Zumba Aqua

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Zumba Aqua was released on Nintendo Switch in 2021, and apparently came out on mobile devices at some point as well, although I cannot currently find any trace of it on any of the app stores. It is a Match-3 Puzzle game that has nothing to do with the Zumba exercise franchise. Rather, its name is a clear indication that this game is a shameless copycat of the ball-shooting Match-3 Puzzle game Zuma. However, I always make it a point to say that there’s nothing wrong with being a copycat as long as you’re a good copycat. So the question is, is this game a good copycat?

You wouldn’t think so from the game’s presentation – this is a game with a presentation that loudly declares its status as a mobile port, even if the mobile version of the game seems to have disappeared. Simple, cartoony 2D graphics with an undersea theme and an interface clearly designed with a touchscreen in mind, backed by a simple, juvenile Caribbean-style synthesized instrumental soundtrack (that may well be fair use – it seems generic enough). Suffice it to say, this game isn’t likely to win over anyone over the age of six with its presentation.

Having said that, the gameplay here is… surprisingly competent. It doesn’t do anything at all unique or interesting with the Zuma formula of shooting balls at an oncoming line of balls to match their color and clear them before they reach their destination, but it manages to largely get the nuances down, even having some light physics at work in line with Zuma. What’s more, this game controls well using the gamepad and with the touchscreen, which I would argue is the preferable option, as it makes aiming extremely simple and straightforward.

No, if there’s one place this game falls flat (well, other than the presentation), it’s not the gameplay, it’s the content and features. Zumba Aqua gives players 80 levels to play through… and that’s it. No endless mode, no difficulty settings, no leaderboard, not even simple game options beyond music on/off, sounds on/off, and language selection. That the folks behind this game managed to get the gameplay here so right and then didn’t follow it up with a proper feature set to house that gameplay is truly disappointing.

Well, there is one other thing here, but it’s not a point in the game’s favor – players can access a shop to spend in-game currency on power-up items and skins… which was clearly originally intended to be a way to make money via microtransactions (which are thankfully not present here). Out of all of the content this game could have included to add value, this was not one of the things that would have featured on my list.

However, for $3, it’s hard to complain about Zumba Aqua, especially when it does get the gameplay right. And with the actual original Zuma still a no-show on the Nintendo Switch as of this writing, Zumba Aqua makes for an acceptable low-cost alternative. This game may have all the signs of a cheap mobile port, and it may have a huge lack of features, but I have yet to find a better Zuma-style Match-3 Puzzle game on Nintendo Switch, and certainly not one with a price this reasonable.

tl;dr – Zumba Aqua (no relation to the exercise franchise) is a Match-3 Puzzle game clearly patterned after the game Zuma. While the presentation screams “cheap mobile port”, and the game is sorely lacking features and content, the core gameplay here is excellent, and does a good job copying that classic. For $3, this is a solid Puzzle game well worth getting.

Grade: B-

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