The Game:
Before starting the game it would be a good idea to check out the very helpful menu which comprises of 19 pages, each page contains only a few pieces of information, so it isn’t really a big deal. The rules, bonuses and impediments to the game play are explained thoroughly in the help menu. You’ll find a generous number of bonuses to help you along your way, but then there’s also several impediments to slow the game play down with names like thePpirate, the Spider and the Black Hand. In between the levels you’ll find bonus rounds as well as boss rounds. It’s advisable to save the bonuses you buy for the boss and bonus levels as these are harder to beat than the normal levels. I certainly found my first bonus level much harder than the preceding levels and quickly used the rope bonus that allowed some progress to be made through the path that was marked out. Trophies (that can be seen by following the link in the main menu) are earned by completing bonus and boss levels. There appears to be 17 trophies in all.
There are two modes of play; an Arcade and a Puzzle mode. Each mode has its own map that looks the same, but the path taken is different. In the arcade mode you’ll find 30 levels, and then there appears to be 8 bonus levels as well as boss levels. (though looking in the game folders data folder I found only 6) I’m not sure how many boss levels there are, but if they are indicated by the large golden markers on the map then there are 3 of them at level 10, 20 and the last level, number 30. The boss levels are counted in with the 30 levels you have to play. The puzzle mode has the same number of levels as the arcade mode but slightly fewer bonus rounds at six instead of eight. You can see both maps by following the link to the images. That makes a total of 74 levels to play.
The basic game play is explained in the help menu. The difference between the arcade and puzzle modes is that in the arcade mode you have to clear the game field of the gold and silver cells whereas in the puzzle mode you have to destroy a certain number of elements, which is indicated at the top of the field. There are two difficulty settings which changes the speed at which the conveyor travels that supplies the tokens needed to create matches of three or more. The speed of the conveyor also increase’s when the indicator shown to the right of the playing field in the form of a crooked thermometer reaches zero. The basic rules do change at bonus and boss levels, at which stages you have to get your character through a specified path by destroying the cells along that path as indicated above. You earn two types of points during the game. There’s your scoring point which is cumulative as you progress through the levels and then there’s power points that can be spent in the shop for special bonuses that help you to beat a particular level. These bonuses can be saved, (I’m assuming) though those earned while in game have to be used before the end of the level as they are not cumulative. When you earn a bonus in game it will be shown below the thermometer. It looks like you can only earn one bonus per level as the bonus appears to be pre-determined as there is an outline of the bonus. The shop appears at the end of a level whenever you’ve earned enough power points to purchase a bonus. Unfortunately I didn’t get as far as this before the time limit I’d set for writing the review had passed. I think it said in the help section that it’s after the first bonus level? which is where I closed the game down.
On returning to the game I returned to the next level not the bonus level, so I would suggest you play out any bonus levels to the end, otherwise you’ll lose the opportunity. This also happens when you bail out of a norrmal level; for example I exited level 4 to check something for th review, then restartedthe game and went straight to level five. This may be auseful way of jumping levels that you are finding difficult or fed up with, but would end the game unnecessarily quickly. See the image link below to find out more about each bonus and what there is available. Though bonuses can also be awarded during each board by attaining certain numbers of combinations. The power of all the bonuses can be improved by buying power ups in the shop, much like you can in most games of this type that give bonuses such as The Treasures of Montezuma, Sky Bubbles Deluxe and the Luxor series, and it is in my opinion what makes these games so much more playable that their counterparts that have no such bonuses.
The game is fully mouse controlled, both for the menu system, the map scrolling and in game. The options menu contains the usual music and sound effects sliders as well as a toggle for changing the game tokens from ancient looking coins or symbols to more everyday objects with a pirates theme to them. There’s a toggle for turning off the tips which initially pop up fairly frequently. These can also be turned off while in game whenever a tip pops up. When a tip does appear the game freezes and won’t continue until you’ve clicked on the tip window, at which point you’ll see the thermometer to the right side of the playing field going down. This reduces whenever you are idle in game. So you need to be fairly quick on your toes. Finding a token to match three or more will boost the thermometer level; the greater the matches the more the boost. When the thermometer reads zero, the conveyor belt at the bottom of the playing field will speed up significantly. When there is no more room for tokens the game ends. You are able to destroy tokens by adding them to the fire, which is located to the bottom left of the playing area, though you can only burn one token at a time. Each token takes a specific amount of time to burn.
At the end of a level you are given your level statistics that include number of combos, your best combo, level time, points for that level and your accumulated score. Then you get a little bit of a story line with Kits diary. (or I presume with Ellis’s diary when playing the puzzle mode) You can skip this part by clicking on the skip button. I personally found it enhanced the game play a little. The only gripe I would have is that the story appears as though it’s being typed in, which for me was slower than my reading. I think it would be much better if the whole of the text appeared at once. The same thing happens with the introductions to the two types of game play (modes), however this is really very insignificant when you see the rest of the game.
Other points of note:
To finish a game you can either use the menu button above the thermometer or use the Esc key. Clicking on Exit will take you to the exit screen - which you can also use as a wallpaper (see the data file within the game folder) - and then exit to, or clicking on abort will take you back to the mode selection screen, where you can choose to start again or select a different mode. You can’t replay a level that’s already been played unless you create another profile. Also you can't change the difficulty level once you've started a game unless you want to start again.
Images:
All on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/KIt%20and%20Ellis/?start=all
As a Slideshow: There are 68 images, so it’s going to take several minutes for them to make one cycle.
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/KIt%20and%20Ellis/?albumview=slideshow
Conclusion:
From the short time I’ve played this game I must say I’m impressed. Okay, it’s another match three or more game, but, as with a few others such as Treasure of Montezuma, Sky Bubble Deluxe, Luxor 1, 2 and 3, Atlantis Sky Patrol , Atlantis Quest and the Rise of Atlantis (four of which have been given away previously), there’s something about it that raises it above the average game. The overall presentation of this game, the maps, the story line, the bonuses and the actual game play for both the arcade and puzzle games as well as the music score is excellent and is one of those games I would buy if it wasn’t being given away today. ‘If’ I do lose it to a format, then I will probably buy it as it’s really cool, and for that it’s got to be worth 8 out of 10 in my opinion.
Notes:
I’ll be posting another Freeware list of games sometime today or tomorrow, this time I’m focusing on Space shoot ‘em ups. I’ve also added a few more games to the Arkanoid thread I created last week:
