Jewel Quest Heritage Review
Sebastian Grenard is at it again. He claimed the Golden Jewel Board from Rupert and Emma’s museum belonged to his family and convinced the Feds enough to confiscate it. Now Rupert must prove the true ownership of this prized treasure by going backwards through his family tree all the way to the Aztecs.
In this fourth installment of Jewel Quest, you find Rupert once again fighting Grenard, his nemesis, this time over the sacred Golden Jewel Board. If you have followed this series you know there will be a long and intriguing journey before Rupert can reclaim his rightful board. 
The game travels back in time through Rupert’s family tree discovering his relatives, speaking to various characters, and playing match games to open each branch of the family. You begin with Natalie, Rupert and Emma’s daughter and at the beginning or bottom of the tree. Here you will learn to play the game and also can return here to practice your skills. If you are new to the series, this is a great place to hone your adeptness. The games start off easily and increase in difficulty while you discover the individuals on this family tree. If you have played any of the Jewel Quest match games, they are all timed and are not easy to complete in the given span. However, practice does help increase your ability to conquer the board. Once a level is completed, you get a puzzle piece to advance the game, meet new relatives and open up more boards.
This new game has several different match 3 or more gems to destroy and turn the tiles gold modes. The classic play is to swap 2 gems to make a match of 3 or more similar items until the entire board is turned to gold. The second mode has limited number of gems to use when the gems drop from above to the lighted area, and the third play has limited number of moves to clear the board.
I liked all the Jewel Quest games and this one is no exception. The board games, as always, were entertaining and challenging since all are all 
timed. The different modes of play are a welcomed break from playing the same swap game over and over. The story line got a little boring even though it was a voice over rather than reading the text. Luckily, you can skip it so you can get to the plays quickly. Sorry, Uncle Percy. The music and artwork are their usual high quality work.
Features of Jewel Quest Heritage:
-175 Levels
-35 Locations
-Family Tree Going Back to the Aztecs
Rating: 
G2: Geeks Unleashed Review
I guess it was the title that drew me to this Mac game Geeks Unleashed. I thought I better check it out and found a challenging strategy puzzle augmented with really geeky cartoon characters.
You initially choose your main character and the story begins with your person (a geek type) who loses an auction bid on a communication device used by Commander Info in episode 64 of Star Quest series. Everyone has an acquaintance, relative, co-worker or best friend like that. If you don’t, then it’s you. Your character finds a Collectors’ Convention and knows that there will be the item she wants there.
However, before she can purchase the device she is thwarted by a geek dressed as a wizard. She must play against the geeks to reach her ultimate purchase. The main game is a strategy puzzle. She is to choose items from the highlighted row or column to fill her own Geek-o-Meter by completing sets of items. She and her opponent take turns filling their own boards. If she completes a set and on her next turn must pick the same object in the set, she must start that set over again. The items without numbers or a star is a single item. If there are numbers listed, then she gets that numbered amount on her board. If there is a star, it fills your set. Whoever finishes their sets first is the winner. Just remember the geeks have more experience playing these games than she does so it isn’t always easy to beat the geek. The red squared item is a block and should be avoided if possible. Your character must go from geek to geek to ultimately finish the game and unlock the prize.
There are 3 modes of play to this Mac game: Story, Quick Play or 2 Player Mode. The Story lets you play against a geek, and the geek constantly makes comments related to science fiction, dungeons and dragons and other favorite geek topics. This is a little annoying and it slows down the play. The Quick play eliminates the bubble talk, but stay away from choosing Precious as an opponent. She makes kissing sounds when choosing her items-more than annoying; it’s just creepy. Some of the other characters are locked and cannot be accessed until you complete more levels. The 2-player mode lets you play against another person and not a computerized geek. Of course, if your friend is a geek, you might get beat.
There are mini puzzles interspersed throughout the game. One is the memory game where you click on 2 squares to match them, and another is a pachinko type play where you drop a ball down a pegged board.
The main game is challenging but you can outsmart some of the geeks. Even though the game looks basic and easy, it is not. The mini puzzles are a welcome break from playing against the geeks, and the goofy characters are amusing and funny. If you like a difficult but fun play, this Mac game is worth trying out.
Features of Geeks Unleashed:
-Funny Storyline
-3 Modes of Play including 2 Player Mode
-Wheel of Mini Puzzle
Rating:
Chocolate Castle Review
The children’s theme, cute artwork, and the name of Mac game Chocolate Castle are very deceptive. This game appears to be a colorful, simple and fun puzzle for kids, but once you get into it, you realize that it’s a complicated strategy driven mind workout. It draws you in by its initial simplicity and keeps you engaged with its intellectual play.
The game has 4 types of animals and 4 different flavors of chocolate to be eaten by the retro looking, cute characters. To play, you click and drag the same color chocolate pieces to form a larger and connected one, then click and drag the same color animal (pig, bear, rabbit and dog) to the chocolate to be eaten. After successful completion, the animal and chocolate will disappear. Sounds easy enough, but is it?
There are many obstacles or challenges to this game. Once the same color chocolate pieces are together, they cannot be separated. However, if you do make a mistake, by clicking undo or redo or enter will allow you to do a do over. Walls cannot be moved, blue blocks can be moved but do not stick together, pink magic blocks can be moved once before they turn into walls, and white ice cubes once moved in one direction keeps sliding until it hits something. The Turkish Delight can be eaten and will explode everything in 8 surrounding blocks. The snakes do not do much, but you can drag their head around the game board. They cannot move backwards and will break in 2 by using a Turkish Delight.
