{"id":4889,"date":"2026-09-25T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=4889"},"modified":"2026-09-14T12:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:18:06","slug":"video-game-zoop-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/25\/video-game-zoop-1995\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO GAME: Zoop (1995)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zoop\"Zoop
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1995
\nRating: E
\nTime Played: ~0.5 hours<\/p>\n

It felt like the 90s were trying to capitalize on the popularity of Tetris<\/em> because there were quite a few puzzle games that came out in that era that had unique ideas but didn\u2019t quite have the same spark that Tetris<\/em> did. One such game was Zoop<\/em>, which had probably the most 90s aesthetic of all these puzzle games. More of a matching puzzle game than a shape puzzle game, Zoop<\/em> feels quirky but is easy to pick up and play. The problem is that there\u2019s no lingering reason to keep playing.<\/p>\n

The game board for Zoop<\/em> is at the center of four peg-boards that fill up with different colored\/shaped pieces until they reach the center. These pieces can be swapped out with the player cursor or eliminated from the board if the color\/shape matches. There are a few special items that can help in the higher levels, but it\u2019s mostly just managing the four different fronts and ensuring nothing gets too tall. As with most puzzle games of this type, each new piece arrives at a faster rate as the levels increase until the player can\u2019t handle it anymore.<\/p>\n

Zoop<\/em>\u2019s true challenge is the need to keep track of four different areas at once. If it were a big single area (like Tetris<\/em> or many other puzzle games), it might be easier and more fun to try again. As it stands, the chaos of the four different boards makes it more frustrating than anything, and a loss doesn\u2019t feel like it was because of a player mistake as much as it was just being overwhelmed. So, while the gameplay feels innovative and fresh, the replayability is lacking because once you\u2019ve played through a few levels, you\u2019ve seen all the game has to offer.<\/p>\n

A neat puzzle idea that struggles with replay value, I give Zoop<\/em> 3.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zoop Year: 1995 Rating: E Time Played: ~0.5 hours It felt like the 90s were trying to capitalize on the popularity of Tetris because there were quite a few puzzle games that came out in that era that had unique ideas but didn\u2019t quite have the same spark that Tetris did. One such game was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,1900],"tags":[1772,4664,4663,2158,8,2883,906,4662],"class_list":["post-4889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-0-stars","category-video-game","tag-1772","tag-fast-paced","tag-pegboard","tag-puzzle","tag-review","tag-super-nintendo","tag-video-game","tag-zoop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4899,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4889\/revisions\/4899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}