Customer Reviews

Zenses: Rainforest Edition

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First I must say that I absolutely LOVE nearly all puzzle games and minigame collections, almost as much as I love tropical settings. So if you're not into that sort of thing you might not enjoy these Zenses games (I have both Ocean and Rainforest) as much as I do. That said, I can't put these games down!!

Zenses: Rainforest has a very tropical theme with lots of bright green palm trees, butterflies, flowers, and waterfalls. The ambient music is sweet and relaxing, and the graphics are actually quite nice.

There are 6 puzzle games, all of them different from the games included in the Ocean edition. Rainforest includes: Treasure Spin, which involves moving blocks and rotating the screen to get little jewels to touch each other and disappear, Stack Jack has a cascading waterfall with different shapes to match up, Twist & Turn has two rotating jewel wheels to match up (honestly I don't get this one), Flower Board uses strategy to make matching pairs disappear, Sapphire Wheel has jewels of different shapes that you must make fit into a puzzle, and Solitaire is not like card solitaire at all - it is the game where you must hop one stone over another until only one stone remains.

I like them all (except Twist & Turn, which I'm just too impatient to bother learning when the others are so much more fun) but my favorite is Stack Jack. The waterfall in the background is nice and the puzzle is addictive! Sapphire Wheel is a close second, hard to put down. Overall I think the games in Ocean edition are slightly more addictive but that's just my personal preference. If you enjoy puzzle minigames and pretty scenery, it's definitely work picking up both Zenses for your DS!

Both games have a similar style, even though the individual games are different. I own both. These are relaxing, addictive games to help unwind from the daily grind. I have seen a growing number of adult games for DS that have really impressed me. These two games are wonderful play while watching t.v. or just for taking a lunch break....

This game is fun to play and nice for people that enjoy puzzles. The puzzles themselves are easy to get into and eventually become difficult to master.

The two shortcomings of the game, as I see it, are in the programming and in the variety. After a few days of playing the game I was getting tired of the puzzle choices. Also, there is some type of software glitch in this game. Occasionally it will just lock up, sometimes with a loud buzzing sound. I'll have to shut the game off and restart. All of the games involve playing ever-more-difficult levels to increase your score, so it is not uncommon to play for almost an hour on the same puzzle. It's annoying when you've played the game for an hour and it locks up.

Overall this is a fun relaxing game, and it's only locked up on me about 3-4 times, which isn't too bad, so I do recommend the game.

I think this is a wonderful set of puzzle games. Unique, diverse and fun.

What's too bad is they didn't test it well enough and didn't fix some pretty bad bugs.

When you get into higher levels (30-40), the game gets harder, until it just presents you with an impossible case, forcing you to just end the game. When the challenge is to get to the highest level possible, it becomes very frustrating. It's very obvious the levels are generated procedurally, which is fine, but they didn't go though the effort of weeding out the impossible cases.

On the flower game, the game doesn't let you score higher points as instructed, and rather tallies everything at the lowest score, no matter what you do.

It also sometimes crashes and kicks you out to some debug menu, where you can't navigate anymore.

Hence the 4 stars and not 5.

But it's still fun and addictive, and it does not stop me from picking it back up and starting over, every time it has a brain fart.

Zenses: Rainforest Edition is a mildly challenging game but with its colorful nature oriented graphics and calming music you could stay with for hours if not for software issues. As other Amazon reviewers have also mentioned, the game freezes and crashes during play and the only way out of this dilemma is to turn off the Nintendo DSi and start the game again from the beginning. This software glitch leaves the player unable to play the higher levels of the game. Because of this disappointing software flaw you may want to consider other Nintendo DSi titles over this one including some of my favorites: Scribblenauts, 50 Classic Games DS, and Hotel Dusk Room 215.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this game! I agree with most of the other reviews on here that this is SO addictive. I would rate this a ********** if I could for FUN value. Now that I've said that, unfortunately, I can only give this a two star (**) and the reason has also been noted on this review page. The game LOCKS up when you are well into an hour of play. How annoying is that? It really is a shame because I cannot tell you how much fun I have with this game. I have only advanced to the hour+ stage in the ...Jacks game (can't remember off the top of my head the entire title -- it's the waterfall game). I've checked off all the goals except for having reached 75,000 points and that is because each time that I have gone over 75,000, the game locks and I cannot save my results. I have to shut down and, of course, shutting down that way will not save your progress. It gets SO frustrating. I refuse to play that game again (except then I think it MUST have been a fluke and I get suckered again). I have wasted upwards of 2 hours at a time on this particular game only to have it lock. I should add that I usually do NOT play any type of game for this amount of time as I usually don't have the time to waste -- so you can imagine how upset I get when I can't even save the results. To tell the truth, I want to find out what happens after I check-off all the goals. Is there another level or do you unlock something? I have been waiting to buy the beaches one as I've heard good reviews on that one also but am hesitant as I don't want another botched game.

First let me say, I'm a 53 yr. old "Mema" that just LOVES games of all sorts! I've been playing games of any kind since I was a kid with my own Mom, who loved puzzles (we always had one set up on a card table) and any kind of card games she taught me, and we had loads of board games! So of course when I had my 2 kids, I did the same thing with them! Along came the "electronic type games" (Atari, remember them? lol) and THEN came our first original Nintendo!! WOW!

