Review - Drawn: Dark Flight!

After playing Drawn: The Painted Tower at the end of last year, I was very impressed (Read my review!). The unfinished story left me wanting more - more of the same immersive gameplay and the same magical world. Finally, Drawn: Dark Flight was released later in 2010. But did it live up to the greatness of the first game? That's what I'll tell you in today's review!

What I liked Same whimsical setting Fitting music Engaging puzzles Smooth gameplay Fascinating atmosphere What I didn't like I can't think of anything

Quick Plot

Picking up where the first game left off, you need to use art, magic, and puzzle-solving skills to help Iris overcome the dark evil that holds power over the city!

Mechanics

Adventure: This game falls solidly into the adventure category. You are traveling around, solving puzzles and picking up inventory items.

What pleased me so much is the fact that the game doesn't leave you clueless or floundering at any point, which is a guarantee in most standard adventure games. In this game, you typically have a pretty good idea about what to do, even if you get hung up for a short time.

Non-HOG: I highlight this because I was so glad this game wasn't a HOG. Most games on the casual scene these days are HOG-Adventures. In Drawn: Dark Flight, you're free from cluttered rooms and item lists. Ahhhhh.

Highlights

Puzzles: This game contained some of the most enjoyable puzzles I've ever encountered in an adventure game - and I've encountered a lot in my years as a gamer. Several puzzles are original in concept, which is exceedingly rare these days. So, puzzle fans, get ready for some fun.

Graphics/Atmosphere: The graphics and mood are the same as they were in the first Drawn game. The fanciful locations will take you to another time and place, where magic is real and anything is possible. The hand-painted art style is masterfully crafted, and the cold, sad atmosphere is easily felt.

Music: As in the first game, the swelling, dreamy music does it's job to accompany you on your mysterious journey. The themes and instrumentation adequately convey the mood and emotion of the game and it's various scenes.

Issues

Puzzle bug: The only issue I ran into was a little bug. During a puzzle in which you have to shift and align a number of rotating pieces, some of the pieces became strangely oriented (perhaps between exiting the game and starting it again?), and I could never find a way to reorient them. I don't know what caused this, but solving the puzzle became impossible, forcing me to skip the puzzle.

When my wife played this puzzle on her game, the pieces all stayed oriented just as they should, and she was able to solve the puzzle. I just happened to get a glitched save game, I guess.

Suitable for the family?

The game had great draw for both my wife and me.

The kids were a little nervous about one or two characters and scenes - it's a pretty solemn and shadowy game, after all. Still, they enjoyed watching, and appreciated various elements of the story and scenery.

The fantastical elements will be attractive to children: things like gnomes, woodland creatures, and flying books.

The family man's final ruling

Excellent. Big Fish Studios has put excellent work into one more brilliant game. I was thrilled to be free from hidden object scenes in what turned out to be a pure adventure game - following clues, using inventory, and solving puzzles while experiencing an interesting story.

The graphics are finely painted. The lighting, music, and ambience manage to pull you into Iris' magical world. Certain scenes made me pause and say, "Whoa." I also like the way that they worked music into the game as a story theme.

Perhaps best of all were the puzzles. The puzzles were original, engaging, and very fun to solve. Ever since the golden age of adventure games (with titles like 7th Guest, Obsidian, Black Dahlia, and Tex Murphy), great puzzles have been hard to come by. Most puzzles now are repeats of the same thing you've done in all of the other games. But in this Drawn sequel, you'll experience fresh, challenging new puzzles that will have your mental gears turning happily.

I liked this game even more than the first Drawn game. It was that good.

Here you have one of the best games of 2010, if not THE best. Get it, and prepare to be immersed in an artistic world of good and evil.

You'll like the game if... You liked Drawn: The Painted Tower You like adventure games You're tired of HOGs You like solving good puzzles You like magical stories You like a dark, somber atmosphere You won't like the game if... You don't like adventure games

My rating:

Review - The Fifth Gate!

I like when a game has a really unique set of mechanics, which is why I bought and played The Fifth Gate. Although, I have to admit, as unique as these mechanics are, this wasn't the first game to employ them. In fact, this game ripped off an older game: Magic Farm, which I reviewed a while ago. Because of the similarities between the two games, I think this review will be more of a comparison than a standard review. I'll attempt to identify the positives and negatives of The Fifth Gate's approach to this style of flower husbandry.

What I liked Lovely scenery Addictive gameplay Potion making Interesting plants What I didn't like No experience system Weak story Forced advancement

Quick Plot

Plant and harvest flowers to create potions to give to a witch lady who is forcing you to work for her. Oh, and you play young Jane Seymour (not really, but doesn't that girl look like her?).

Mechanics

Time Management: This game is a fast-clicking time crunch. I'll summarize it like this:

1. Start the day.
2. Harvest flowers as they bloom.
3. Water the plants as they become thirsty.
4. Attack pests as they come to eat your plants.
5. Do all of this as quickly and completely as you can before the day ends.

