Archive for the ‘Seek and Find’ Category

Find Your Own Way Home Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle, Seek and Find | Posted by Zeke
Aug 30 2010

Find Your Own Way Home 9
download Find Your Own Way Homebuy Find Your Own Way Home

Christmas is a magical time of the year and many musical artists create their own holiday albums for this festive period. However, do you remember any except maybe Bing Crosby’s White Christmas? According to the Wall Street Journal REO Speedwagon put out Not So Silent Find Your Way Home 2Night Christmas album this 2009 season, and they are featured in the new Mac hidden object game Find Your Own Way Home. Will this be the big comeback of a 1971 rock band? Apparently not with 13 top 40 single hits over the years the group has not stopped working. REO Speedwagon has been around performing since the beginning. That’s a long time to be in a rock band.

The Mac hidden object game Find Your Own Way Home, title from one of their hits, is an extensive story about a reporter, Ruby Easton, working for Entertainment Now when a band member goes missing. Your job is to track down clues and information through the hidden objects and puzzles before everything goes haywire for this band’s grand performance.

In the game there is the information panel at the bottom of the screen giving you data and tools. The timer keeps track of your remaining Find Your Own Way Home 7time to complete the level. You must find specific powers to make hints available for you to use, and the smart phone is there to change game settings. In addition to the hidden object/seek and find games, there are mini plays to master. One is the find the differences in 2 identical Find Your Own Way Home 5pictures, find the many Biffs spewed around the music site, and find things that make noise such as musical instruments, notes, records and cds.

Personally, I’ve never heard of REO Speedwagon, but I’m sure many of you have and others are fans with their albums because why else would they be around so long? The music is nice but not very edgy for a rock band. The play is okay, but I thought the storyline is Find Your Own Way Home 10dragged out too long at the beginning with Ruby and her apartment. It picks up a little when you get to the music studio. So rock out with Find Your Own Way Home Mac hidden object game and have a merry holiday season.

Features of Find Your Own Way Home:
-REO Speedwagon Band
-Many Hidden Object Modes
-Find the Missing Band Member

Rating: ★★★☆☆

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Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The Fifth Sun of Nostradamus Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle, Seek and Find | Posted by Meg
Aug 16 2010


Cassandra, a psychic, is brought together by fate with Violet who returned her mystical ring. Not only did Violet become a close friend when she found out Cassandra does mystic readings, she asked her to find her missing brother, Michael, for her in Mac hidden object game Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The fifth Son of Nostradamus. Is the title long enough?

The play is to find objects in the scene listed along the bottom of the screen. The blue words require the use of inventory items to complete the task. The objects are easily found in each scene pertaining to the story, but if you need hints, there are plenty to choose from. Each hint will cost you a percentage of the blue liquid in the flask to the right of the screen. Each hint must be unlocked before you can use them, but are very powerful when you have the opportunity to access them. The first and most powerful hint will cost you 90% of the liquid, but will pinpoint the object. The Area Spell will only take 50% and will outline the general area of your object. The Magic Wand uses 80% and will turn the crystal ball into a compass when your cursor is close to the object, the sphere will get brighter. The fourth spell is Photo. It will use 70% and will show you the shape of the object as it is in the scene. Slide Show spell will show you the outline of the object. The crystal ball will also show you the number of tasks completed and the number of task still needed. A word of warning: the hint flask will drain if you click on too many false items.

The HOG is packaged nice and orderly in files. There are tabs with items (shows the objects you need to find), inventory (items found and can be used for tasks) and objectives (goals). The journal at the lower right side will outline Cassandra’s journey in this search.

The varied HOGs are the usual search for many items in a scene. Also incorporated in the same picture will be finding a number of the same items or performing many tasks like cooking soup, making pizza and salad. Another scene is to find pairs of like, but not exactly identical, pieces. You may need to find 2 artworks or cooking instruments. There’s also finding outline objects.

In addition to the well done scenes, there are a lot of mini games and puzzles to do. Upon meeting Nostradamus, he performs a magic act for you. There are solitaire games to reveal magic numbers. The numbers will lead you to different places to search for more objects and clues. In a street scene you click on the transportation and that will take you to a mini puzzle like Traffic Jam to clear cars out of the way so the bright colored car can drive through the mess. In addition there are jigsaw and logic puzzles to do.

Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The Fifth Sun of Nostradamus, like the title, has a lot going for it. There are many levels with interesting scenes with many objects to search for, and it is full of tasks and puzzles. It is put together in somewhat of an orderly fashion and with a mystery to solve. The artwork is beautifully crafted. I don’t remember the music, but it must have been good since it did not deter you from the game. It has everything you would want a HOG to have and more. Try it out for a good, solid HOG.

Features of Cassandr’s Journey 2 – The fifth Sun of Nostradamus:
-Interesting Story Line
-Many Mini Puzzles
-Hours of Play

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Seek and Find, Sim | Posted by Meg
Aug 13 2010


Pearls are a central theme in both Mac match 3 games Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Fate and Journey, and that’s a good thing in my book. I cannot have enough pearls in my jewelry box. In the sequel Ariadne is saved and reunited with Theseus, but alas, life is not so easy for these two lovers of ancient Greek mythology.

Theseus is sent to ward off the Amazon invasion, but gets captured instead. Now Adriadne must venture out and save Theseus. She implores the gods to help her on her journey, and Aphrodite offers to assist her in return for gifts to repair her tattered temple.

In order to get Aphrodite gifts you play a match 3 or more similar objects game. You begin by matching tiles with pearls to release them, and as you travel along the path to get closer to Theseus, you get different types of match plays to earn. At the market place you match purses of gems to be first in line for the goods. The purses do not swap so you have to figure out how to get other items lined up to make the match.

There are many power-ups you get for making combos. The emerald will destroy tiles horizontally and the topaz will do the same diagonally. The onyx will eliminate tiles horizontally and vertically, the quartz will make the same type of item of one kind disappear, the celestial sphere will destroy tiles around the selected tile and the caduceus’ staff will shuffle tiles surrounding a tile. You either make matches or bring items down to the bottom of the screen to collect them. When Ariadne needs to have her fortune read, you must bring down cards. If you see coins appear on the board, you must click on them quickly to collect them. They only appear for a short time. If you see tiles with 2 items, you can match this tile with either of the items.

Aphrodite will also grant Ariadne gifts like the porter who will escort her through shortcuts on her journey for awhile. Along the journey, you will play hidden object games to collect more items. These HOGs are quite simple, but they do break up the match plays. After earning gifts for Aphrodite, you will play a sim type of game by placing these gifts in appropriate locations in and around the temple. Move the piece around the board until you see the outline of it appear and place it at that location.

The main plays are the match 3 games. You can either play the Adventure and follow the story of Ariadne or play Ariadne’s Loom where you bring the ball of yarn down the board to complete the needlepoint picture on the left. The play is similar to the Adventure except you do not follow the story or play the mini games.

Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey is very similar to the first game, but with added games like the HOGs and the sim games. Both of these games are simple and not much of a challenge so if you are looking for a difficult game, this is not the one. However, you can play it timed in order to up the ante a little, but if you want a easy, relaxing fun day, try playing this colorful match game with added side games.

Features of Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey:
-2 Modes to Play
-Hidden Objects
-Restore Aphrodite’s Temple

Rating: ★★★½☆

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Pocahontas: Princess of Powhatan Review

Action, Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle, Seek and Find | Posted by Meg
Aug 10 2010

Pocahontas

It is 1606 England and the mighty, powerful Virginia Company of London is sending Captains Smith and Newport to the New World in Pocahontas: Princess of Powhatan Mac game. In this hidden object/I spy game history is re-enacted in artwork representing all the cast and characters of this enchanting and sometimes romanticized time. Before any voyage can be undertaken supplies must be bought from the market place and loaded on the majestic English ships of yore.

The first hidden object scene is of the market place where you will need to search for many items in the picture. However, after the ship voyage, the remainder of the scenes is in the New World along the James River where the Powhatans lived and towards present day Richmond, Virginia. On route to the New World and on board the ship Captain Smith is accused of mutiny and imprisoned until they got to their destination. It’s not clear what exactly happened, but once arriving in the New World, Smith is allowed to head thePocahontas 1B colony at Jamestown, named after King James. The story is moved along in between the hidden object and mini puzzle plays with characters speaking back and forth with you clicking to see the bubble with their conversations. This part is stiff and the dialogue not too interesting, but it conveys the message efficiently.

