Space Blast Zom A Matching Game

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: Digital Game Group

.

Review:

The awkwardly-named Space Blast Zom A Matching Game, released on Nintendo Switch in 2021, is a Puzzle game that’s clearly copying its gameplay formula wholesale from Zuma, which sadly isn’t available yet on the Switch.

Well, you know what? If they’re going to shamelessly copy Zuma, then I’ll shamelessly copy-paste my review of the last Nintendo Switch game to copy Zuma, Marble Power Blast, as this game makes many of the same mistakes. And just to be clear, I don’t have a problem with copying another game as long as you do it well… but creating a low-effort knock-off? That’s another story…

For those unfamiliar with the formula, you are firing multicolored balls or marbles from a central location at an ever-encroaching line of similar marbles pushing towards an exit hole. If enough marbles reach the hole, you lose. To stop them, you shoot your marbles at the line to create matches of 3, destroying them.

It’s a simple formula that worked so very well in Zuma… and it just falls apart here in so many ways. Where to even begin? Well, first of all, the controls here are terrible. Where in console versions of Zuma you could simply point the control stick in the direction you wanted to shoot, here, you must press left or right to spin the targeting device clockwise and counter-clockwise, which means that you can be in the bizarre scenario of needing to move your aim left and having to press right to do so. It’s counter-intuitive and senseless. In addition to this, even with these busted controls, things are even worse because the controls are so sluggish that it takes an agonizing amount of time to aim. If you’re hoping for the touchscreen controls to be better, be prepared to be disappointed – while this game does support use of the touchscreen, these controls are so busted that you will undoubtedly end up spraying countless balls in places you didn’t intend to.

What’s more, a lot of the little tricks and features you could use in Zuma no longer work here. Creating chains or closing the gap between marbles by shooting a like-colored marble to the opposite side actually freezes your aiming device while the line of marbles continues on, actually penalizing you for trying to make a smart move. And combos don’t push back the marbles like they do in Zuma either, meaning there’s little reason to make them. There are a lot of little ways that this game just makes “quality of life” adjustments in the wrong direction, removing things that made the game it’s copying work well.

Graphically, this game is decent enough, but what little graphical flourishes it has actually detract from the gameplay, with the rotating, wispy look of the balls (undoubtedly meant to resemble planets to go with the spacey theme of this game) at times making it hard to judge their color, especially yellow and green, which are fairly similar in their shades. These visuals are backed by a light synthesized soundtrack that’s at best forgettable and at worst a little annoying.

Look, I know I’m coming off sounding really negative here, and you might think it’s unfair that I keep talking about Zuma in a review of Marble Power Blast, but if this game is going to steal wholesale the formula of another game, I feel it’s only just to compare it to that game, and it is truly a terrible copy.

In the end, as much as I would absolutely love to have Zuma on the Switch, and even a decent knockoff would suffice, I cannot recommend Space Blast Zom A. It’s not even a good knockoff. It’s a terrible cash-grab on a well-established game. The folks who made this game should have known better.

tl;dr – Space Blast is a terrible knockoff of Zuma that manages to mess up a formula that’s over 15 years old, with absolutely terrible controls, and a loss of a lot of what made Zuma special. Don’t get this game, even if you’re craving Zuma on your switch. Wait for the real deal, or at least a better knockoff.

Grade: D

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Laziest Copycat

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Lee, Andy Miller, Stov, u/wonderponder, Ilya Zverev, Eli Goodman, and KC. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}