In between levels, you may:

1. Take on new quests from the witch lady.
2. Use your harvested flowers to make potions.
3. Sell potions for gold.
4. Use gold to buy
• upgrades for your fountain, watering can, flower basket
• new plants, or
• magic potions (power items that give you a boost when the pressure is on).

A standard level. Water and gold in the lower right. Timer and flower basket in the upper left. Fountain in the lower left.

Of course, as the game progresses through the 5 gardens, the difficulty will increase. More numerous and difficult pests will arrive, and you'll find yourself planting, harvesting, and watering more plants at a more rapid-fire pace. The game will certainly keep you on your toes. Well, maybe not your toes, but it will make you sit up in your chair. Okay, maybe not, but it will at least make your shoulders tense up.

Comparisons to Magic Farm

In Magic Farm...	In The Fifth Gate...
You have a pet who helps you.	You don't have a helper.
You gain experience points to improve.	There is no experience system.
You receive quests from various characters.	You only receive quests from the witch lady.
You can complete quests on your own schedule.	You have to complete quests according to the witch lady's schedule.
There is no "expert" goal for quests.	You can complete each quest quickly to achieve an "expert" goal for that quest.
The mood and music are chipper and bright.	The mood and music are more somber and new-agey.
The English is very awkward and poorly written.	The English is fine.
You almost never get to keep your earnings from one garden to the next.	You never get to keep your earnings from one garden to the next.
Late in the game, you can no longer return to some of the earlier gardens.	You can always go back and repeat any quest for any garden.
The story is fleshed out, with ups and downs.	The story is relatively vapid and minimalistic.
You use your flowers to make bouquets.	You use your flowers to make potions.
You are limited to choosing from 4 available bouquets at a time.	You are limited to choosing from 10 available potions at a time.
You get good graphics.	You get better, shinier graphics.
You earn trophies by accomplishing various feats.	You earn trophies by accomplishing various feats.

The level map. The mirrors at the bottom represent the levels for the garden you're on.

Highlights

Addictive: This game is hard to stop playing. It'll be late at night and you'll be saying, "Just one more level." even though you've already said that 13 times. I wonder if the addiction factor is related to the short levels? Or the reasonable goals you are always working for? Just a couple more of a certain flower and you'll be able to finish that sweet potion you've been working on. Just two more levels and you'll move onto the next garden. A little more gold and you'll be able to upgrade your flower basket. And on it goes.

Potion making: I don't know why this is so fun, but it is. You decide which flowers go into which potion. But even if you don't have every flower you need, that's okay. You can use up as many as you have, and the potion will fill up part way. This means you don't have to keep lots of flowers in your basket, taking up valuable space. In between levels, you can use up most of your flowers on partial potions. Once you finish a potion, it'll go on your sale shelf and you can earn gold for it. The potions look cool, and have weird or silly magical names like "Sneezing Potion."

The potion-making room.

Plant types: There was some cool plants in this game. You could buy a watering plant that gives you extra water every time it blooms. One great plant was this crystal that, when you click it, all of the pests are immediately drawn in and frozen in ice, so they're easy to destroy all at once. There's a butterfly plant that allows you to increase the maturity level of one of your plants (although, you still can't use this unless the next level for that plant has been unlocked....). There are also some great magic potions you can buy to help you work. One of these is a destroy-all-pests potion. One is a water-all-plants potion. The other is a harvest-all-plants potion. All of these are extremely helpful. You can only have 2 at a time. They each have something like 6 uses. And you have to pay for the slots to store them in your garden. But they're worth it, once you can afford them. And they are essential late in the game.

The trophy room.

Issues

Big bug: My wife ran into a technical bug on her game. During the last garden in the game, the game started taking all of her gold away, making it impossible to water her flowers or do anything else. Big Fish had no fix for the issue. Other people have reported the same issue. If this happens to you, contact Big Fish support to see if they have a fix yet. If not, they might compensate you in some other way. Story: The story in this game is nearly absent. And even what little story exists is boring and silly. Forced progress: In Magic Farm, you could take your time and pursue various quests at your own pace. If you wanted to build up your farm for a while, you could. And you could receive quests from multiple people at a time. In this game, you receive quests from one lady, and you are really forced to keep moving. It's just not as fulfilling. No experience system: In Magic Farm, you earned experience for everything you did on the farm, and you could advance both your skills, and the skills of your dragon familiar. This growth factor was good incentive to play well. It offered improvement. In this game, there is no experience system. They simplified the mechanics of Magic Farm without offering many beneficial additions (except maybe graphics).

Suitable for the family?

My wife liked the game until it glitched. The children gladly stood by, calling out when I needed to attack a particular pest. They like anything with little creatures, and this game is no exception. There's a witch in the game, but she is supposed to look deceptively attractive, I think. So there's nothing scary in the game. There are no voice-overs or scary sounds either.