Once you get to the New World the scenes are located along the James River, but you keep returning to the same sites over again to look for more hidden objects. This may have been because it is a demo version and the other locations are locked. The scenes are Pocahontas 1Ainteresting, especially the ones with the different species of birds represented accurately. They have red-bellied woodpeckers with colorful canaries, a white goose, a couple of raptors and 2 male Hairy woodpeckers. The noise and the movements from flying birds are a little distracting, but manageable. You will find many scenes with waving lanterns with flickering flames and flapping flags to divert your attention from your search, but that’s part of the fun of hidden object plays.

The mini puzzles I came across are the maze game where you must get Pocahontas out of a winding maze of hedges. It is a little Pocahontas 5clunky and not very challenging. I think it would have been better to show the entire maze, make it complicated and easier to manipulate her out of the puzzle. Another Pocahontas 4puzzle is to move the tiles to make the picture of an eagle. The third one is to move disks with pictures around to find the listed items. These puzzles help break up the hidden object play, but they are not very difficult. They may get more complex in higher levels.

Overall I found both the artwork and dialogue part of the story rather flat even though the tale of Pocahontas is a fascinating one. The short, simple Pocahontas 3
conversation may be good for kids to learn the history of this area and time. I found that Nancy Reagan is a distant relative of Pocahontas. I don’t think this is in the game, but it’s a curious side item. Despite some of the shortcomings of this game, I like the hidden object/I spy plays with its interesting and colorful scenes.

Features of Pocahontas: Princess of Powhatan
-Explore the New World
-Hidden Object Plays
-Mini Games
-Story of Pocahontas

Rating: ★★★☆☆

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Mushroom Age Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle, Seek and Find | Posted by Meg
Aug 09 2010


Mushrooms taking over the world? Sounds crazy, right? You’ll never know if that’s possible or not if you do not try Mac hidden object game Mushroom Age. Help Vera find her missing fiancé, Tom, before it’s too late. Their wedding is scheduled in 2 days.

You begin your journey at Tom’s office where you encounter a very strange Professor Einbock who looks uncannily like Einstein. The professor is hiding something, and Vera is bound and determined to find out what’s going on. In the excitement, the good doctor faints causing Vera to find items (need to combine) to revive him. She then finds that Tom traveled in time for reasons unknown. His cell phone is the time machine, and when you dial the date you want to travel to, you get there. Tom also conveniently placed important people on his contact list so Vera could travel through time to the appropriate location and era to help him. She finds all this out at a cemetery in the year 3008 AD where a broken down robot is the caretaker. After playing a few puzzles, you see Tom’s hologram speaking to Vera about his whereabouts.

Most of the play is Vera looking for objects to either use to get another item or using the collected things for tasks. There are the usual HOG scenes where you collect items on the list or outlined silhouettes. There are times when she must find 25 of the same type of items like astrological symbols. The scenes are larger than the screen so you either have to arrow to the right or left to see more. You may have to enter another room also. The annoying part of this is if you click on the hint button and the object is in the other room or scene, you have to wait until the hint button recharges to locate the item in the next room.

Vera travels to different time periods speaking to all her contacts. Did I mention Nostradamus gave Vera an elixir of understanding to be able to communicate in any language and to non-humans? Remember to stop the play in between the levels or you will have to play the exact same scenes with no changes again. Look for the sparkling lights to search further into the scene, move every bush and rock out of the way because there’s always more to the scene than meets the eye. Mini puzzles include undoing crossed lines, Wheel of Fortune type of hangman game and more. There’s a lot to do in Mushroom Age, not only in the future but also back in time. Jurassic period ring a bell?

Mushroom Age has a lot of expandable scenes, different time periods and contacts to discover and inspect for objects. The artwork is good and the music appropriate for each time period and not intrusive. A troubling aspect of this game is the quirky characters, they move their mouths and eyes, and only fall or pop up. The jerky movements are annoying. Another is the acting. Wouldn’t a fiancée seeing her beloved in a cemetery headstone hologram be a little hysterical? Vera is cool as a cucumber and goes searching for Tom as if nothing happened. Other than that, the story is so interesting you are compelled to keep going to find Tom and answers. And, you have to admit Dr. Einbock looks a lot like Einstein and is probably a lot funnier.

Features of Mushroom Age:
-Intriguing Tale
-Find the Fiance in Time for the Wedding
-Lots of HOGs and Mini Puzzles

Rating: ★★★½☆

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