Alawar have posted two new games that may be of interest to arcade game lovers, especially those that love match three and arkanoid games. The first one is the sequel to Treasures of Montezuma called The Curse of Montezuma. There are similarities to the original such as the sand box at the bottom of the board and a cartoon style introduction; but the actual game looks a lot different to the original. I loved Treasures of Montezuma, but so far I'm not sure about this new one. I’ll have to transfer the demo to one of my other computers so that I can carry on where I left off (hopefully) and to see if it's worth buying though at the moment I don’t think I’ll be buying it :(
Curse of Montezuma download link:
http://www.alawar.com/game/curse-of-montezuma/
As for the second game called Bonampak; it belongs to my favorite genre, the Arkanoids. It’s advertised as being ‘made’ with fans of Hyperballoid and Magic Ball in mind! I’d agree with the former, but there are no similarities to Magic ball apart the obvious (to destroy bricks)
Bonampak download link:
http://www.alawar.com/game/bonampak/
I’ve bought every arkanoid that’s been released over the last few years (to my knowledge anyway), but I doubt I’ll be buying this one. Yeah, it’s got beautiful graphics just like Hyperballoid has; in fact I’d say the graphics for this game are better than Hyperballoid, but only just. It looks like you’re looking at the game through a hand lens as the bricks look much larger than the original Hyperballoid.
The game play is similar to it’s predecessor with respect to un-inspiring power ups and slow ball speeds, (even when set on hard). Also the bat physics aren't the best. There's no option to get rid of the last few bricks and I became so bored of trying to get the last brick when playing level 1, I ended up losing all my lives. I definitely wont be buying this arkanoid; which is a first for me since getting back into arkanoids following my accident nearly three years ago. I think I’ll return instead to one of my favorite arkanoids (that I’ve played over and over). The following are my all time favorite arkanoids (from amongst a couple of hundred from my arkanoid collection):
1) Acky’s XP Breakout (The graphics are dated but the game play is underrated)
2) Ricochet Infinity (Great game but IMO overrated)
3) Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires (The best 3D arkanoid for game play (IMO), though the graphics are a ‘little’ dated)
4) Beat Ball 2 (You can get Beat ball 1.5 for free - see below for link)
5) Reaxxion
6) Breakquest (Every level set looks very different, with different brick types and a great power ups manager which allows you to pick and choose your power ups – theres loads of ball shapes and bat shapes as well)
7) Breakball 2 Gold (This has several modes that extends the game play - I’ve had this game for several years and still not completed every mode/level)
You can get the first Beatball for free; either from the link below or from the arkanoids link at the bottom of this post, though I think the version number from that link is v1.0 as opposed to v1.5. there's also a link to Beatball in the freeware library:
Beatball v 1.5: (I didn't realize it had been updated)
http://shareme.com/details/beat-ball.html
And for those who haven’t checked out the arkanoid post in the forums you’ll find loads of excellent freeware, abandonware, browser and commercial (but being given away free) arkanoid/breakout games. I recommend the freeware breakout Poing (follow the link below for a link to this game) which has an unusual slant on breakouts and together with Breakball has great ball physics (try spinning the ball and see what happens)