The family man's final ruling

I have a hard time settling on a rating for this game, honestly. I found plenty of nitpicks, but the game really was engaging and kept me busy for a long time. The same mechanics that were fun in Magic Farm are fun in this game. And I did like the graphical presentation even more in this game. I also liked the way potion-making worked more than I liked how bouquets worked in Magic Farm. So while part of me wants to give the game 3 stars because it isn't quite as good as Magic Farm, I also want to give it 4 stars because it was a fun game. But it didn't have all of the qualities of a 4-star game, so I think I have to go with 3 stars. This means the game is average in terms of fun. There are great things about it, but also flaws. I recommend the game, but I recommend many other games more.

You'll like the game if... You liked Magic Farm You like fast-clicking time management You like gardening games You like games that you can play in short bursts You won't like the game if... You get stressed out by tracking lots of things on the screen simultaneously You don't like time pressure

My rating:

Review - Enlightenus!

I can imagine the game designer sitting down with his developer buddies one afternoon:

Designer: "Hey guys, I have a sweet idea for a new game. It'll blow your minds."

Developer buddies: "Oh yeah? Enlighten us."

Designer: "Wait a minute....Enlighten us. Enlightenus. Finally, a title for my game! w00t!"

If you're bored with the endless supply of half-baked HOGs, this game should offer you the change you've been looking for. So read on, and see what Enlightenus has to offer!

What I liked Excellent graphics Solid music Adventure game elements Object placement What I didn't like Repeated scenarios Lackluster story

Quick Plot

Travel to somewhat magical places, collecting scattered fragments of some dude's books.

Mechanics

Object placement: This is the first game on the market to reverse the functionality of a cluttered scene. In your standard hidden object game, you're given a list of items to seek out with your eyeballs. In this game, you are instead given the objects, and your job is to place them correctly into the scene. You are given a row of items at the bottom of the screen. When you mouse over an item, it displays the item's name. Clicking on an item will pick it up. Then, when you hover the mouse over various areas and objects in the scene, names for those areas are displayed. In this way, you are assisted in finding matches. For instance, maybe I pick up the item called "steak" and then move the mouse around the screen. I see that the wolf in the scene is called "hungry wolf", so I click the steak on the wolf and *POOF* - they combine. Once you do this sort of matching for every item in your inventory, the scene is completed, and you earn an emblem token that will be used on a puzzle somewhere nearby.

These item placement scenes make up the bulk of the game. You find them by walking around the environment, as you would in any other first-person adventure game. When you see a sparkling piece of paper attached to something, you click on it to play the item placement scene. Each scene is named after one of the author guy's stories. You will visit each "story" a few times, with a different set of items each time (as in many HOGs). The game is easy enough that you'll rarely need to use hints. But if you want them, you can find two in each scene. They show up as hidden cards with an "E" on them. Each one of these cards counts as one hint in your reserve, and they don't ever expire or refresh; you get to keep them until you use them. Puzzles: You will have to solve a number of simple, but amusing, puzzles. I always enjoyed when one of these showed up. Many of them involve some form of connection-making, such as memory matching or deciding which items go with which season. Inventory: You'll have an inventory containing items that you pick up in one location and use in another location. This is a standard adventure game feature.

Highlights

Graphics: This game scratches my adventure game itch in its overall presentation. The graphics are much like those of the old first-person adventure games of the 90s. You walk around in ambiently lit locations, where fascinating visuals greet you at each new turn. The environments were obviously designed with care and skill. Also, there are a number of paintings in the game. I thought the artwork on these was excellent. There were clearly some pro artists on this game.

Music: Is the music great? No. Does it work well for the game? Yes. The music has a synth orchestra vibe to it, but unlike many casual games, it sounds like the composer was someone who knows what he's doing. The tranquil underscore, I think, complements the gameplay in a satisfying way.

Issues

Repeated scenes: I can't dock the developer too many points for this one, because most HOGs do this same thing: take you back to the same scenes you've already scrutinized. They think that changing the list of items will make it more bearable. After all, they spent all that time designing the scenery, so it only makes sense to get a little mileage out of it, right? Personally, I get tired of repeated scenes in this sort of game. Let me soften this gripe by saying that I didn't mind it in this game quite as much because of the item placement mechanic. In this game, it can actually be fun to place items into those spots that you didn't get to interact with the first time through a scene. But still, 3 or 4 times through the same scene is just too many for my taste. Story: "The heck?" This is my response to the story in many games, including this one. I admire the writer for trying to come up with something somewhat fantastical and literature-themed, but the execution left me bored. I think I kind of understand what happened. Or maybe not. You see? I don't like that kind of story. I want to have a clear understanding of exactly what happened, how it worked out, and why my part in it was significant. I am admittedly slow in the mental department sometimes, but I'm pretty sure this story wasn't tied together very well. You may disagree. I hope you get more out of it than I did.

Suitable for the family?

Sure. My kids stood by watching, and enjoyed some parts of the game. There's nothing scary, shocking, or offensive. I can imagine your whole family appreciating this one. It'll appeal more to older kids, I think. There aren't many bright colors or cute things to watch, so little kids might lose interest more quickly. But that's good, right? Shouldn't they be out playing anyway?