Sooo, 3 Christmases ago, My daughter & 2 Grandgirls got me my DS Lite! OMG! I swear I will die with this thing in my hands! I'm a kind of "collector", so naturally when there's a "series" of any "good" games, such as Zenses, I gotta check 'em out! I have Both Rainforest & Ocean (just got Ocean about a month ago) and I plan to get Zen Garden here real soon! But so far, Rainforest is my FAVORITE of the Zenses. As far as any "glitches" in the game, I have NOT come across ANY with mine! And I play it often, when I do, I play it for hours! I think the graphics are just wonderful, the controls are VERY easy to use and the music is pleasant enuff, I'm not much into all the music and stuff on any games, so most time mine is turned down/off as I'm listening to my own tunes or have the TV on! lol Which as another reviewer mentioned, you can play these games while relaxing in the eve and watchin TV!! Awesome!

About the games:

Treasure Spin: This is one of my favorites! You can use either the stylus or buttons for this one! I think this one is SO addicting, I usually put it and one other of my favs on here last to play, becuz I know once I start....there's no stopping! lol You have these clear like bubbles with flowers in them, located on a board with some box type blocks here & there, you rotate the board to get all your bubble flowers together and they vanish, each level gets more and more challenging! Your object is to try to match up your flowers in the least amount of moves as possible, which makes this game very replayable!!

Stack Jack: This one has a beautiful waterfall flowing in the background! Like I said, the graphics are awesome and the backgrounds are some of the best I've seen on any game! For this game you have round and square shapes of different sizes flowing down the screen, you must assemble three items of the same shape, different sizes, putting one inside the other. You get more points for using all the same color.

Twist 'n' Turn: mmmm....I personally find this one a little more challenging than the other games on here! It takes more thinking & strategy to figure it out! You have these round circles with different colored gems in them, your object is to slide/shift gems from one circle to the other and to rotate the wheels to match the pattern on the Top Screen! Very Fun, just takes a little more thinking! lol

Flower Board: This one probably isn't one of my favorites, but it's still a cute/fun little game! You have to drag flowers onto your board and make the combinations shown on the top screen. Your object is to clear all the flowers from the board. Fairly easy, difficulty goes up as you level up!

Sapphire Wheel: In all actuality, this game is a Tans-gram type game with a slight "twist" and a bit more difficult than most Tan-grams I've played!! Your object here is to fill the grid/shape with gems of different shapes, from the stack. You drag a gem from the stack and drop it into the shaped area on the grid. Touch the arrow icons with the stylus to make the stone rotate (hence the "twist"). My 10 yr. old grandgirl is a Tans-Grams FREAK, this one gives her a huge challenge!

Solitaire: This is actually Peg-Solitaire and...I'm not sure if it's my #1 fav over Treasure Spin or the other way around! LOL I just LOVE both these games the most! Anyway, if you're un-familiar with Peg-Solitaire, your object is to jump over each stone to remove it and end up with ONE stone remaining in the marked box, in a set amount of moves. I can sit for HOURS and play this game!!

Pros: Beautiful backgrounds!! Peaceful music. The controls, stylus & buttons, work perfectly. Very easy to pick up & play anytime, anywhere! Directions are given at the beginning of each game. There are 6 games, and during each game, after you complete so many levels/boards, you get a bonus round, which is a type of "mini-game". Replay value is super, you can play these games over and over, trying to beat your amount of moves and your high scores!! Seriously, this is a great set of puzzles to have in your collection. But I always say> READ reviews before you purchase ANY game, one reviewer was upset becuz this was not a game like Jewel Quest, NO, it isn't, and if that is what you are looking for, then this is NOT the game you want! This is a set of 6 different type of puzzle games. If you're looking for something to sit back, relax & play anytime...even while watching TV or listening to your favorite music, then this is your game!

Cons: I do have a couple, even tho I still rate this a 5 star game, one is > everytime you want to quit a game and play another one, you have to go all the way out to the beginning TOUCH screen in order to then go to the Menu! Not that big a deal, just a few extra moves, I think it would've been nice to back out of the game you're on and go directly to the menu! LOL My other complaint is > I hate "timed" games, and of course, these games are ALL timed!! LOL BUT, that's part of the "challenge" and I understand that, I just wish, if I'd like to just totally relax and go thru the games taking my time & thinking about my moves, that I could turn the Timer off! LOL And,just one more thing, there's no type of "save" point, I kinda wish I could save when I HAVE to quit playing, so I can come back and resume playing at the level I was on, instead, you have to start from the very beginning each time! BUT, I know that is part of the "replay" in order to beat your high scores!

All in all tho, I love this game for the DS. As I'm aging my sight is letting me know I"m getting older! lol Some of my DS games I have to put my reading/bifocal glasses on, but not with this game! It's very easy on the eyes. Game On!

This is a fun puzzle game. I expecially like the Stack Jack game. However, everytime I get to the higher levels on that game it locks up and causes my DS to make a loud screeching sound. It sounds like, from other reviews I've read, that this is a common problem. It's too bad because that is the best game in the bunch. Overall, I thought it was good game for the money until I discovered the programming problems. That has ruined it for me.

I was looking forward to this game, but didn't expect much since it was only $10. I've played repetitive games that I've enjoyed a lot, but I got bored pretty fast with all of these. One of the times I had gotten really far in to one of the games and it froze on me. Goodbye to my high score I had gotten up to. That happened a few times. I haven't even had the desire to play this game after only like 5 or 6 times.

I'm not much into video games, but am finding that folks are coming out with more and more games that are interesting for adults. This game has so far been entertaining, and the sounds on the game a pretty good. It's a fun option to play when I am sitting around with nothing to do.