Games like Zuma
Games like Zuma you can play today
If you miss Zuma, try InkGecko: a gecko spits marbles into a rolling chain, three of a colour pop, and closing a gap rolls the line back for a combo. It plays free in any browser, with no ads at all. For more, try Zuma’s Revenge!, Luxor and Tumblebugs.
1. InkGecko
InkGecko is a marble shooter of the same family. A line of coloured marbles rolls along a garden path towards an old well, and your gecko spits marbles into it. Three of a colour pop, and when the colours either side of a gap match, the line rolls back for a combo. Its skin turns the colour of the marble in its mouth.
Each of its ten gardens adds a trick of its own, from tunnels and twined pairs to chameleon marbles and bank shots off barn walls, and each garden ends with a boss. There are no ads, not between levels and not ever: the first garden’s ten levels are free and the rest is a one-time $4.99. Many free marble shooters online are paid for with ads instead; Megazuma on Playgama, for one, shows an ad before the game even starts.
More games like Zuma
Zuma’s Revenge!
The official sequel: the same stone frog and rolling chains, now with boss fights and new power-ups.
Luxor
The same chain-shooting idea in ancient Egypt: you slide along the bottom of the screen and fire spheres up at the line before it reaches your pyramids. A long series followed.
Tumblebugs
Fire coloured bugs into a rolling line of bugs and match them before they roll into the Black Bug Empire’s lair: the Zuma rules with a cheerful insect story.
Puzzle Bobble Everybubble!
A cousin rather than a twin: you aim and match colours the same way, but at a grid of bubbles creeping down instead of a rolling chain.
Marble Mission
A phone marble shooter in the Zuma mould, close to it in look and rules, for playing on the go.
Zuma vs InkGecko
| Zuma | InkGecko | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | PopCap Games, 2003 | 16bit.ink, 2026 |
| Who shoots | A stone frog idol | A gecko whose skin turns the colour of its marble |
| Where | Jungle temples; the chain heads for a golden skull | Ten gardens; the chain heads for an old well |
| Extras | Backwards, Slow-down, Accuracy and Explosion balls | A new trick in every garden and a boss at the end of each |
| Plays on | Windows (Zuma Deluxe on Steam, which also lists an old Mac version) | Any browser: computer, phone or tablet |
| Ads | None in Zuma Deluxe, a paid game; free copies online, like Megazuma, show them | None, ever |
| Price | $4.99 on Steam | First 10 levels free; full game $4.99 one-time |
What was Zuma?
Zuma is a marble-shooting puzzle game developed and published by PopCap Games, released on December 12, 2003. From a stone frog idol deep in a jungle temple you fire coloured balls into a chain rolling along a track. Three or more of a colour vanish, and the chain must never reach the golden skull at its end.
Special balls push the chain backwards, slow it down, show exactly where your shot will land or blow up the balls around them. Zuma Deluxe came to Windows, Mac, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, Zuma’s Revenge! followed in 2009, and PopCap has been part of Electronic Arts since 2011.
The idea came a little earlier: Mitchell Corporation’s 1998 arcade game Puzz Loop also had you shoot apart a chain of balls. Mitchell said Zuma infringed on it; PopCap said Zuma was not an exact clone. Luxor took up the same idea in 2005, in ancient Egypt.
Can you still play Zuma?
Yes, on Windows: Steam still sells Zuma Deluxe and Zuma’s Revenge! for $4.99 each. Zuma Blitz, the Facebook version, closed on March 31, 2017, and we found no free official version to play online.
The free games online with “Zuma” in their names, such as Megazuma on Playgama (made by Jim Games), come from other studios and are paid for with ads.
Questions
- Is Zuma free?
- The official Zuma games are paid: Zuma Deluxe and Zuma’s Revenge! cost $4.99 each on Steam. The free Zuma-style games online come from other studios and often show ads. InkGecko is free to start with no ads, and the full game is a one-time $4.99.
- Is there a new Zuma game?
- Not from PopCap for a long time. The last new one we know of was Zuma Blitz on Facebook, which ran from 2010 until it closed in 2017; the last for PC was Zuma’s Revenge! in 2009. Later releases, such as Zuma’s Revenge! on iPhone and Nintendo DS, were ports.
- Who made Zuma?
- PopCap Games, which developed and published it in 2003. PopCap has been owned by Electronic Arts since 2011.
- What games are like Zuma?
- InkGecko, which you can play free in a browser with no ads, plus Zuma’s Revenge!, Luxor, Tumblebugs, Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! and Marble Mission.
- Is InkGecko made by the makers of Zuma?
- No. InkGecko is our own game, made at 16bit.ink, and it is not made by or connected to the makers of Zuma. We name Zuma only to compare.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Zuma
- Steam: Zuma Deluxe
- Steam: Zuma’s Revenge!
- EA: Zuma Blitz retirement notice
- Wikipedia: Puzz Loop
- Wikipedia: Luxor
- Playgama: Megazuma
- App Store: Marble Mission
- Steam forum: “I wish there was a new Zuma”
Zuma and the other games named here belong to their makers. InkGecko is our own game and is not connected to them.