The family man's final ruling

This game was a welcome change for me. HOGs these days are so yawn-inducing that the item placement mechanic of Enlightenus was very welcome. I think if there was more diversity in the item placement scenes, and in the music, then this game would have been even better. Then, hire a professional writer to make the story compelling, and you could have a really great game. I recommend this above most HOGs, even the newer, shinier ones. So, while it loses points for lack of variety, the game was still beautiful, innovative, and kept me playing through to the end. And, if you end up really liking this one, there is a sequel! It plays exactly like the first game in terms of mechanics and music, but with a new story and new scenery.

You'll get to solve many of these disc placement puzzles.

You'll like the game if... You like HOGs You like first-person adventures You like a mellow gameplay experience You won't like the game if... You get bored by matching items with other items

My rating:

Review - Royal Envoy!

Where have all the great games gone? A lot of my favorite games are older ones (which means 1 or 2 years old in the casual games world) because the commitment to quality seemed to be generally higher back then. And yet, every so often, a developer will surprise me. Today, I review a new game that surprised me in a number of ways - a game that puts you in the role of the king's Royal Envoy!

What I liked Superb graphics Unique spin on the genre Good music Satisfying game length High degree of polish Perfect amount of challenge Stays interesting Subtle humor What I didn't like Character art

Quick Plot

Help to restore safe homes to the realm of Islandshire before the rainy season hits again!

Mechanics

Strategy: There aren't many casual games that immediately strike me as "strategy games." It wasn't long before I discovered Royal Envoy to be just that. Many building games offer some degree of strategy, but not like this game does. In your typical building game, such as the Build-a-Lot series or the Be Rich series, your goal is to finish the level within the allotted time. If you don't succeed, you have to play the level over. If you finish the level very quickly, you get an Expert rank. But in these games, the Expert goal is something extra to reach for, if you prefer the challenge. In Royal Envoy, all of the fun is tied into getting the equivalent of the Expert goal. It feels very similar to the Farm Frenzy games. In those games, half of the fun is in trying to figure out the particular sequence of actions that will earn you the Gold medal. That is exactly how Royal Envoy plays out. The developers have given a challenging, but reasonable, timer to each level. When this timer runs out, it just disappears and you can keep playing. But if you finish the level before the timer is out, you get the gold seal.

Pirate Island, with gold seals on all levels, as indicated by the stars.

So what's the point of achieving the gold standard? There are three benefits:

1. The gold seal earns you lots of bonus points, which can earn you a higher rank, which earns you trophies.
2. To unlock expert mode, you must complete all levels with a gold seal.
3. Achieving gold is very satisfying, mentally. It's a sign of good strategy.

It's very obvious that the designers intended it to be this way. I don't even know if you can lose a level. I suppose you could get stuck without enough resources to continue, and be forced to restart a level. Strategic tips are offered between levels. These tips give helpful advice for achieving the gold seal. I think you'll find that a dominant portion of the fun is found in

1. starting a level,
2. looking over the level's goals, and
3. devising a strategy for gold-seal success.

The timer doesn't begin until you give a command to a worker or tax collector (I'll explain these guys in a minute). So you can look over the level and its requirements with no time pressure. This allows you to study the level in advance, and to map out your plan of execution. Building: Once you have your strategy for a level, you begin building. This is similar to many other buildings games, in the tradition of Build-a-Lot. There are a number of slots on the screen where buildings or decorations can be constructed. Your objective is to meet the level's prescribed goals by

• building (or tearing down) the appropriate buildings
• in the best order
• as quickly as possible.

You have two kinds of hirelings to serve you:

• workers, and
• tax collectors.

Workers do all the manual labor of building, chopping, digging, producing and demolition. Tax collectors are the little fellows who run to money-producing buildings to collect income. They also carry out negotiations with pirates and merchants. Workers and tax collectors live in the castle. The castle is the central building where all money and materials are dropped off after being collected. You can also hire extra workers and tax collectors in the castle. This costs money. Money and materials (wood) are the two resources you'll be working with. You collect both resources in a number of ways, and they are both used for multiple purposes.

How a level looks. At the top you can see money, materials, workers, tax collectors, and happiness.

Now, let me explain all of the buildings and their functions. You have 3 types of things you can build, and they don't have names (just images) so I'll classify them as houses, decorations, and resource buildings. The 5 types of houses, from smallest to largest are:

• Cabin (makes the least money)
• Cottage
• Chalet
• Villa
• Mansion (makes the most money)

The 4 types of resource buildings are:

• Sawmill: You pay money to receive materials.
• Workshop: You pay materials to receive 10x more materials).
• Market: You sell materials to receive money.
• Bank: Accrues money every time you collect taxes. Money can be withdrawn.

There are 5 types of decorations. They add happiness to adjacent houses. The more expensive the decoration, the more materials you must spend to build it, and the more happiness it adds. (Incidentally, the most expensive decoration, the Statue, is a statue of the Playrix dragon. Playrix is the game's developer.) Every so often you can gain resources by other means, such as digging up buried treasure or chopping up brambles.

Every type of building. Top row: houses. Bottom row: resource buildings and castle.

Time Management: This is worth mentioning because the game is really a time challenge, if you play it as I've described earlier. You're trying to achieve goals as quickly and efficiently as possible. Still, for those of you who like the building aspect, but don't like racing against a clock, you can ignore the clock and go at your own pace. You just won't achieve the gold seal on each level, which is okay.

Highlights

Eye candy: How refreshing to play a game that bathes you in highly-polished graphics. The developers overlooked nothing in the graphics department. With the exception of the cut scenes, I was completely pleased with the game's visuals. Each level is vividly colored, with animated scenery and highly detailed objects. I sat and admired the map of Islandshire for the pure fun of it. A series of pretty little islands is situated on a large expanse of sea. The rolling waves are gloriously colored, and each island has special animations that play when you mouse-over or click on it (once you've finished the island). You can see whales jump out of the water while the best music track of the game plays. The map spans beyond the edge of the screen, and when you scroll to the side, a navigator's wheel spins. It's wonderful. This is the sort of thing that really draws me in and begs me to keep playing the game. I thank Playrix for putting this kind of effort into the visual aesthetics.

The map of Islandshire. I wish I could live there.

Music: You know I'm almost always disappointed with the soundtracks for casual games. With a few qualifiers, I'll tell you that I did like the music in this game. Let me explain. There are 4 kinds of game soundtracks:

1. Those that are so bad that you just turn the music off in the settings.
2. Those that aren't great, but get the job done, so you leave the music on.
3. Those that really help the game and sound good when playing, but don't hold up when listened to outside of the game.
4. Those that are so good that you'd gladly listen to the music on your iPod.

Royal Envoy has a #3 kind of soundtrack. I really liked it in the game, but isolated on its own, it doesn't hold up. Also worth mentioning is that the music style surprised me. The game has a medieval sort of theme, with castles, men in livery, and wooden ships. And yet the soundtrack sounds like it would be more at home in a Build-a-lot game. I was expecting something more like the Be a King 2 soundtrack. But nope! You can expect a happy, modern style. And yet it works. After I got used to it, I happily hummed along while playing. Game length: One thing that really makes any game disappointing is too short of a length. I'm glad to say that Royal Envoy has the perfect length. You'll feel like you got your money's worth by the time you're done. The game has 60-something levels, all satisfying. If you complete the trophy room, you unlock Expert mode and have a chance to replay all the levels with even more challenging time limits. Humor: The game is cartoony, cute, and funny in its delivery. In between levels and when you complete islands, you'll view dialogue between characters. I laughed out loud when one character said: "What a skinflint! The owner of the balloon refuses to let us have it for free." That quote left me snickering for days.

An example of character art in a cut scene.

Issues

Cut scenes: Each time you finish an island, you view another plot-advancing animated cut scene. Personally, I thought the art style in these scenes was unattractive. All of the character art (with the exception of the girl) seemed strange to me. The animation was kind of awkward, too. Although, I will say that the voice work was good. They obviously hired experienced voice actors. Other than that, I can't think of any other gripes.

Suitable for the family?

Everything in here is cute, so you don't need to worry about any offensive or disturbing content. I was surprised to find that my kids actually liked watching a building game such as this. What they really liked were the little workers and tax collectors running around, and the beer-gut pirates. My little people gladly stood watching. They even helped me keep track of things I needed to keep an eye on!

The family man's final ruling

This was one of the best games I've played in a while. So much effort went into making it a polished product. The game is worth more than you're likely to pay for it, I think. The levels are all unique, always offering a strategic challenge. The graphics and music support the gameplay with a high-quality delivery. The game kept me interested right up until the end. Virtually every time you mouse over something in the game - buildings, people, trophies, islands - you'll get some interesting animated response. When you get to a level with a cave, try moving your mouse in front of the cave and see what happens! This is as good as casual games get. It's right up there with games like Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife and Ancient Quest of Saqqarah in terms of production quality. If you like building games at all, don't pass this up. The emphasis on strategy and resource/worker management gives it a completely different feel from other games in the genre. I would gladly play a sequel! By the way, I'm going to be writing up a strategy guide for some of the most difficult levels in the game, detailing a method for achieving a gold seal on each level. So keep an eye out for that. You may find it to be helpful if you get stuck on tricky level!

The best way to fill out the trophy room is by achieving gold seals on levels!

You'll like the game if... You like building games You like time management games You like strategy games You like colorful, cartoony games You won't like the game if... You don't like having to do a bit of strategizing You don't like economic/building games

My rating:

Review - Simplz Zoo!

Early this year, Reflexive Entertainment released a match-3-based zoo-building game called Simplz Zoo. As you may know, I don't usually enjoy match 3. Intrigued by the glowing feedback others have given for Simplz Zoo, I took a risk and purchased the game, then played it all the way through. It's review time!

What I liked Significant and practical match 3 Zoo development Optional time limit for match 3 Upgrades and bonuses What I didn't like Art style Music "Indoor" animal exhibits No ending?

Quick Plot

Develop your zoo and rise up to become the #1 zoo in the world!!!

