Zenses: Ocean is actually six little "mini games" that will take up way too much of your time, distract you from work, and basically become an unhealthy addiction. Score. The games are labeled: Zen-Stone, Pearl Diver, Turtle Turn, Hot Spot (sounds wrong, doesn't it?), Shell Twirl, and Wave Breaker. Zen-Stone is my favorite, and I've wasted so much time on it. The object is to touch on two identical stones that are touching horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in order to get them to disappear. The game is over when you cannot make any more matches. There are added bonuses if you make them disappear in the order they appear on the top half of the DS. It is so addictive! With each level, they add new stones with different designs on them until you think there is no way in heaven or hell you could possibly touch them all in an order that will make them all disappear.
Pearl Diver was my sister's favorite, but that was only because I could not beat her stupid high score! She was a machine on that game. The point is to clear the screen of floating (they do not move on the screen, but they do bob up and down) pearls of different colors by connecting the pearls of the same color. You can select single pearls, two pearls, or form a triangle of the same color shiny dots. You cannot connect the lines, however, if there is another pearl in the way. You can get an extra turn if you capture a pearl in the middle of a triangle. I run out of turns fairly quickly because I suck, but there is a fun memorization-based bonus round that earns you extra turns.
Turtle Turn is the hardest one for me. I have no strategy whatsoever, and the game ate my face. You must match the alignment of colors on the top screen by touching turtle shells on the bottom screen. However, the shells turn over and will flip over every shell that touches it as well. You can't just touch the screen until the desired shape accidentally happens either, because it has a limited amount of turns. Turtle Turn has a bonus round that allows for more turns as well. I did better on this that I did the real game!
Hot Spot was fun, and totally weird. It gives you a picture of a pretty, see-through organism at the top screen, and you must piece it back together (while the parts are spinning) on the bottom screen. This one is timed and has a bonus round for more time. Then we have Shell Twirl. This game got my heart rate up instead of relaxing me! And, because I am a bonehead and didn't read the directions, it took me a round to understand what was going on. There is a whirlpool on your screen with funny shell shapes in each ring. On either upper corner of the screen, there is a shell dispenser; you must pull the shells down and match them to their shape in the whirlpool to win the level. It seems really fast-paced because of the spinning rings and because it is timed. The bonus round took me way too long to understand as well. You take the shells out of the rings and drop it in the middle of the whirlpool while the shell corresponds to the shape in the center.
Finally, we have Wave Breaker. It is purely memorization, and reminds me a lot of card games where you have to remember what position they were laying in. The shells are laying in the sand and you have time to look and memorize their position. Then a wave comes and breaks over the sand and hides the shells. Your job is to hunt out the desired shell (shown on the top screen) before your tries run out.
