Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife

More of the same: That’s the immediate impression returning fans will get from Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife, latest in the popular Egyptian-themed action-puzzle series. In an unexpected twist, this installment mostly focuses on peripheral features, adding a cool narrated storyline, roving targets to pursue and collectible artifacts. Therefore, while still impressive in its own right, the game’s nowhere near as much of a leap forward as its immediate predecessor.

Don’t be discouraged, however. Kicking off with a bang in the form of catchy cutscenes complete with suave voice-overs and subtle, but engaging animations, the title instantly commands one’s attention.

Apparently, assassins have desecrated the tomb of Queen Nefertiti and Akhenaten, preventing their spirits from enjoying eternal repose. Charged with recovering the canopic jars these fiends have stolen, you must pursue the culprits across an attractively-rendered campaign map that spreads throughout half a dozen exotic lands including Persia, Syria and Egypt.

Happily, additional cinematic plot updates periodically punctuate the tale, adding incentive for forward progress. In addition, for the first time ever, to meet the game’s cast of characters, you’re given the option to take user-selectable branching paths through the adventure. Naturally, doing so requires that you complete multiple self-contained scenarios to progress down each road.

Actual play itself follows the same formula as in previous outings. Armed with a horizontally-movable “falcon winged shooter,” which lies at the bottom of the screen, you’ll left-click to fire orbs of varying hue at advancing chains of colored spheres. (Right-clicking lets you swap your current choice of ammo out for a differently-shaded alternative.) Place three of more similarly-adorned balls adjacently, and they disappear from play. Additional spheres then roll forward to fill created holes or objects of similar color instantly magnetically come together when they bookend such a gap.

Use careful aim, or resulting combos, to make a trio of matches, and collectible power-ups – area-clearing fireballs, time-slowing devices, crackling lightning bolds, clouds of vapor that paint multiple spheres a single shade – rain down from the sky. Finish a stage, and point-awarding jewels or ankh coins (tradable between stages at the shop for power-up-improving performance upgrades, new shooters and alternate ball sets) can also be retrieved. The ultimate goal being, of course, to prevent rolling balls from reaching the endpoint of tracks that weave under buildings, through holes and around other 3D objects that obscure your view or prevent shots from landing.

Sadly, while the action remains spry as ever, there’s little new to report in terms of additional play modes, an expanded arsenal or supporting bonuses. True: You can occasionally battle on-screen opponents to push treasure into your coffers and fresh extras do help in terms of sorting colors or letting you see where to best place shots.

And yes, as you advance, you do collect pieces of artifacts like the Eye of Horus, Cow of Hathor and Sphinx, which, when recovered, let you keep spot hidden goodies, prevent enemies from running away and unlock puzzle mode options. But really, periodic sequences where you assemble artifacts by arranging broken pieces in silhouettes or the need to track down jar-bearing baddies notwithstanding, such additions feel more like token filler than must-see game-boosting enhancements.

Along the same lines, great as featured aesthetic elements look, and slick as backing tunes (including subtle drumbeats that let you know when potential failure looms) prove, quite a few audiovisual assets are recycled throughout the tale. Playing through classic, onslaught and scarab swarm (wherein lots of small, sphere-chain-pushing scarabs flood your monitor) challenges, you’ll notice that many scenes, i.e. dockside views and starry nighttime skies appear several times.

More so than any previous entry in the series, the odyssey feels like an attempt to quickly churn out a new, half-baked sequel in time for the holidays. Given that its forerunner, Luxor 3, was released a mere 7 months back, these suspicions may not be far off the mark.

Regardless, let’s be honest: Describing this as one of the Luxor franchise’s less compelling outings is like labeling a specific volume of Encyclopedia Britannica not quite as comprehensive as its peers. In other words, even with the aforementioned knocks against it, Quest for the Afterlife can’t help but still tower over the competition. As such, collectors, completists and newcomers alike will find the game a welcome addition. More discerning players and longtime series vets should take note, however: Compared to earlier outings, this jewel of the Nile doesn’t shine quite so bright.

Review by Scott Steinberg
Gamezebo, Inc.

Ashtons: Family Resort

Help Ashton’s family open unique resorts in different places around the globe! From the Alps to Africa, there’s something different about each resort you open. Serve clients, keep them entertained with fun activities, and earn money! With your income, you can create your own landscape design, buy a variety of devices, and purchase upgrades. Make everyone proud of you and your family business in this engaging time management game!

• More then 54 levels
• A variety of upgrades and bonuses
• Fascinating mini-games

Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena

Although it’s not a “blockbuster” release like the latest hotly anticipated Mystery Case Files or Azada title, the folks at MumboJumbo have struck gold with Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena, a superb hidden object game that introduces some fresh ideas into the popular genre.

Samantha Swift is an intrepid archaeologist who travels the world collecting rare artifacts to showcase in the Museum of Secrets Lost, which she runs with her partner Dr. Butler. She gets more than she bargained for, however, while trying to track down the six roses that are missing from the Shield of Athena – which puts her in direct competition with two shady rivals who are going after the same prize.

The game features bright and attractive hand-drawn scenes with objects that pop out and are easy on the eyes. In fact, at first the game almost seems too easy because of it. But there’s much more to Samantha Swift than simply seek-and-find gameplay.

The items Samantha needs to find in each scene (such as a battery, bowl and bunch of grapes) aren’t all created equal. Some of them are special “tool” items — like a shovel or hammer – that get added to her inventory and must be used somewhere else in the scene to reveal special hidden items (separated from “regular” items by blue text instead of white in Samantha’s list).

After all of the items have been found, a final secret item will be revealed, which you must find in order to clear the room.

