Zuma!!! Zuma? Well, according to legend, the Zuma were a people in northeastern Mexico who spoke an Aztec-like language. Apparently they had a fondness for videogames and would frequently shoot colored balls at each other hoping to get three-in-a-row of the same color.

OK, OK. Maybe that last part isn't true. But the Aztec-like graphics of the terrific "three-in-a-row, shoot the marble" game Zuma Deluxe make us suspect that there's a connection somewhere. And even if there isn't, heck, it certainly doesn't detract from the fun of this incredibly addictive classic from Popcap.

The challenge here is to accurately shoot balls out of a twirling centralized stone frog. As in similar games -- like Luxor, Chameleon Gems, and others -- the target is a long, serpentine trail of similarly colored balls that is slowly (or not so slowly) chugging its way towards a drop-off point. If you're able to stop them from entering the Sun God skull by creating groups of three or more balls of the same color which then explode, you get to move on to the next board. Should you fail, well, two more chances and it's game over.

What separates Zuma Deluxe from look-alikes is the sheer number of play options available; if taken advantage of, they could keep you shooting balls for a mighty long time. For instance, "adventure" mode dares you to advance as far as you can -- from one level to the next, from the Rabbit temple to the Eagle temple to the Jaguar temple, and so on, until you become the Sun God. "Gauntlet" or endless mode lets you play one level as long as you can, racking up points and, more importantly, time spent. Within gauntlet mode, one can choose "practice," hoping to perfect your skills on one board, or "survival." It's worth investigating them all.

Particularly impressive are the elements that go into making Zuma Deluxe so immersive: the tribal music; the chorus of voices; the bright, exotic graphics; and the sound effects -- the rumble of rolling balls, the clack of balls hitting other balls, and the explosions of balls self-destructing.

Gameplay here is so enticing because the instructions are so simple and so are the first few boards. The left mouse button shoots, the right one permits you to choose an alternate ball color, and the accurate aiming depends on your skill at moving and pointing your mouse. But what isn't clear at first is how much strategy is required for later levels. By shooting into the gaps between balls, it's possible to score big points; setting up chain reactions boosts scores even further; and, by wiping out coins that pop up but are often obscured by the rolling balls, there are added bonuses. If you allow an orange gauge to fill completely, you get to hear the chorus shout "Zuma!" and no new balls will appear. By zapping powerup balls, you can slow down the chain, move it backwards, and create a pointer to improve your shooting accuracy. And if you can do the aforementioned at lightning speed, there are even bonus points for completing levels in record times.

Long about the 60th level -- if you manage to get that far -- speed becomes more important than strategy and you'd better be prepared to play at a superhuman pace. That's about where we are now, but do we plan to give up? Hah! What irks us, however, is that, in adventure mode, the game is divided into stages which are further divided into levels. Should you fail on the last level of a stage, you find yourself sent back as many as six levels to the beginning of the stage, doomed to play the ones you already finished all over again.

Is that too severe a punishment? We'd say so. But, y'know, each time you fail, Zuma Deluxe leaves you with a little message, a bit of philosophy to help you cope with your failure. For instance, we were just told that "Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy." You see? We feel much better now.