Mechanics

Match 3: This game uses your generic swap-style match 3. But one really nice feature is that they allow diagonal swaps. (Thank you, Reflexive). Your goal is to swap 2 pieces on the square grid and make straight matched strings of 3 in a row or more. The biggest match you can make is 9 pieces - and you'll actually earn a trophy for accomplishing this in the game. Each match you make earns you resources. A level ends once you've

• collected all of the required resources, and
• directed animals along a path to an exit square, and/or
• moved some pieces all the way to the bottom of the puzzle border.

Resources include things like materials, food, money, personnel, and research. Each time you make a food match, you earn food, and so on. As you go on, levels get more difficult by adding locks on some squares, which are broken by including them in matches. Also, certain squares will have pathway pieces behind them (these are used for building paths in your zoo). Clearing these squares is required to finish a level. Early in the game, you just need to make one match on such a square to clear it. Later, you might have to clear 2 or 3 pathway pieces from a square. Whenever you make a match of 4 squares, a bonus will be added to 1 square on the board. That might be something like extra money or zoo points. When you break that bonus square, you get the bonus. So matches of 4 are good. Matches of 5 don't give bonuses, but I think they get you more resources or something.

The zoo development interface. Clicking the big PLAY arrow starts the next match 3 level.

Zoo-building: After a level, if you have enough resources, you can build or upgrade buildings and exhibits in your zoo. The zoo-building feature serves the following 4 purposes:

• it can be fun to look at, and it's somewhat educational (learn scientific animal names),
• it allows you to be creative with your own personal zoo design,
• buildings give you upgrades and bonuses for the match 3 levels, and
• adding animals to your zoo is what takes you up the ranks to become the #1 zoo in the world.

To build buildings, bring in new animals, or maintain your zoo, you need resources, which I explained earlier. Each time you upgrade a building, or add something new to your zoo, you'll get some extra feature in your match 3 levels. This includes things like

• better versions of a resource (Example: Each materials match will bring you 9 materials instead of 3.)
• tools (Example: If you click the monkey tool, it will randomly rearrange pieces on the board.)
• 3-in-a-row bonuses (Example: If you get 3 research matches in a row, a number of locks will break.)
• special effect pieces (Example: If you move the water piece, the bottom two rows of the board are cleared. The water piece appears randomly once you've purchased a hippo.)

You're given objectives before each match 3 level.

Highlights

Meaningful and practical match 3: What bothers me about most match 3 games is that all of that work swapping squares, or dragging the mouse across a chain of hexes, serves little purpose. It's just a tedious exercise in finding possible matches. Simplz Zoo gives significance to the match 3 levels. As you make your matches, you have goals in mind. You know that making 3 matches in a row, of the same resource, will offer a beneficial effect on the board. You know that you have powerful board-changing tools charging up to be used at the right time. You have meters at the top of the screen showing you how many more of each resource you need. Sometimes, you need to clear a path for an animal. Sometimes you need to get pieces to the bottom of the match-3 frame. All of this makes the match-3 experience practical. You are maintaining and expanding your zoo by playing the levels in a particular way. As the game progresses, more and more features are added to the match-3 levels. This provides variety and makes the levels more interesting.

Zoo development: I liked that this game had something secondary to work at, and not just an unbroken string of match-3 levels. The developers were clever in giving you goals to work for. The ultimate goal is to become the #1 zoo in the world. The problem is, you start off way at the bottom, working to make it into the top 1000. If you want to become the #1 zoo, you've got your work cut out for you. And if you want to develop your zoo, you need exhibits and other important zoo facilities. To build those, you need to gain resources. To gain resources, you need to play match 3. So that's how they make the game interesting. The zoo development is the driving force that gives significance to everything you do. Optional time limit: If you prefer the challenge, you can decide before each level if you'd like to have a time limit. If you don't finish the level's objectives before the timer runs out, you lose and have to try again. If you finish the level with time left, you get bonus points of some sort. I kept the time limit on for a few levels, but then it quickly became too difficult to beat the levels. I preferred taking my time and working to gain lots of resources, rather than racing the clock. So I turned off the time limit for most of the game. I'm so glad they made this optional.

Upgrades and bonuses: Bonuses are to games what sauce is to food. The right sauce can bring any meal to life. Similarly, a game may have swell mechanics, but if you can get helpful boosts in the form of upgrades, it enhances the gaming experience to make it all the sweeter. This game is loaded with such add-ons. As I've explained already, these bonuses exist in both the zoo-building and match-3 portions of the game. They serve as both goals and helpers. They make the game dynamic, and that keeps us playing.

Issues

Production values: This is a game that manages to get away with low-detail graphics and merely adequate music because the gameplay is good. I don't mean the graphics are grainy or poorly crafted. I just don't like the art style. It's too "simplz" for me. The cartoony style lacks depth. It gets the job done in a cute sort of way, but doesn't dazzle on any level. The best graphics in the game are those in the match 3 levels. The pieces look cool, and when you make matches, little purple lights shoot all over the place. The music is just.........mediocre, like most games on the market. The composer obviously understands some things about music, but like the graphics, the soundtrack is too simple. I think this is the first game where I actually turned the music completely off for most of the game. But, hey, it's a matter of taste. You may like it, but don't say I didn't warn you.