There are 3 modes of play: easy, medium and hard. Each mode has 40 rooms to devour for a total of 120 puzzles. The easy mode 
will be suitable for young children, and I think they will be happy playing this game. The rest of the puzzles, medium and hard levels, are aimed towards older kids and adults. Solutions can be saved, and you can design and play your own creations.
Chocolate Castle is a blend of the old time board game Rush Hour (get the red, plastic car across the board with different size cars and trucks blocking your passage) , and Tetris (the now famous computer game with different shaped objects floating down to fill the appropriate space). The time just flies by when you are thinking up the possible answer to the dilemma of completing the puzzle in an orderly manner. This game is for anyone who loves to solve difficult puzzles or just want to have a fun and relaxed time playing some of the less challenging games and listening to appropriate arcade-like music. Take the time to enjoy Chocolate Castle and its many rooms.
Features of Chocolate Castle:
-3 modes (easy, medium and hard)
-Save solutions
-120 puzzles
-Retro graphics
-Design your own puzzles
-Turkish Delight
Rating:
Catwalk Countdown Review
Catwalk Countdown is an unusual sim/rpg type of fashion game. It’s a little like visual novels with tasks to complete like Date Warp and Love and Order, but with a fashion twist instead of dating. However like those sim games you must balance your social life with your professional career.
You are working for Simone a person you cannot seem to please. She finds fault in everything you say or do, so why stick around being verbally abused? You quit and now must find another job you are going to love, but in the meantime you go to work for your uncle’s fabric shop.
The different locations you travel around New York City will bring you to making decisions that will determine your fate in this unusual game. You must balance your 
attributes such as Inspiration, Well-being, Collection and Reputation if you want to reach the top of the fashion industry so your choices will make a difference. This must all be done while working at the fabric store, completing your fashion collection (sketch, sew and pin your designs to show), schmoozing financial backers and industry bigwigs, handling any time based tasks requested of you and keeping your health by eating, drinking, sleeping and just having fun.
Any time there is a question mark over a character, they want to speak to you and many times you must choose your responses. You also decide where you go and what 
activity you choose but just remember you can’t keep going 24 hours a day and must eat and sleep or you’ll fall on your face. In addition you must make money to pay for rent, food and other activities so you must return to your uncle's fabric store to work and get paid for your tasks.
The more I got into this game, the more I wanted to figure out what to do with my day’s activities, and eventually make it to New York’s Fashion Week to show off my fantastic collection of clothes. Figure out the right path to take for a successful life, both personally and professionally. The characters are good, the artwork nice, and the game play although different from your usual sim game is fun and addictive. Try out the demo and see if you can make it to Fashion Week in this different and interesting game.
Features of Catwalk Countdown:
-Make Choices to Determine Your Future
-Balance Your Attributes
-Make it to Fashion Week
Rating:
Matches and Matrimony: A Pride and Prejudice Tale Review
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance” (Jane Austen) appears to be the theme of the visual novel/rpg/sim game Matches and Matrimony: A Pride and Prejudice Tale where the decisions you make will consequently reveal an ending. This dating game is based on 3 of Jane Austen’s classic books: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. This conglomerating of separate novels works seamlessly into a romantic game where you are in control of the endings and plays even in this time and age.
As in any novel it is separated into chapters. At the beginning of each chapter you as the second daughter (Elizabeth) of Mr. Bennet can change her name to whatever you like. 
You and your sisters are at the age of marrying and your mother is desperate for suitable suitors. You begin your week by selecting activities to pursue each day from Monday to Friday. Each activity will then either increase your attributes such as willpower, wit, talent, kindness, propriety, sensibility and energy or decrease them. If you choose to paint one day, your talent and sensibility will increase but your energy will decrease. In order to control which gentleman you end up with, you must develop the right character. Making sure your energy is sufficient is important for special weekend activities at the end of each chapter like a ball, dinner party or parlor discussion so be sure to factor in some rest every 4 to 5 days.
Be sure you save the game as you go along because it will come in handy if you should change your mind about a decision you made prior and wish to go back. The game will save after each chapter in case you forget to do so. This game also makes it easy for you to skip through parts of the novel you already have read.
Some of the eligible bachelors in this game are Mr. Bingley (your older sister likes him), Colonel Brandon (15 years older), and Mr. Darcy (dark and aloof but in the book he’s the 
one Elizabeth marries). Each character has different attributes you need to develop for a happy ending with him. If you know the novels, it may be easier to find the ending you want. There are 6 suitors to choose from and 9 different endings. You can go back and play all 9 endings for a long game.
The scenic backgrounds are static and the characters all well done and stylistic. When a person is speaking, they will be on the screen with one expression until the next scene. Somehow the muted colors represent an era long past and seems appropriate for the game. The music is repetitive but fits the theme of the story. Overall the game is different and entertaining if you are into dating sim games like Date Warp, Always Remember Me, The Flower Shop and Love and Order. Also if you are a Jane Austen fan, you may enjoy this game since it is based partially on her novels. However the developers of this game did take some liberties and changed a few of the characters so if you are a diehard Jane Austen fan, you may be offended but the game does capture a lot of the author’s charm and wit. The free download will give you ample time to decide whether you are into this type of genre. Find happiness in this game.
Features of Matches and Matrimony: A Pride and Prejudice Tale:
-Game based on Jane Austen’s Novels
-6 Eligible Bachelors
-9 Different Endings
Rating:
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