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View posts by Krueger:
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Krueger's Review - November 2, 2007 |
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$9.99
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| Encounter your inner chi, one color match at a time, with Zenerchi! |
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Zenerchi
There's something about Zenerchi's unique circular presentation and rotating wheels of color that make it mesmerising to interact with as well as graphically spectacular. But underneath all of the game's talk about finding inner piece is a fiendishly challenging take on match-three. Typical match-three games like Bejeweled and Big Kahuna Reef involve rotating or swapping rows of symbols to create matches of three or more and clear them from the game board. In Zenerchi, the traditional square playing surface has been replaced by a circle made up of rings divided into colored blocks and matches are made by rotating the rings of the circle to create a column of three, four or five blocks of the same color. When a match is made, the blocks are funnelled down into the center of the circle, called the Zenerchi, where they fill up part of it. You can get rid of binders, enigmas and color blockers either by using them to create a match, or by destroying them with bursts, which are special blocks that are created when you make a match of five. Clicking on a burst destroys the squares around it in several patterns depending on what type of burst it is (cross-shape, entire column, or entire ring.) Another kind of burst changes the color of adjacent squares without destroying them. Grey blockers can only be destroyed with bursts. Unfortunately, you have to first run your mouse over a burst in order to see what kind of damage it'll do, which eats up valuable time. If the timed gameplay of Journey mode is stressing you out too much, you can give the equally interesting Zen mode a try. While Zenerchi bills itself as a game about relaxation, it's actually a pretty sophisticated concept that requires a lot of strategy and concentration to master. Not that this is a bad thing, but just don't get sucked in by the notion that playing the game will somehow lead to inner tranquility - it won't. What it will do is provide a healthy challenge wrapped in a visually intriguing package. |
This review has an average score of 4.8 - Based on 11 ratings
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Krueger's Review - January 10, 2007 |
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$9.99
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| A new concept breakout to blow your socks off! |
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Break Quest
Break Quest is a superfast, over-the-top brick-breaking game. Nurium Games has injected the old formula with heavy doses of adrenaline by adding dozens of crazy power-ups, cranking the speed to the max, and throwing it all in your face.
You can choose from several different ships, each with a bumper on top that deflects a bouncy ball toward intricately arranged blocks onscreen. Each ship is equipped with a gravitron, which pulls the ball down toward the bottom of the screen. This is an integral part of the strategy, as it gives you fairly precise control over the trajectory of the ball. The stages range from weird to weirder, and the properties of the blocks vary wildly between levels. As you break the blocks, power capsules fall from the sky. Some power capsules will speed up your ship or give you weapons, and others will slow down or change the shape of the ball. There are nine weapons and more than 20 power-ups in the game. If you like fast-paced twitch gameplay that never lets up, you should definitely give BreakQuest a try. |
This review has an average score of 4.6 - Based on 11 ratings
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Krueger's Review - December 11, 2007 |
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Agatha Christie: Peril at End House
Interactive adaptations of Agatha Christie's beloved murder-mysteries have ranged from good (And Then There Were None) to great (Death on the Nile). Well, fans of these casual games will be pleased to know the latest adventure - Agatha Christie: Peril at End House - is the best yet, providing many hours of seek-and-find fun on your PC.
You must help Poirot with this task by searching for clues, meeting suspects and most of all, searching for items in more than two dozen locations (spread out between four main areas: End House, Majestic Hotel, Nursing Home and Town). If you get stuck you can access a few limited hints, which reveals where an item is in the scene.
Unlike most other seek-and-find games, Peril at End House cleverly weaves in clues and other plot-related puzzles into each scene - not to mention the look and music are relevant for this story and time period, too - such as finding pieces of a newspaper which, when put together, reveals a clue or realizing it's a man's shoe that left a grease footprint in a garage. Hmm.
Players will also have specific tasks in each level, such as finding six toys and placing them in a beach basket or finding the letters to spell E-N-D H-O-U-S-E and putting them on a sign in the correct sequence. Some levels have animated objects, too, such as a mouse you need to find, who reveals itself briefly before scurrying off into the corner.
The only issue with this game is some very hard to find items, such as a shark swimming underwater (you need to click on its exposed fin) or some confusing items to find, including a "watering can," but when I clicked on what looked exactly like a watering can turned out to be the wrong item.
Minor niggles aside, fans of these kinds of games will no doubt find this to download to be of the best in the genre. Its pick-up-and-play accessibility, beautiful presentation, engaging story and great puzzles all make Agatha Christie: Peril at End House perfect for armchair sleuths. |
This review has an average score of 4.6 - Based on 21 ratings
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Krueger's Review - October 9, 2007 |
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$6.99
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| The trip of a lifetime awaits you in San Francisco! |
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Big City Adventure: San Francisco
I’ve always wanted to go to San Francisco on vacation, but it hasn’t worked out. So Big City Adventure: San Francisco is as close as I can to visit this city full of rich history and fascinating sites. This hidden object game shares all kinds of facts about the city and 20 of its spots. The game contains 60 levels, so you visit the same spot a few times and pick up a new fact each time you visit. You discover your new destination by completing a mini-game and then do the hunt for hidden objects at the destination. This one nicely ties the hidden object scene and mini-games with the game’s San Francisco theme. Be warned… it starts easy, but it will get harder! Avoid any temptation to feel cocky early on like I did. The ultimate feature in this one that should be a standard in all hidden object games: Letting you know when you click something and it turns out to be nothing. Many of the games don’t always “hear” your click and you don’t want to click again for fear you’ll lose points. Not a problem with Big City Adventure SF. The game shows an icon when you click an object that doesn’t appear on the list of things you need to find. I’m currently playing another hidden object game and too many times something I clicked earlier turn out to be one of the objects on the list.
While the interface and graphics turned out well, I didn’t like the how the characters looked. I think it was their pose or something that didn’t win me over. When you start the game, you pick one of the characters. That character’s face appears throughout the game.
It’s no surprise the advertising for the game says it’s the first of the Big City Adventure series. I assume future versions will take place in large cities around the U.S. and perhaps, the world. Wanna bet New York, L.A., London and Paris are on the list? I look forward to the future releases. |
This review has an average score of 4.5 - Based on 13 ratings
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Krueger's Review - January 2, 2007 |
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$6.99
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| Dive for the Mask of the Tiki in this stunning match-game of adventure! |
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Big Kahuna Reef
Big Kahuna Reef takes a lot of cues from Bejeweled, but the game offers a surprising amount of challenge and depth throughout its 100 levels to keep you engaged. Though the basic gameplay merely involves swapping marine-themed icons to match three in a row and clear them, the varying shapes of the playing boards as you move from level to level give the game great challenge. You'll find certain pieces that are "locked," requiring you to clear them two or more times before you can fill the rest of the board and beat the level. As you beat the levels, you'll unlock new species of fish that you can release into the background. The game even includes an aquarium mode where you can just stare at fish swimming about. The game's backgrounds resemble a coral reef, and you can choose from a few different types for your fish to swim around in. There's even a multiplayer mode where you can plug in a second mouse for competitive or cooperative play. Marrying an aquarium simulation to a puzzle game isn't the most conventional idea, but Big Kahuna Reef proves that it works. |
This review has an average score of 4.4 - Based on 41 ratings
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Showing 1-5 out of 19 reviews.
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