You’re about to make your way through Egypt with more colorful balls than you can carry. Is it worth it? Find out now! MumboJumbo is a company that has been bringing us all kinds of casual games and this time they’ve brought us an all new “Luxor,” their popular Egyptian-themed marble game. In the game you shoot colored balls at other balls of the same color. Match three and the balls disappear. Yeah, it sounds easy now. Just you wait…
Like I just said, the object of Luxor is to get all of the different colored balls with other balls of the same color. The balls are pushed by a small bug that is desperately trying to get them inside a tiny temple. If he succeeds, you lose and he steals your life savings. Even worse than losing all the money you’ve ever earned, you have to start the level over. As you play through the stages you earn power-ups that make the game more manageable.
I know you might be thinking that this game sounds similar to others that you’ve played before and you’re right. But you’re also wrong! Luxor takes all of the frustrating elements of other games and implements new and different approaches to make everything easier on you. Don’t get me wrong, the game’s still one heck of a challenge. Instead of all of the balls rolling out at once, they come out in small spurts. This gives you a chance to focus on the first batch before moving on to the next. Sometimes you can’t quite clear the batch fast enough and another gets added to the line behind it. The longer you play the game, the more this happens. If you ever get tired of the Adventure mode, Luxor has two other modes that will keep you entertained or challenged enough to forget your frusteration at the regular mode and turn an all out rage against the others.
Graphic wise, Luxor looks great. The amount of detail put into each stage is almost unbelievable. As you play you’ll notice things like the reflections of the balls on the ground, a shadow of a palm tree or sparkling stones on the ground. While the graphics are fantastic, the controls feel a little awkward. You slide your finger along the bottom of the screen to move a slider that launches the balls. To launch a ball, you tap the screen. My only problem with the controls is that they could have been done in a much easier way. Instead of sliding and tapping why not just tap where you want to shoot the ball? That isn’t enough to make the game bad it just might become a slight annoyance when you accidentally hit the screen.
I think this is a little too much for a casual game with all of the levels you have to play through and how the difficulty moves up (sometimes taking over 15 minutes to clear a level) which makes me think that maybe this game isn’t for casual gamers. It seems more suited to someone that isn’t hardcore and isn’t casual either. A lite gamer if you will. There’s enough content to keep you playing but it’s more challenging than any other casual game and at the same time, still easier than most console games.
The game is normally priced at $10 in the App Store which is maybe just $1 too expensive but who really cares, it’s just $1. I recommend this game to anyone who wants some depth to their games but still wants to jump in and out as they please.
As of right now, the game is 50% off to celebrate the release of the iPhone version. This is a deal EVERYONE should take advantage of. That’s a bargain for a game like this!
