Let's say you're a big video game developer specializing in the casual market with a string of successes a mile long, and now you're looking to get a whole new wave of gamers hooked on what you've got to offer. What do you do? Why not take one of those hit games, make it leaner, meaner, and add more competitive edge? Oh, and while you're at it, why not let everyone play it for free on Facebook? At least, that's what you do if your name is PopCap Games and the game we're talking about is Zuma Blitz.

Set against an Aztec backdrop, the original Zuma took players on a puzzling romp through some ancient ruins on a quest to ... well ... blow up brightly colored billiard-style balls before they roll into giant skull-shaped holes. Okay, so it's not exactly Indiana Jones running through a cave with a giant boulder hot on his trail, but it IS still a lot of fun. Aiming a giant stone frog that shot colors balls from its mouth, players try to match up three or more of the same color to eliminate that section from the chain. By clearing out enough balls from the chain, players filled up a meter which stopped the flow of balls, leaving them to simply clean up the rest to finish the stage.

When PopCap decided to revisit Zuma for the Facebook crowd, the studio knew it had to do more than just re-releasing the original. So what makes Zuma Blitz different from the original? For starters, Blitz ditches the full value sized experience in favor of short snack sized rounds of play. Players try to stem an endless flow of balls in race against the clock in individual sixty second rounds as a part of a weekly tournament against their Facebook friends who also play the game. Each weekly tournament gives players a new challenge stage which be repeated a number of times equal to however many hearts a player has at a given time. Spent hearts are replaced over time, which is a good excuse to step away from the game for a breather from time to time and get back to the grind of daily life.

For those trying to get a leg up on the competition each week, Zuma Blitz features a number of different power ups that can be activated before each round of play. These powers range from bonus score multipliers to time extensions to triggered explosives. Using these powers to boost your score comes with a price, though. Each power costs a certain amount of "Mojo", which can only be replenished a bit at a time by playing the game, by trading in Idols earned in-game, or by purchasing blocks of Mojo with Facebook credits. Admittedly, it's a little frustrating when you've unlocked all these cool abilities but lack the Mojo to actually use them, but it does help keep the gameplay balanced.

While Zuma Blitz doesn't reinvent the casual gaming wheel, PopCap has managed to take everything that was fun about the original game and condense it down to a dose that's perfect to pick up and play. Plus, with the added weekly tournament element, Zuma Blitz appeals to the competitive nature inside all of us. After all, it's hard to step away from a game when you know you're only a few points away from knocking your buddy out of the top three scores for the week. Best of all, you get all of this for the low, low price of free.

Final Score: A