That's a musk ox. And he's chewing bubble gum.

Indoor exhibits: Part of the fun, when buying a new animal for your zoo, is seeing the animal walking around. You want to watch the beast you purchased - it seems a fair reward for the work you did to earn it. But for some reason, the developers didn't want to go the extra mile and actually animate every animal in the game. So they created a huge list of exhibits that house 4 animals each. These exhibits show up in your zoo, but the animals don't. You can see images of the animals on the screen where you buy them, but you don't get to watch them moving around their environment. This was disappointing for me, but even more so for my kids, who wanted to observe each animal in action. They were asking me to "go in" to the Carnivore Cubbyhole exhibit, and I had to inform them that I couldn't. Was it really that complicated for the developers to make all animals observable? No ending?: If you've read my reviews before, you know that I like good endings. I feel like developers owe it to the player - a final payoff for completing the game, a 5- to 20-minute closer for the story. I don't think this game has an ending, but I'm not certain. I achieved the #1 zoo rank after 85 levels of match 3, and then played a few more for no particular reason. That completed my bulletin board (which serves as a sort of trophy room). I had nothing else to work for, but I could continue playing levels and decorating my zoo with flowers and benches and such, should I care to. So, if I played 100 levels, would I get an ending then? I may never know. If you discover an ending, please comment on this post and let me know.

You get to see your zoo ranking after each level, as your resources are tallied.

Suitable for the family?

If you're looking for a game that kids will like, this game fits the bill.

• Animals galore - check!
• Cute - check!
• Educational - check!

There is really no story here, but plenty of light-hearted, zoo-themed, family-friendly gameplay.

The family man's final ruling

I'm not a fan of match 3. And yet I liked this game. I had fun each time I sat down to play, and the kids gladly stood by. They were pleased with each new animal I freed on the match 3 board, and each new animal I added to my zoo. The audio and visuals were nothing special, but the gameplay was clean, and professionally delivered. Multiple goals kept the game interesting. This is probably the most fun I've had with swap-style match 3.

You'll like the game if... You like cute games You love animals and zoos You like swap-style match 3 You won't like the game if... You're opposed to all match-3 games You avoid cute, happy games

My rating:

Review - Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife!

A while back, I reviewed the Egyptian-themed marble popper game, Luxor 3. The game had many outstanding features, and it remains one of my favorite games to this day. When approaching the next game in the series, I wasn't sure what to expect. It could be better, the same, or worse. But which? That's what I'll tell you today in my review of Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife!

What I liked Amazingly polished production Soundtrack Graphics/Scenery Upgrades Theme/Setting Good momentum What I didn't like No clues for obtaining treasures Uninteresting story Different balls are only for looks

Quick Plot

An Egyptian lady is worried about something having to do with canopic jars and she's trying to figure out who is behind her troubles. She's worried about the afterlife, I think. (I skipped the story segments after the first couple because they just didn't interest me.)

Mechanics

Marble popping: As with all other Luxor games, this 5th entry is a sphere-shooting game. Your shooter slides back and forth across the bottom of the screen. It always has marbles of two colors to choose from. You right-click to switch between these two marbles. A chain of marbles comes rolling onto the screen. Your job is to launch marbles into these chains to create groups of 3 or more of the same color. When you fire, say, a green marble into a group of 2 or more green marbles, that whole group breaks and the chain automatically fills in the gap. If a chain enters the temple (exit) at the end of the marble path, you lose the level. So you need to destroy each chain completely before it enters the exit. When you make 3 breaks in succession, "drops" fall down. These are power-ups and treasures. The power-ups and treasures in this game are exactly the same as those in Luxor 3. (I wrote about them in detail in my Luxor 3 review, so look there if you would like to know more.) Power-ups give you a special one-time ability like a fireball that destroys all marbles in one area, or a color sorter that puts all marbles of the same color together. Treasures give you points. A certain number of points are required to unlock several items in the store. One type of treasure - ankh coins - are what you use to pay for items in the store.

Bridges level. The marbles look smaller as they get deeper into the chasm. Awesome!

Really, this game does almost everything exactly as it was done in Luxor 3. The only slight differences I noticed were:

• New levels
• New map travel feature
• New music
• Slightly different ball physics
• Different ball sounds

There are two ways to look at the similarities to Luxor 3. You can either gripe that there is nothing new or innovative in this game, or you can rejoice that there is more of the same goodness. Personally, I sit solidly in the second camp. I think that Luxor 3 nailed marble popping to something like perfection. And so, I can think of very few areas that could be improved. Let me list the few areas that I think could use improvement. These are very minor and nitpicky, but I think they could be beneficial.

