yourself greatly improves the overall gaming experience. The music by HelloComics is fun and light, but you can also turn it off and play something of your own.
Some Side Notes
Zooplop has Steam achievements, but trading cards still need to be made. Almost all the achievements can be earned the first time you play. The game has the elementary audio/video settings.
Conclusion
Zooplop certainly surprised me. The gameplay and the art style are straightforward, but the game is fun. It’s almost like cotton candy; no substance, but fun. I don’t see Zooplop having any replay value, and there isn’t much strategy to it; you mash animals together, after all, but it serves its primary function reasonably well: to entertain.
Final Verdict: I like it a Lot 