ROUNDUP: Zuma / Luxor clones on the Pocket PC

Many people have already played PopCap Games’ Zuma (Deluxe) (Wikipedia article here; I also recommend MichaelA’s posts here and here on the origins of the game). It’s also known as Ballistic on the Sony PlayStation. If you still haven’t, you really want to check out the online game here, or, download the free trial. I’m absolutely sure you’ll like it!

The same stands for Luxor, which is pretty similar to Zuma. The difference between the two games that Zuma (clones) shoot from the center of the screen, while Luxor clones from the bottom, from a slider. The two games are, otherwise, very similar. There is a Luxor online game here. (This one is not as good as the downloadable PopCop game trial because it lacks in-game music and the really cool sound effects).

If you are a fan of these game genres, you may be delighted to hear that the Pocket PC has several Zuma / Luxor clones, some of them very good. They are as follows:

Zuma by Astraware

First of all, by far the best Zuma implementation on the Pocket PC (and, for that matter, the Palm – it plays just great on my Tungsten T3, and because of the native HiRes resolution, it looks much better on it than on Pocket PC’s where it only uses QVGA resolution) is that of Astraware. It’s the only “official” port/license of the game.

Note that AstraWare also promises a Luxor clone; now, however, nothing is known of when it will really be released.

It plays just great, is compatible with all my PPC2k2+ test devices, has the same (stereo!) soundtrack as the original version. The only problem with it the lack of support for VGA – it’s really pixelizated on VGA devices. (In this respect, it’s behaving worse than the 320*320 Palm OS version) Hope they release a VGA-optimized version some day.

This is the title that I recommend the most (along with DragonBall, which I really recommend for VGA users).

Also see this for more info. Note that I've been told the Pocket PC version is definitely easier than the desktop PC version. I haven't compared the Pocket PC port to the desktop version in this respect.

Space Balls by AIM Productions

It’s definitely weaker than the AstraWare title, particularly because it can’t be controlled by the stylus. Stylus taps are only meant for shooting the ball. This makes the game far harder to control. Also, in no other ways is the game better than the AstraWare port (except for the price maybe, which is considerably lower - $9.99).

Not recommended.

Also see this for more info.

Podz by Acepocket

This is the only game of Acepocket. It’s a pretty good Zuma clone but in no way as nice as that of AstraWare.

Not recommended.

Also see this for more info.

GloBall by Glogamer

This pretty new Luxor clone, in my opinion, can’t match the AstraWare port either (if you don’t specifically need a Luxor clone). As far as strictly Luxor clones are concerned, I consider TrialAction’s DragonBall (see below) better, particularly if you have a VGA device and the game doesn’t crash on you.

Not recommended.

Also see Ben Stanley’s excellent article for more info.

DragonBall by TrialAction (VGA version here)

The only Luxor clone with high-resolution support. It's a pretty good game - now, as of version 1.01, it's definitely more bug-free than in the initial, 1.0 version. If you strictly want a Luxor clone (and not a Zuma) and/or want VGA support, you may definitely want to check it out.

Recommended, especially for VGA users.

Please see this for more info on the initial, 1.0 version.

Comparison chart

As usual, I’ve tested all the titles on all my Pocket PC’s to find out their problems/incompatibilities. Also, I’ve paid special attention to the music/sound, which make huge effect on the overall enjoy factor of a game.

(You may want to decrease the character size in your browser to be able to see all the columns in the chart!)

Title (/version):Astraware Zuma 1.03Glogamer GloBall 1.0Acepocket PodzAIM Productions Space Balls 1.0TrialAction DragonBall 1.0
Price$19.95EUR 6.35EUR 12.70 / $14.99$9.99$19.95
GenreZumaLuxorZumaZumaLuxor
Screen orientationPortraitLandscapeLandscapePortraitPortrait
Compatibility (real-world tests): PPC2k-----
PPC2k2 (iPAQ 3660)++++-
WM2003 (iPAQ 2210)+++ (sometimes froze upon me, though)++
WM2003SE (VGA PL720)+++++
WM5 (HTC Wizard / VGA Dell Axim x51v A12 / VGA iPAQ hx4700)+/+/++/+/- (incompatible with hx4700 – EXE crashes)+/+/++/+/++/+/- (incompatible with hx4700 – EXE crashes)
VGA Hi-Res supported?- (pretty bad-looking on VGA, much worse than on Palm)---+ (must be bought separately from QVGA version)
MusicExactly the same (stereo) as in the licensed desktop versionMono, not very good compared to ZumaMono, retro, pretty goodMono, pretty good, tracked (.xm) – that is, swappableRepetitive, mono in-game music
SoundSee above – excellent, albeit monoMonoMonoMonoMono
ControllabilityOKOKOKD-pad only – very bad!OK
OverallGood on VGA, excellent on QVGAAverageAverageAverageExcellent on VGA, good on QVGA

Explanations/comments

Screen orientation: this may be important on Pocket PC’s with polarization issues in Landscape, which may result in headache (for example, the Dell Axim x50v / x51v; please see this for more info.) On devices like these, you may want to prefer a Portrait game.

Controllability: the games are the best to be controlled by the stylus. Most can indeed be controlled this way; unfortunately, (the current version of) SpaceBalls is an exception.

WM5 compliance: as can be seen, two titles don’t support the WM5-upgraded hx4700, one of them the only Hi-Res VGA title, DragonBall. Hope a subsequent release will fix these incompatibility issues. Also note that, on the HTC Wizard (and with all the other tests), I've not only tested the compatibility but also the speed of the titles. Everything worked great without any kind of overclocking even on the slow Wizard.

UPDATE (07/29/2006): PocketGamer.org frontpage

UPDATE (03/23/2007): Allen Gall's review of DragonBall