Zumba Garden

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Zumba Garden is a family-friendly Match-3 Puzzle game released on mobile devices as Marbles Garden in 2022, ported to Nintendo Switch later that same year under the new title Zumba Garden, and then ported to PC in 2023. This game technically follows in the footsteps of the series’ previous game, Zumba Aqua, though both games have different developers and a different art style. As with Zumba Aqua, Zumba Garden has nothing to do with the Zumba fitness franchise, but rather is a game that’s clearly designed to be a knockoff of the classic Puzzle game, Zuma. As it happens, I felt that Zumba Aqua was one of the better Zuma knockoffs, and as I often say, there’s nothing wrong with being a copycat as long as you’re a good copycat. So the question now is, does Zumba Garden meet the same standard its predecessor did?

Right from the start, the game’s presentation gives a good impression, with some pleasant, colorful, detailed, lightly-animated 2D visuals designed to look like a top-down view of a garden, backed by some lovely, placid instrumental music that becomes more intense as your situation starts to become more desperate. I only have two real complaints – first, that the menus really come across as mobile-style menus. And second… the game has the multi-colored balls being pushed by diminutive golems that groan whenever you clear the balls, and these groans are kinda’ off-putting. Aside from this though, the presentation is great.

When it comes to the core gameplay, Zumba Garden once again brings back the strong mechanics its predecessor brought to the table, with excellent gamepad controls and even better touchscreen controls. Shooting your multicolored balls at the encroaching line of balls to create matches of three or more feels smooth and natural here, and again I only have one complaint, and that is that creating combo matches doesn’t push back the stack like it does in Zuma. It’s a small think, but that one element really helped to add nuance to Zuma’s gameplay, and its absence here is disappointing.

However, in its place is something interesting, because Zumba Garden has its own RPG-style upgrade system, where clearing levels or shooting short-lived sparkles in the game’s levels gets stars the player can use to choose various special abilities to unlock and upgrade. Some of these happen as you match balls of a corresponding color, powering up a meter, while others randomly show up on the balls being pushed down the stack, rewarding players for clearing those balls quickly before they disappear.

These sorts of power-ups are pretty standard in Zuma and its clones, but what Zumba Garden does that’s refreshingly new is allow you to unlock and improve these power-ups in the order of your choosing, giving you some customization over your progress. What’s more, this feature also acts as a way to help out struggling players – if you’re having trouble with a level, just keep trying to hit the sparkly bits in earlier levels to unlock stars to get more powerful before you try the tough level again. I would have liked to see this feature expanded on even further here, but what’s here is still pretty nice.

There are a few places I could complain here. Particularly, the lack of an endless mode, and the lack of any sort of multiplayer. However, for only $3, it’s hard for me to complain too much.

Simply put, Zumba Garden is probably the very best Zuma clone I’ve ever played, even innovating in some areas that could put it on par with or even beyond the original Zuma if the game were a bit more polished. I do think that the lack of endless mode and multiplayer hold this game back from that, and there are a few minor tweaks I wish were made to the presentation and gameplay mechanics. But overall, for only $3, this is a must-have for Puzzle fans, especially fans of Zuma who are frustrated that game still hasn’t been brought to Nintendo Switch. Trust me when I say, Zumba Garden is a more than sufficient substitute.

tl;dr – Zumba Garden is a family-friendly Match-3 Puzzle game which, like its predecessor, is clearly copying the Zuma formula, and like its predecessor it does a surprisingly good job of it. In fact, this time I would argue things are even better, with a solid presentation and an outstanding RPG-style upgrade system. There are a few options and game modes I wish this game had, and a few minor complaints here and there, but it’s hard to complain when for only $3, we’re getting a “copycat” game that’s nearly as good as the original. If you’re a Puzzle game fan on Nintendo Switch, this is definitely one to get.

Grade: B+

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