Zoocube is one of the strangest games I've ever played. In it, you control a clear cube, which you rotate with the Control Stick and the C Stick. Animal pieces (such as giraffe, crocodile, lion and so on) fall at various areas of the cube's face (such as the left and the top, but always falling inwards - it's hard to describe unless you see it). Your goal is to match up enough different animal parts to complete the round (joining two of the same parts will clear them both, and get you a bit closer to completion). You can use the A Button to "lock" a piece to a particular part of the cube, so it can continue to fall down on that part of the cube while you worry about the rest of the pieces. As with most puzzle games, if you place a piece wrong, it will stay there. This is bad, because you'll have various zoo pieces sticking out of your cube, and along with that, you have to worry about the extra pieces that are piling up (or in this case, out). If more than three pieces pile up on one section, it's game over. Luckily, you can shift the pieces around to help clear them.

Once you clear a round, you get the opportunity to clear a bonus round where the cube is covered in various zoo pieces - the object of the bonus round is to clear the existing pieces as quickly as possible. Once the bonus round ends, you're off to another country (you'll be rewarded with different movies for different countries, and punished with additional animal pieces). Because I was playing an early version, there were just placeholder screens at present. However, the entire puzzle aspect seemed to be in place.

The sound and music in Zoocube is pretty cool - when you release an animal from its cubish prison, its head flies out and you'll hear it make an appropriate sound (such as a lion roar or so on). While I was concentrating more on the puzzles than the music, I remember thinking that the music was pretty catchy at the time - although for the life of me I can't remember what it was like. Wow, aren't I reliable. I do know that I MUST play Zoocube again, though.

Zoocube: there's nothing quite like it. But once you get a taste, you'll love it.