The Xbox Live Arcade for the 360 has built quite a reputation in it’s short time of existence. For example, there are games actually worth playing on Live Arcade. The only problem is once you start playing many of these games, you’ll find it tough to stop playing them.

Of course, I’m not talking about the old school arcade games (which are fun, but I mean how many times do you have to play Joust). While many of the ‘original’ games have been released for the PC and cell phones, I’m guessing this is the first time many gamers have seen them.

Zuma definitely fits into the above category. Released on the PC some time ago as a shareware demo, I can say I never played it and just filed it into the "another crap game that goes into the Real Arcade-esque bin." Guess I was wrong – because this game is pretty addictive, and you can save $10 by playing it on your 360 instead of your PC.

The premise of Zuma is this: you’re in the center of the screen as some sort of ancient Aztec idol that pretty much looks like a frog. You control the frog and your goal is to clear the screen of balls before they follow the path to your frog. The balls are always rolling towards you.

How do you get rid of the balls? Well, duh, you get rid of them by shooting more balls from your frog guy. Balls are eliminated when you have three or more balls together with the same color. The balls that you shoot always latch on to balls near them – so if the balls are two lines deep, the ball that you shoot will always go to the first row – unless there’s a big hole in the line – in which case the ball will go to the next row.

Sounds a lot like the included Xbox 360 game Hexic, doesn’t it? Although in Hexic you’re also trying to eliminate 3 color coded items, I will say Zuma is more fun. Zuma has additional power ups that you can collect and if you don’t like a ball you are about to shoot, you can swap it out for the next ball that was supposed to come out. Now, it’s annoying if you swap out a green ball for another green ball, but it sure adds an extra layer of strategy in the game.

There are two different modes of play in the game, but alas no Xbox Live multiplayer. One mode is akin to a ‘survivor’ mode where you just keep playing until you lose. The other mode is a level by level progression. Both are very enjoyable and start off very easy at first but get progressively harder as you continue.

The only disappointment I have with the game is some sort of multiplayer mode, although the only thing they could have probably done is a split screen mode a la Columns. It would have been fun, but I can see why they didn’t go this route.

The graphics are very nice and I love the in-game music – not sure how true to an Aztec culture they are, but they are enjoyable to hear.

Zuma is another Xbox Live Arcade game that is highly recommended. It’s only $10, and you’ll make that back quickly with the amount of time you spend with it.