September 7th, 2009

Uncover Puzzle Games

On August 08, 2009, MumboJumbo released Luxor for the iPhone OS 3.0 (version 1.0). It’s even on sale with 66% off the listing price. The iPhone version of Luxor is a high quality production with beautiful graphics. It could be considered the best marble shooter game. Worldwide over 75 million people have experienced the thrill of Luxor.

What is it about? Basically you have to save the Ancient Egypt (go figure). The goddess Isis recruits you to battle the god Set in his plan to annihilate mystical lands of Ancient Egypt. You have to destroy chains of rolling colored spheres unleashed by Set. You will control a winged shooter across the screen using your fingers. Color match three spheres to clear chains before the pyramids. Swipe (or shake) to swap sphere colors before firing a shot (this comes in handy when playing the harder levels). Your powers (deploy fire balls, lightning bolts and others) are enough to keep you entertained, while other features like collect stop, slow, reverse and speed shot power-ups will demand your attention. This is an interesting type of uncover puzzle games, in which the game elements are discovered gradually.

A cool feature is that you can challenge friends via Facebook and Twitter, doing so you earn points on Plus+, the free social play network. Luxor has great graphics and smooth gameplay. Stoneloops graphics are so choppy compared to Luxor graphics. Controls are much better. Some of the levels are recycled (stage 5 is in the same place as stage 1).

The next version of Luxor will bring difficulty modes that will allow you to earn twice the points you are making in the 1.0 version. Leader-boards to update your scores on Plus + at the end of each level.

If you enjoy Zuma or Stoneloops then this game may seem too easy. You can play up to 30 to 40 levels and not lose a life. So Luxor is an easy, but excellent action puzzle game, while Zuma is harder. Stoneloops is also fun and challenging.

Luxor has excellent controls, 3 types, but the default works perfectly. It needs no loading, each level starts immediately. Good music, levels and mechanics.

Luxor is a great adaptation of a classic PC action puzzle game to the iPhone.