For the ninth game of Christmas, the UPS man brought to me ...

... a complete-in-box copy of the GameBoy Advance puzzler called Zooo.

Most of you likely know this game by another name: Zoo Keeper. For some weird reason, its name was changed to Zooo when it was released for GameBoy Advance and PlayStation 2 in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Also weird: Said ports were released only in Europe and Japan.

As for why I imported the GameBoy Advance version of the game and ignored the more-easily-accessible DS version of it: I've found (through playing both versions via emulation) that I prefer the increased difficulty present in the former iteration.

Plus, I'm on a bit of a GameBoy Advance kick at the moment, and I liked the thought of being able to play this game on that great little handheld.

See also: Previous '12 Games of Christmas' posts

The question is: Will I like Deadly Premonition as much as Frank Cifaldi did?

When 1up.com's Frank Cifaldi reviewed Ignition's Deadly Premonition early last year (read it here), he called the game a mixture of The Last Express, Resident Evil 4, Shenmue and Twin Peaks.

He also said, "a lot of the graphics would look right at home on the Dreamcast." Admittedly, most gamers would consider that to be a negative, but I'm such a big fan of Sega's consoles that it served to further pique my interest in this open-world survival-horror title.

Hoo boy, this is going to be a weird game, isn't it?

Anyway, after reading Cifaldi's review, and a few associated comments he made about the game on facebook and Twitter, I added Deadly Premonition to my "to buy" list--despite the fact that I didn't yet own an Xbox 360.

Well, I now own an Xbox 360, and soon I'll own Deadly Premonition, too, since I ordered a copy of the game late last week for about $15. While I wait for it to arrive, I think I'll waste my time listening to this chiptune take on the title's "whistle tune."

See also: 'If Frank Cifaldi says a game is good, it must be so'