A graphically beautiful Mac game The Great Tree is different from the usual arcade play. If you can say a game is elegant, this is the one, even the creepy bugs have an air about them.

This is a story about the Great Tree that is the source of strength and magic for a group of fairies. The tree must be supplied pollen from the Smees, who collect the yellow substance inadvertently on their legs, nesting in the Great Tree. For some dark reason the colony of Smees have been decreasing and the tree has not been supplied with sufficient pollen causing havoc in the fairy world. This scare caused the fairies to split into 2 clans. The Wren who grew sapling from the tree and survived, and the Ixies who went looking for magic and found dark forces that turned them into horrific, tormented creatures full of hate towards the Wren. The only person who can help the Wren survive is one of their 1000 year old child – you. Your job is to collect pollen floating through the air and take it back to the transient star in the middle of the screen, which in turn, will take it to the Great Tree.

The play is simple. You fly around collecting a string of pollen and get it back to the shining orb without encountering any of the flying insects. If you should run into the insects all your pollen will be scattered, and you will have to start all over again collecting the specks. The longer the string of pollen the more points you will garner, and eventually you will be able to purchase powers like health, strength, agility and magic. In addition to all that there are power-ups like the deep freeze where it will freeze all the flying insects giving you time to collect, and the extra that will attract all the pollen to you. In addition to the insects, frogs, Venus flytrap, and other obstacles you need to free the Smees from their bubble prison.

This game is quite fun to play, easy to pick up and entertaining for everyone. It wasn’t frantic but you must work at collecting all the pollen, avoid the flying bugs and free the Smees. The best part of The Great Tree is the extraordinarily gorgeous artwork.

Features of The Great Tree:
-Save the Wrens from the Ixies
-10 Environments
-Insects and Creatures
-Power-Ups

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This time this Hidden Object Adventure begins with eerie music (appropriate for the story) and a ghost trying to kill you. Whew! You make it through and now you are asked by a monk to save a girl in a tower. This is the start of your wanderings through an enchanted land full of ghosts, gnomes, fairies and humans. You are Reylin of Winderalth a gypsy minding her own business until this happened.

A Gypsy’s Tale: The Tower of Secrets is not your standard adventure full of hidden object games with sparkles and a list of items to search. No, this one has hidden objects to search when you click on an item and a wheel with other things pop up. You must search for, say, a cardinal, click on it and take it back to the wheel to place it. After finding all the bubble items, you get the main item in the center. It may have nothing to do with a bird but you may need this main item later on. There are other places where you can zoom in when your cursor changes into a magnifying glass to either collect hidden items or solve a puzzle. You’ll have many varied puzzles to solve from jigsaws, match, untangle the lines and slide puzzles.

There are many different (beautifully drawn) environments to explore and search from mystical forests full of fairies and gnomes to a high tech tree house. In most areas there will be crystals to collect. Some places will have 0 crystals but at the upper left side of the screen, it will let you know exactly how many are in that scene and how many you have collected. When you collect all the crystals in 1 location, you will get a piece of the map for you to use. This map is extremely helpful since it will let you jump to different places directly avoiding having to retrace your steps. Eventually you will be using these crystals as money to buy different things from the store (once you find the shop).

Even though there is only 1 mode of play, the hint and skip (for puzzles) buttons are fast charging, and you will not have to wait long to use it again. Most of the time the hint is explicit, but there are other times when it will only make obvious observations like the monk is creepy. Let’s hope he’s not the same monk you are helping.

There are many things to do in this game and most of the puzzles are easy to do. It may not be much of a challenge for some of you who are really good at this type of game, but for the rest of us, it is a fun game to conquer. For traditional HOG fans this may not meet your needs, but you are still searching for hidden items in a different format with the same types of puzzles to solve.

The only problem I faced with this game is when I was in the garden and trying to plant the seeds, nothing happened even though I could see the pile of seeds but couldn’t click on it. I restarted the game and even though I had to start the garden sequence again, it worked the second time. I found the music good but some parts didn’t seem appropriate for the scene (the tree house for one). The wheel search also seemed at times disconnected. When you figure out how to get a key down from high on the wall, you cannot collect the key immediately. The wheel opens and you have to find 3 different kinds of flowers before you can click on the key. In Treasure Seekers the wheel opens and you look for parts of the piece you need. That game made more sense to me.

Other than those minor quirks, the game is good, the story interesting and the search fun. I recommend casual gamers try this game. I give it a 3.5 out of 5 for an entertaining time.

Features of A Gypsy’s Tale: The Tower of Secrets:
-30 Different Environments
-Interesting Tale
-Puzzles and Hidden Objects

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Not many Mac games can feature their artwork as the main draw to their game, but hidden object game Wispa Forest’s beautifully hand-drawn watercolor scenes are exceptional. Villages, swamps, mountains, and even tree stumps are painted in a creative, genuine way depicting a light pastel painting full of wispas or fairies and forest denizens.

Underwood land where Lyia a young Wispa feels the sadness in the breeze and consults her grandmother to what this may mean. Always the wise sage her grandma tells her there is corruption coming and someone must take care of it. She prophesies that a friend and stranger will help Lyia who volunteered to eliminate the unscrupulous enemy.

The main play is the hidden object game. In several scenes you will clear the forest of objects to help restore the land to its former glory. The secondary play is the match 3 game to destroy the corruption on the board. The HOG has the list of items needed at the bottom right of the screen. The objects are drawn simply and sometimes it is difficult to make out what it is so you need to hover the cursor over the object and the word will appear to your left. If this doesn’t help you find the item, you can use hints. The hints will cost you mana that you earn from playing the games. The cost of the hint will depend on if you want a vague overall area or more specific and accurate location. There’s even a hint where you can receive 2 accurate locations for a lot of mana.

The match 3 games, interspersed periodically, are to fight corruption and the wicked witch. The mini games are easily won. There are 3 hearts you must rid in order to win the level. The objects you must match by swapping positions of 2 items are natural things you would find in the forest: water drops, apples, leaves. The other objects are flames and knives. There are highlighted tiles you must clear to win a heart. After 3 rounds of match playing, you complete the level. Lyia is there to help you win the matches. She has 2 spells for you to use if you need it: shuffle and destroy. I really didn’t need either one of these to destroy the tiles.

The illustrations of this game are original and wonderfully drawn with the story in mind at all times. One thing I didn’t like about the game was that the some of the listed objects were hard to decipher or tell what they were from the drawing. The subtle environmental message is cleverly done in this game. It is there but not in your face to clean your surroundings. I think this game would be great for children and casual gamers with its many hints and fun drawings.

Features of Wispa Forest:
-Great Artwork
-Lots of Hidden Objects
-Match 3 Plays

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars