In The Valley Of Colours And Kings

After Zuma's success, a number of clones appeared - but the Luxor series is the one that actually improved on some aspects of the concept. As the series progressed, Luxor games became more and more self-reliant. With Luxor 4: Quest for the Afterlife the franchise flexes its own muscles.

A series of coloured balls (with the number of different colours increasing every few levels) gets pushed and you have to match them in sets of three or more in order to remove them - and prevent them from reaching the end zone. Instead of having the "shooter" in the centre, it is located at the bottom and it slides left and right. This makes for some quite difficult shots (especially when obstructed by the advancing row of balls) and raises the difficulty of the game.

On the other hand, the power-ups are more powerful, at the end of every round a number of coins and gems drop and "catching" them add lives to your paddle. It seems pretty straight-forward yet it can become highly...addictive!

Compared to the previous instalment of the series, Luxor 4 is graphically even more impressive, enriched as to the dropping bonuses (and...penalties) - yet it will seem somewhat easier to seasoned players of the series; nevertheless, it will fulfill the fans craving for more pharaohnic fun!

This is an example of what has come to be known as Casual Gaming: small, resource-light games that are fun for the whole family.

It would be a good idea to download the 60-min trial version from a casual games site, such as Reflexive and decide for yourself whether this is indeed your cup of tea. It wouldn't hurt to wait for the price to drop either: most casual games sell for no more than $10.

Keeps Gooing & Gooing

This is a small game only in cost: it has offered me endless hours of fun!
If I were to describe this game as simply "building bridges made out of, well, elastic goo", I would do it no justice. I could never imagine how entertaining balancing goo-tension and gravity could be!

The graphics are clear and do not have high hardware requirements. The music is well chosen and appropriate. And the gameplay you will find yourself longing for after some hours away from the game.

World of Goo is a game that can be enjoyed by the whole family - and it comes free from any draconian DRM schemes.

Addictive Bouncing Fun (Now With Its AddOn)

Peggle Nights his is the most successful cross between Patchinko and Pinball! It will have you laughing and shouting at the damn bouncing ball...

At every level there is a number of colored pegs that have to be hit in order to clear the level. They are amongst generic pegs that is OK to hit yet will hinder your access to the colored ones you have to clear - and you have only a limited number of shooting balls.

Every time you shoot a ball it gets used - unless you are lucky to fall into an oscillating bucket and gets recycled. There are also special pegs that give you special abilities for a limited time.

I am afraid I am not doing justice to the game - if it sounds complicated it is not. You pick it up in a minute and it is great fun!

This is a perfect example of what has come to be known as Casual Gaming. It would be a good idea to download the 60-min trial version from a site, such as Reflexive, and decide for yourself whether this is indeed your cup of tea.

Anybody can make a good game that will run only on a super-computer. This is an example of pure programming genius!

If you already own Peggle keep in mind that this version only extends the original with some extra levels and a new "superpower". It is not its sequel - so decide accordingly.

Three Times The Fun

These are the years of PC gaming that will be known as the Underdog Era: full of indie masterpieces and megapublishers flops. World Of Goo, iFluid,Crayon Physics, Defense Grid: The Awakening, all released by small independent companies, were rewarded by much better financial returns than overhyped behemoths of the likes of Red Alert 3, Anno 1404 and Spore. It was not unexpected; after all, just like Limited Installations, greed only pays for a limited number of turns.

Trine is an excellent physics action/arcade game. You control three interchangeable characters (a thief, a wizard and a warrior). Each has his/hers special abilities, from shooting griping hooks to levitating objects and smashing things up. At any point, you can select which one suits you best. Obstacles have to be turned, balanced, jumped over or simply smashed. Enemies have to be wiped out. And vials have to be discovered and collected before reaching the goal.

Between levels there are checkpoints but, annoyingly, no regular saving is possible (hence the star withheld). If a character dies you are only left with the other(s) to finish off the level. If it is impossible without the missing character(s)' abilities you can always revert to the last checkpoint.

The graphics are just beautiful! PhysX is required however, so nVIDIA gamers rejoice. The sounds and voices are nicely done and clearly add to the enjoyment of the game. Overall, I have been playing this gem for almost a week now and apart for the checkpoint saves I can only say good things about it.

Trine comes with STEAM (in fact it was released first on that platform) and you will need to be online to post accomplishments - but there are neither limits on the number of installations nor any RootKits of the likes of SecuROM.

A Good Old Soul Can Only Learn A Few New Tricks

The original Fate was the PG version of Diablo: cartoonish graphics, simplified quests, very limited gore and a cute child/hero running, fighting (and fishing!) in armor. The dungeons were endlessly random, the beasts well deserving their fate and the weapons and trinkets imaginative (and surprisingly expensive!). Overall, very fun to play!

Its first sequel, Fate: Undiscovered Realms, offered more of the same in a second set of dungeons. And now the second sequel improves little beyond offering yet another set.

Very few things are new in Fate: The Traitor Soul, this new standalone incarnation. True, you can now choose amongst four races (Human, Shadow Elf, Half-Orc and Cogger). The best one is still Human, a true Jack-of-all-trades: Elves are agile but have a very hard time defending themselves; Orcs are clumsy tanks, strong but with low dexterity; whereas Coggers are strong geeks but with no magical abilities.

There are new armor sets, new weapons and spells and new pets. On the other hand, I could discern no change in the graphics and sounds compared to the previous installments.

Finally, the two previous dungeons each get twenty extra levels to explore and plunder. This is a steal because for the price I remember paying for the first game you now get both the original game and its first expansion. On the other hand, you may find exploring all three dungeons and completing one run-and-fetch quest after another a bit tedious. Nevertheless, it is still good casual fun.

Zuma Fusion

ZUMA is back! And if you can believe it, Zuma's Revenge is even better than the original!

PopCap Games introduced the original Zuma in 2003 and brought to the foreground a genre that was, up to then, oriented exclusively towards kids. Zuma created a new school of games: from the excellent Luxor Series to the recent Inca Ball, the playful Beetle Bomp and (my favorite!) Atlantis: Sky Patrol, Zuma-clones came in all shapes and forms. Some introduced new ideas and some of them improved the original concept. And the new ZUMA has incorporated most of them.

If you have already enjoyed the original game, let me tell you what is new. First off, yes, the graphics and sounds are much improved. Also, your frog does not have to simply rotate all the time. As with the Luxor games, in some stages you can slide across a predefined path (not always horizontal) whereas, in others, you can hop between multiple Lily Pads.

Moreover, there are now three new special abilities: the Laser beam, the Lightening and the TriShot. With the Laser you can target specific balls (advisable to aim at the bonuses!); the Lightening will remove all balls of the same color as the one you targeted; and with the TriShot, well, it is pretty much self-explanatory: you fire off three metal canon-balls that wipe out everything in their path.

Finally, every 10 stages there are now bosses you cannot harm until their henchmen get smashed (an idea from Atlantis: Sky Patrol)  or their specific weakness is figured out - and of course you will be fighting the color-stream at the same time.

If you are not familiar with the game this is the gist of it: a series of colored balls (with the number of different colors increasing every few levels) streams in and you have to shot and match them in sets of three or more in order to remove them - and prevent them from reaching the end zone. There are now numerous different modes (Adventure, various Challenges, Iron Frog) - and all are exceptional addictive!! So take care not to have any deadlines or immovable obligations looming!

This is a perfect example of what has come to be known as Casual Gaming. It would be a good idea to download the limited-time free trial version from a casual gaming site (such as PopCap Games or Reflexive) and decide for yourself whether this is indeed your cup of tea. It comes to about 100MB so a fast connection will be needed for that.

Everybody can make a good game that will run only on a super-computer. This is an example of pure programming genius!

WARNING! Highly addictive!