• Marble types: You can unlock and purchase 3 additional styles of marbles in the store. But these offer a different look and nothing more, and I don't think any of them look as cool as the standard set. I wonder if the developers could think of a way to make these alternate balls somehow more powerful? Maybe when they hit, they shoot lightning out and destroy other balls? I don't know. But unlocking a new "look" doesn't do much for me.
• Shooter types: The same thing applies here. The unlockable shooters offer nothing but a look. Although the sci-fi shooter is so sweet-looking that it is a satisfying purchase.
• Treasure room: The treasure room is the same thing as a trophy room in any other casual game. In Luxor 3, you could mouse over the empty treasure slots in the treasure room and at least see the name of the treasure. This gave some clue as to how to earn them. For some reason, in Quest for the Afterlife, they give you no hints at all. So your only option is to play more, I suppose, and hope that your skills earn you those elusive treasures.
• Puzzle mode: Luxor 3 had a longer puzzle mode, as I remember it. For this newer game, they seem to have cut down the number of puzzles, and they are easier to figure out this time around. I would have liked more puzzles. Puzzle mode is a great feature where they set up a few stationary chains of marbles and you have to figure out how to destroy all of the chains with a limited, pre-ordered set of marbles. Some of them require you to actually time your shots just right, which is fun and challenging.

The treasure (trophy) room.

Highlights

Production quality: Expect the best here, folks. Games are rarely this fine in quality. While most recent casual games are like McDonald's or Jack in the Box in quality, Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife is like fine dining. The graphics are all very shiny and professional. The soundtrack, by Somatone, is very nice, as usual. The controls are easy, the physics are slick, and every element of the game is delivered with care. This is the sort of game I look for, and enjoy sharing with you.

Unlimited lives: One of the things I don't like about the Luxor games prior to Luxor 3 is that you have a limited number of lives, and you lose one each time you fail a level. To my delight, they removed this unnecessarily stressful feature for Luxor 3 and Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife. Features: There is lot to this game. You travel to many cities, with the difficulty always growing. But even on Hard difficulty, the game isn't too challenging for practiced marble shooters. As you travel around, you find pieces of artifacts. These artifacts, once completed, offer you some in-game benefit. The game also has, as I mentioned before, a puzzle mode that you can unlock, as well as an Insane difficulty. There is a treasure room, where you earn rewards for feats of marble-popping skill. There are many power-up upgrades to purchase in the store, as in Luxor 3. There are some great levels in this game, and as you progress, more new scenes show up. Some levels are more challenging than others, while other are more beautiful, or have interesting marble paths.

There are a few level modes as well, including:

• Classic: Standard level where you have to completely destroy a set number of marble chains.
• Statues: Marble chains go back and forth, slowly heading for the exit at the bottom of the screen. Statues pop up to impede the marble chains, shortening their path. You can destroy the statues.
• Swarm: A whole bunch of short chains race in and try to overwhelm you. You have to be quick.
• Crossing the Nile: The one chain you need to destroy travels around in a circle on the other side of a river. But there are several long chains of marbles floating back and forth on the river, blocking your line of sight to the other side. You have to break gaps in the river chains to reach your target on the other side.
• Battle: This is a new mode. When you track down a thief in the story, you have to fight him. Another marble shooter shows up on the top of the screen and you both try to quickly complete as many breaks as you can. Whoever is most successful, wins.

The map. Each blue dot is a level. Completed artifacts appear at the bottom.

Momentum: The game keeps you playing. I found it really hard to get up from the computer. The game beckons me to play "just one more" - you know the feeling. There is something so inherently fun about the mechanics of this game. And the more fun, the better the game.

Suitable for the family?

My kids watched me play some of the time. My son especially liked when I made a big deal out of catching good power-up drops. I can't think of anything that would frighten or disturb children. I didn't watch all of the story scenes, admittedly, so I can't comment thoroughly on the content. But I do know that the story involves Egyptian deities and theories of the afterlife, if that bothers you.

Luxor history

Here is the entire list of Luxor marble games, just so you can see the history leading up to Quest for the Afterlife.

1. Luxor
2. Luxor Amun Rising
3. Luxor 2
4. Luxor 3 (This is where the series turned awesome.)
5. Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife

And now they have a Bundle Pack, which includes both Luxor and Luxor Amun Rising. If you want to play these early games, save money by buying the package. If you like HOGs (difficult ones!), you might like to try Luxor Adventures, and if you're a mahjong fan, why not check out Luxor Mahjong?

The family man's final ruling

I'm amazed with this game, as I was with Luxor 3. It makes shooting marbles feel like something significant and important, as if you're part of something big. I don't know how those geniuses at Mumbo Jumbo do it. It's like magic. The game is dripping with ancient Egyptian theme (romanticized as it may be). The music is as good as it gets, and very fitting. The sounds and sights are excellent. Everything is polished and shiny to a high degree. Let me also mention that you'll get plenty of game hours out of this. I think the game clock was at something like 8 hours when I finished playing through story and puzzle modes. Most newer casual games can't boast that kind of play time. And each hour was fun. If you like marble popping at all, you won't find a better product, friends.

You'll like the game if... You like a fantastical Ancient Egypt theme You like quick action-packed gameplay You like bashing marbles and catching drops You are hungry for a high quality production You won't like the game if... You don't like shooting marbles

My rating: