Installation:
The downloaded zip file is 4.61Mb in size and when installed is 10.4Mb. Once the game is installed shortcuts are placed on the desktop and the start menu programs list under Treasure of Persia. You’ll also find a uninstall shortcut in the start menu programs list
This was given away way back when the game giveaway project had only been running for a month (January 2007. It received a positive 80% of 143 votes. You can read the previous comments HERE
Introduction:
Twilight rooms of a Persian palace offer picturesque settings for Treasure of Persia, a tricky multilevel puzzle. Treasure hunters who correctly join gem chips will be amply rewarded. Their names will be marked in history to awe and inspire others.
Reference accessed 30th Oct 09 HERE
This tricky, multilevel puzzler will have you hunting for treasure. In the twilight rooms of a Persian palace, you will find tricky puzzles awaiting you. Line up three or more same-colored gem chips to make them disappear as you try to clear the game board. Treasure hunters who successfully align pieces will be amply rewarded. Their names will be marked in the history of the Treasure of Persia.
• 20 levels in each mode.
• 3 gameplay modes.
• Multiple bonuses.
Reference accessed 30th Oct 09 HERE
The Game:
Treasure of Persia is a Cubis Clone, that is you line up three or more of the same colored cubes, which can be adjacent to each other or on a stack of the same colored blocks. There are three modes of play, puzzle, timed and arcade.
• Timed mode where a player must remove all the cubes from the playing field within a specified amount of time
• Puzzle mode where a player must delete all special ‘star cubes’ from the playing field
• Arcade mode where the player must earn a certain amount of points
When you line up same colored blocks of three or more they burst and disappear. Cubes come in six different colors, though the initial levels of the game only present a few of the colors. The cubes are spread across the playing field as well as stacked one upon the other. The more cubes you can destroy in one move the higher the ‘combo’ bonus. If you create more than two combos you can earn a new bonus called a Persian bomb. There are eleven bonuses to be earned, these include Time bonuses, score multipliers, multicolor bonuses, recolor bonuses, color bombs, bonus rotate (which turns stone cubes into bonus cubes). There are also other types of cubes other than colored cubes, for example Stone cubes that never change or burst, Blank cubes that cannot react and pale cubes that take on the color of whatever colored cube touches it. There are some more interesting bonus cubes, but I thought you could discover those for yourself.
Each sucessive level becomes harder to beat, for example in the arcade mode for each sucessive level you need to acquire more points to win, though as you progress more bounes become available to help you in this 'quest'.
There is a helpful help section accessible from the main menu, which can also be accessed from in game by clicking on the menu button to the top left of the playing arena. you'll find six pages of infrmation, mainly about the different bonuses you can access throughout the game. The options menu allows you to change the screen resolution to windowed mode as well as select one other type of cube. you can also change the music volume here. The music is pleasant and appropriate having a Persian flavor to it. The music appears to be incorporated into the executable as I couldn’t find any music files within the games folders, so unless you're adept at editing executable files (not recommended unless you know exactly what you're looking for) there's no way of changing the in game music apart from turning the music slider to zero and playing your own music via a media player. :lol: You can see a very brief video by following the second reference (Big Fish Games) above.
Images:
I’ve uploaded about 20 images including all the help pages. You can see them as a slideshow HERE or all on one page HERE
You can find loads of googled images of Treasure of Persia HERE
System Requirements:
• OS: Windows 2000/XP/VISTA
• CPU: 600MHz or faster Processor
• RAM: 128 MB
Reviews worth reading:
There are several reasonable reviews on the net, the one from Gamemile; a full review of Treasure of Persia can be found {url=http://gamemile.com/game_review/handy/view/Treasure_of_Persia/]HERE[/url] and user comments from Reflexive Arcade HERE should suffice to give you a better idea as to what to expect.
Conclusion:
Treasure of Persia is a good looking and pleasant game of match three on the lines of Cubis. This is a great family orientated game, The help menu explains the rules succinctly and in an erudite fashion, which makes it easy to pick them up and start playing quickly.
There are enough levels of increasing difficulty to keep you gong for some time, however once you’ve played the game through there’s little re-playability because the same sequence of patterns and colored cubes occurs whenever you play each level. (thoug someone has pointed out below, the outcome from each game can be different simply by selectingdifferent choices to destroy). It’s a pity the order of the cubes were not dictated via a random generator as this would have given unlimited game play, IMO. Considering this I’d score this no more than 7 out of 10. It would have been worth more if the blocks were randomly generated.
If you're new to the game giveaway project and would like to find more match three games check over at Gametop.com. There's over 20 commercial quality (well mostly) match three games available for free, including Around the World in 80 days and Treasures of Atlantis. Watch the installation wizzard carefully and make sure you uncheck any boxes that ask for permission to install things such as tool bars. you should be able to get a clean install. When shutting a Gametop game down you will still se a browser open at Gametops home page, but this is innocuous. :lol: