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### Loops Of Zen [Atari XE/XL]

#### http://atari.fandal.cz/

#### Reviewed By J. Monkman

To help explain why I've rated Loops Of Zen so highly I have a personal confession to make that'll probably come as no surprise to the rest of the RGCD team; I have to admit that I'm a little bit anally retentive. I enjoy things being tidy and in their place, and I routinely endeavour to keep my working environment organised and orderly. Most people find it tedious, but for me cleaning and reorganising is always a positive and satisfying experience - and this is most likely the reason why I find Miker and XXL's Loops Of Zen so endearing.

I suppose you could describe this new 8-Bit Atari release as a 'casual' puzzler (it is essentially an 8-Bit clone of a flash based game designed by Dr. Arend Hintze), but as is the case with the original, Loops Of Zen is actually more comparable to an interactive toy than a fully-featured game. As you can probably tell from the screenshots, it's incredibly simple in concept; the player is presented with a grid randomly filled with various sections of pipe (or perhaps circuit?) and has to rotate each tile until there are no dead ends left. Complete the puzzle and you move on to the next harder one, but if you get stuck you can always restart with another random grid by pressing the Option button - or increase/decrease the size of the puzzle (and therefore the difficulty) via the Start and Select keys.

There's no high score to beat or clock ticking away in the background so there's no pressure to rush through each level - in fact, playing Loops Of Zen could almost be described as a relaxing or sedate gaming experience. Despite the lack of any 'Well Done' or 'Level Completed' fanfare, the sense of achievement after clearing one of the larger puzzles is genuinely rewarding (well, at least it is to me) and the randomly generated nature of each grid results in it being a game that you can come back to time after time - and believe me, if you're in the right kind of mood it's just too easy to get lost in the game and end up playing it for hours instead of minutes.

In conclusion, Loops Of Zen may not boast the most impressive presentation qualities, but nonetheless it's a very clever little game that has me hooked. With a file size of just over 6KB there understandably isn't much to speak of in the graphics or audio department, but the game certainly isn't unattractive and Miker should be applauded for the well-composed mono soundtrack that chirps along happily in the background during play. However, although simplicity is the key to it being both instantly accessible and easy to master, it's also the only downside to this otherwise flawless release. It's a shame that no effort was made in expanding the Loops Of Zen further; some small extra features such as a password system (so you could replay some of the more interesting patterns again) or a few alternatively shaped, non-oblong arenas would have been welcome additions. On a related note, although the absence of a clock or moves counter works well with the game from a casual perspective, an added competition mode where you could attempt to beat your previous time/efficiency rating would tie-in nicely with my proposed password concept and possibly make Loops Of Zen more appealing to a wider range of players. However, as the game is clearly only a side project it's unlikely that any future enhancements will be made - which is a shame, but at least it leaves the option open for original and improved content in the inevitable ports, clones and remakes that will follow...

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Graphics: | 50%
Sound: | 80%
Game Concept: | 75%
Gameplay: | 80%
Lasting Appeal: | 83%

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