Abundante!

Match, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Jul 04 2009

abundante

download Abundantebuy Abundante!

Hike into the darkest jungle of the Mac game Abundante, and find yourself deep in the midst of fun and excitement. This is a match 4 or more gems in order to complete a level game which will bring you closer to hidden secrets of this archeological hunt.

This exotic jungle adventure begins with Dr Ray Rumble’s archeological society funding a mission to find the lost temple of Nahca Rotha. Abundante2The myth is that the Nahca Rothians possessed great knowledge and treasures. You are an archeologist who is on this journey to verify the authenticity of this information, and to recover the gems and jewels.

The play is a match 4 or more gems game, and by moving a wooden mining cart at the bottom of the screen back and forth, you collect the jewels embedded in brick. Click on a brick with a gem inside, catch it in the cart and slide to another area with the same color gems, make a 4 or more match by shooting the brick back up, and catch all the freed gems in your cart. You must quickly move your cart back and forth, clicking as you go, because the bricks are constantly descending during your play. If you do not complete the level before the bricks crush the cart, you lose one of your 3 lives.

This is the basic play of the game but there are more “surprises” to come. The first few levels are easy and slow to help you adjust to the game, but it becomes faster and more challenging soon after completing the first few levels. Some of the helps and obstacles in the game are the lightening bricks when placed strategically can break all the bricks in one column or row, making shapes with the placed bricksAbundante3 will garner you more points, and the scaffolding and moss will create some problems for you if you are not careful. Another entertaining power-up is the fireball you get into your cart and shoot up to explode any bricks nearby.

There are mini games throughout the play, and you can win prizes on top of all that. Also a very important part of the story and game is unlocking pieces of a missing amulet that are scattered all over the temple. The main game will unlock a second mode and then after the second is unlocked, the 3rd one will become available.

Abundante is a exciting gem match game that will provide hours of fun play. I initially found this game challenging, but with practice got much better at it and enjoyed it even more. With all the different levels and modes, you will not get bored and will be pleasantly surprised to find a game worth playing.

Features of Abundante:
-Fun Story Line
-Lots of Challenging Levels
-Power-ups, Bonuses, Rewards
-Surprises

Rating: ★★★½☆

Tags: , , , , ,
1 Comment »

Merriam Webster Spell-Jam

Word | Posted by Meg
Jul 03 2009

spell-jam

download MerrianBuy Merrian Webster Spell Jam

Let’s face it, not too many of us aspire to be the national spelling bee champion, but it’s still fun to compete and possibly win on the Merriam Webster Spell-Jam competition. This game will take you through different sets to prepare you to become the preeminent winner.

There are 3 modes of play in this game: Practice, Game Show and Competition. Practice will give you 25 words to spell, and it will take you through the session 3 times. Hopefully you will be able to spell all the words correctly by the third time. In all three modes you are able to choose from Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. A commentator gives you the word, and you have 4 options before spelling it. You may ask to repeat the word, give you a sentence, definition, or origin or get all 4 hints. I found that repeating the word and the definition helps you the most unless you know Latin or GreekSpell Jam 2then the origin may aid you in correctly responding. The sidebar will show all your correct answers in green and the misspelled ones in red.

The Game Show mode is probably the most interesting since you can win money and have helps besides the 4 hints available in Practice mode. They are Pass to skip the word, Uniques will give you letters jumbled, 1st letters give you the first 3 letters of the word, Consonants gives you only the consonants, Vowels gives you just the vowels, and Word Choice will offer you 4 words to choose the correct spelling. You have the option to play up to 200 rounds of spelling for this mode, and you can win from $100 to $1000.

In the Competition mode you may add up to 7 players to compete against you and will bring up each player through an underground elevetor to the podium. The most difficult part of this section is that you cannot redo your typing. You must get the spelling correct the first time you type it on the board.

In between the game levels there are Speed Rounds where you spell as many words correctly in 1 minute. Here more than any other part of the game you need to have excellent typing skills in addition to outstanding spelling prowess.  I found this section to be the most exhilarating.

I found this word game very interesting. I think it can improve both your spelling and typing abilities in a fun way. The difficulty levels are appropriate, but not even close to the National Spelling Bee tournament (luckily), and the beginner’s level is too difficult for young children but should be fine for 8 year olds and up. The intermediate level includes a few commonly used foreign words, and the advanced incorporates even more esoteric vocabulary. I thought it was curious to use the same words in the different modes. For instance in the advanced Game Show level they used the word liege and it came up again in Competition.  I’m sure all you RPG players can spell this word easily.

With spell check available everywhere, there appears to be no need to have a strong spelling skill, but everyone will take pride in spelling well in this fun and educational Mac game. This game is not for everyone, but if you are into word games, this one is different enough to make it appealing and entertaining.

Features of Merriam Webster Spell-Jam:
-Fun Game play
-3 Modes: Practice, Game Show and Competition
-Multi-player game play

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Tags: , , , ,
No Comments »

Plan It Green

RPG | Posted by musicaltrack
Jul 02 2009

planitgreen
download Plan It Greenbuy Plan It Green

Plan It Green, what a clever and current name, I initially thought. Then my second thought about this game was of some boring environmental game that would no doubt put me to sleep immediately and lecture about how wasteful I am. However, I was completely wrong! Plan It Green, besides the double entendre, is a fun and inventive game that actually makes taking out the recycling fun. Moreover, the game is generally focused on making the town of Greenville more “green” but it feels more like a game of SimCity than in your eye environmental improvement exercise.  Can you see Al Gore on stage lecturing about buying energy units?

The game has two game options: Campaign mode and Free Play mode. Campaign mode is the main story and as you finish saving districts in Greenville as the new mayor, you unlock the districts to play in Free Play. In Free Play you do not have the goals to meet like in Campaign mode. The game begins in a semi-tutorial and helps you along the way as you proceed. There is a task bar for each level and when you perform all the tasks listed, you move on in the latter mode. These tasks vary from upgrading houses to make them Plan It Green 1more eco-friendly to building parks and recreation for citizens. There are different areas in which you can work as well, like the town center (where you focus on businesses) and the industrial sector (where factories and clean energy are the priorities). Some of the ecologically correct upgrades are solar panels, water reclamation system, recycling bins and eco gardens.

As I said before, this game really reminds me of a SimCity game that has gone green. What is most important is to finish all your goals in the allotted number of days. Personally, I felt like the time limit the game presented was a little too pressing, but it did help the game continue on a good pace. The fact that there were sometimes vague goals (like raise green awareness to 20%). It was a good
game with a definite agenda at forcing children to relate to a green community. Overall I would give Plan It Green four out of five stars.

Features of Plan It Green:
- Improve 8 Neighborhoods over 45 Levels
- Pick the latest eco-upgrades
- Create a Green City

Rating: ★★★★☆

Tags: , , , , ,
No Comments »

Big Kahuna Reef: Chain Reaction

Aquarium, Match, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Jul 01 2009

bkr21

Download Big KahunaBuy Big Kahuna

Big Kahuna Reef 2: Chain Reaction is the sequel to Big Kahuna Reef, but the developers went way beyond the scope of follow-ups to make an action filled and fun Mac game. Yes, it has the same music, exotic fish and the scenic reef, but it goes further than the first game by adding a lot more chain reactions, new fish, new reefs and a lot of explosive pieces making it a more dynamic play.

The game has 2 modes, Action and Relaxed. Action is timed and your time is up when the fluid in the Kahuna Tiki head runs out. You begin with 3 lives and if you do not finish a level, you lose a life. You can also use a life to extend your time. Relaxed play lasts until the board is cleared. There are 3 areas of difficulty. You begin the game at Kahuna Quest where you must match 3 or more sea items in order to complete the level. After completing a set number of levels you unlock the next section, Tiki Challenge. It has a lot more difficult levels to play. This section is not only challenging but can also get a little demanding with the Tiki jumping and making noises. The third group is the Other Adventures, and it is where you will find over 600 themed levels created by players around the world. In addition to the hundreds of levels to play, you can create your own and submit it to be used in the game.

