Age of Japan, the title alone presents an enigma about what this Mac game will be, is a straightforward match 3 play. Where’s the long drawn out tale about the samurais and geishas? As a match player, I am happy to play right away without going into detailed reading about who knows what. There are many match games with very clever story lines, and I do appreciate them, however there are many times when all you want do is get to the action. Age of Japan does just that with beautiful background pictures of seasonal scenes.
There are 2 modes of play: Arcade and Puzzle. Arcade is your usual match 3 same pieces to explode and clean all filled cells before the progress bar decreases. If the cell is gold, make a match over them, and it will turn to silver. Another match over the silver squares will clear them.
The Puzzle mode is a strategy game, and you have limited number of moves in this play. The progress bar will show you how many moves are left before the end of the level.
Most of the bonuses and upgrades are similar to all the other match games. One interesting one is the Earthquake where it starts to shake the game board, and will remove some of the pieces on the entire screen. Random changes the type of item, Time will add time, Move will add moves to the play. Also combos will increase the use of the broom located at the lower right of the screen. By clicking on the broom and dragging it to a cell will remove the item and another pieces from above will fall in its place. This comes in handy when there are no more matches to be made. I kept forgetting about this bonus, but it comes in useful in higher levels when you are stumped for a move.
I found this game easy to play, and the swapping of items did not stick as in some games. This one problem can ruin your play more than anything else. I also like the fact it is just a match game like Chuzzle or Bejeweled 2. Its sound effects are good and the graphics stunning. I like the relaxing play, and there are 3 difficulty levels to use if you like more of a challenge, and the many bonuses.
Features of Age of Japan:
-Japanese Theme
-12 Bonuses
-Arcade or Puzzle Mode
Rating: 
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