There are many extras to this game play, some similar to the earlier version and many new surprises. It feels like the game play moved along faster due to more chain reactions, dynamite, regular and nuclear bombs. The larger the explosive, the bigger the area cleared. The explosives are best used after manipulating the play so they are in the best possible position for the most effective use. As well as the helps in this game, there are many obstacles to clear the game board: steel boxes (need 2 matches to clear), single and double chains (2 and 3 matches to clear), and the ominous Kamehameha Skeleton fish (creates more boxes when matched). The puzzle boards are different and more challenging. The irregular shapes make it more dangerous to haphazardly make matches. Strategy must be used to avoid leaving boxes in hard to play corners. Other new bonuses are the shark eating license plate level and diving penguins.

Although Big Kahuna Reef 2 had all the familiar themes of the first game, there are a lot of excitement and movement to this new version. I enjoyed BKR 2 so much more and know you will too. So if you liked the first version, you will like this second one even better. Try it out and see for yourself.

Features of Big Kahuna Reef: Chain Reaction:
-Oceanic Adventure
-40 Exotic Sea Creatures
-over 750 levels
-Quest to become the Big Kahuna
-Save games

Rating: ★★★★☆

Tags: , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Agatha Christie: Peril at End House

Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Jun 30 2009

agatha-christie

Download Agatha CristieBuy Agatha Cristie

Agatha Christie, murder mystery novel and movie fans will enjoy this clever hidden object Mac game. This game will get you involved in the detective work by rewarding you with clues when the different levels are solved. There are more puzzles within this hidden object game to help break up the searching for clues/objects.

It is set in St Loo a small village on the coast of Cornwall, England in 1927. Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective, is called to End House to investigate murder attempts on Miss Nick Buckly the owner of the estate. It is your job to find the culprit by finding items on the grounds and in the house in order to stop any deadly deeds.

From the map of the estate of End House showing the landscape and various rooms in the house, you are to go from room to room and areas outside to uncover any and all clues of solving this mystery. Click on the gold colored section to begin your investigation, and it will reveal an area full of objects and clues to find. Poirot will give you a list of items, and you have 25 minutes and only 5 hints to go over the room and discover the objects. Some of the things are not relevant to the crime, but others could be useful for solving the mystery. In this hidden objects game you not only find the item, but sometimes you must move the object around the game board.

After finding all the pieces on the list this investigation is over, and you will be rewarded a clue card. This is a statement from a suspect or colleague who may or may not help you. These cards are stored in the clue room to be read without a time limit later in the game.

Bonus rounds between levels will offer more clues to your investigation. For example, after finding scraps of newspaper in the garden, you must put the torn pieces like a jigsaw puzzle back together so you can read the pertinent article in print in order to receive another clue.

After playing through 13 investigations and uncovering clues, you will come to the end of the game and will review all the clues and testimonies and hopefully be able to reveal “whodunit”.

The hidden object part of the game is relatively easy at first but gets more difficult further into the game. The hints are helpful, but there are only 5 of them per investigation so you have to use them carefully. I wasted 2 hints looking for an item that was off the page and not visible or reachable. I had to shrink the screen in order to see the location of the object. Another thing to watch is clicking on everything to find a hard to see item, because you will be penalized 30 seconds off your time. However, the 25 minute time limit is more than enough to search for most of the things on the list.

I don’t usually play hidden object/I spy games unless there’s another draw attached to it, and this one had the right one for me, Agatha Christie. Anyone who has read her novels or who likes I spy puzzles will really enjoy spending some time working and solving the Peril at End House. Also the music is very good and appropriate to the time period.  So get to detecting and catch the criminal while having fun at the same time.

Features of Agatha Christie: Peril at End House:
-Objects to discover
-Puzzles
-13 Characters
-25 Different Rooms
-Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Novel
Rating: ★★★½☆

Tags: , , , , ,
1 Comment »