Samantha Swift isn’t one of those hidden object game where you revisit the same handful of scenes over and over again. The story, which winds its way through Italy, Guatemala, England, France and beyond, is constantly moving forward with new attractive new locations to explore.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the items, which do tend to repeat frequently. On the upside, they’re mostly context sensitive in keeping with the story, so you won’t be asked to find too many off-the-wall items that don’t belong in the scene (like UFOs or igloos).

Adventuring isn’t confined to one room, either. Following in the tradition of Dream Chronicles 2 and Azada: Ancient Magic, puzzles can span more than one room, requiring you to go back and forth to use items collected in one room to complete puzzles in another.

While the game is squarely focused on hidden object gameplay, you will also have to complete a handful of other puzzle types, like symbol matching, navigating a maze (YUCK!) and designing a zen rock garden.

Samantha Swift is not a timed game, so you can take as long as you like to figure things out. If you get stuck, you can use a limited number of lightning bolt hints to reveal the location of an item. There’s a step in between that too, whether you can simply click on the items’ name in your list and your trusty scanner will show you what its silhouette looks like. Another thoughtful little feature is the fact that when you use a hint you can select which item you want it to reveal, whereas most hidden object games just reveal a random item.

The game isn’t perfect: some of the inventory-based puzzles seem completely arbitrary in terms of figuring out that a certain item is supposed to be clicked in a certain location (like shining a light on a specific spot in the wall to reveal a symbol). The cursor does flash a different color to indicate that an item needs to be used in that spot, but finding these can often involve slowly dragging your mouse across the screen until it changes color — a dull practice known as “pixel-hunting.”

Still, game play is well-balanced enough that a relatively savvy adventure gamer should never run out of hints or get truly stuck. Like most casual adventure games, this one is on the short side. A determined gamer could blow through it in a single evening, but the good news is that you can replay the game with different lists of items to find.

Rounding out the great package is a rousing soundtrack and impressive trophy room where you can admire the artifacts you’ve collected displayed on the walls of Samantha’s museum.

With so many potboiler hidden object games flooding the market recently, it’s great to see a title that’s as inspired and fresh as Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena.

Review by Erin Bell
Gamezebo, Inc.

Cooking Quest

Foodville is holding its annual Restaurant Row Chef’s Challenge and you’ve earned a spot in the prestigious contest. With a limited budget and a ticking clock, Cooking Quest is all about seeing whether you have what it takes to assemble the best ingredients and hustle in the kitchen to prepare five-star dishes that will impress the judges.

In Cooking Quest you’ll be challenged to prepare meals in six different restaurants, each of which offer a different cuisine: Italian, French, Mexican, Asian fusion, seafood and a good old American steakhouse.

Each meal is four courses, starting with the appetizer followed by the entree and dessert – and of course the meal must be paired with the appropriate beverage, whether it’s wine, sake or a pina colada.

For each course you must assemble the appropriate ingredients and tools (such as a corkscrew, knife or ice cream scoop) to cook with. These items are found scattered amongst a room full of clutter, and in typical hidden object fashion you must clear the room by finding all of the items provided on your list.

Some suspension of disbelief is required here: for example, in the wine shop you might find yourself searching for, er… a lizard, two phones, a safe and some tulips. Ok, so these aren’t the exact ingredients for the creme brulee on the menu, but occasionally you do find a special item that does have something to do with the task at hand, like a cleaver, avocados, fish and rice.

Every time you find one of the special items you’ll receive an interesting factoid along with it. Did you know, for example, that blue cheese gets injected with bacteria cultures to create veins of blue mold? Yum.

Adding another layer of complexity is the fact that you’re also working with a limited budget, and after each hidden object search you have to purchase a key ingredient from your shopping list with whatever money you have. For example, when choosing a wine you can go all out and splurge on the Vintage French Bordeaux for $65, or opt for the more economical California Pinot Noir for $32. If you’re completely broke (or cheap), there’s always the House Merlot, which is free.

You start each restaurant with a budget of $100 and have to spend it wisely, because your money has to last through all four courses so if you splurge too early you might not be able to afford higher quality ingredients in the later stages. You might also run out of hints, because using one to reveal the location of an item costs $20.

Furthermore, clicking on too many wrong items will cost you both time and money. The game is pretty quick to penalize wrong clicks, and the fact that gameplay suffers from the problem of name confusion (i.e. you it won’t let you click on the kayak when it’s asking for a boat; a ship’s steering wheel is confusingly referred to as a “helm,” and so on) makes it all too easy to mistakenly click and watch your precious budget being drained before your eyes.

The good news is that you can earn extra cash through speed bonuses (clicking on more than one item in rapid succession), and time bonuses awarded at the end of the level. If you run out of time, you’ll start the level over again with a new set of objects.

After you’ve assembled all your ingredients, it’s on to the food preparation and serving phase of the game, which is presented like an Azada-style puzzle with a bit of real-time action thrown in. You’re presented with a scene of a table setting along with pots and kitchen appliances for you to do the prep work, and an inventory of the items you’ve collected across the top of the screen. You can click and drag items to use them. For example, you can open the bottle of wine by dragging the corkscrew onto it, then fill the customer’s glass by dragging the opened wine bottle to the glass. You’ll also have to do things like cook a steak on a skillet, watching the temperature gauge to make sure you take it off the heat at just the right time.

After serving the meal you’re awarded a star rating based on the quality of the ingredients you purchased, and how precisely the food was cooked.

Some of the scenes – like a stove top with bubbling pots or the inside of a humming fridge – are pretty dynamic. However, the biggest disappointment with Cooking Quest is that with only six restaurants, it’s over too soon with limited replay value consisting of playing through the scenes with different items and trying to improve your star rating. Experienced players should be able to get five stars or close their first time around and blow through the game in about three hours. Furthermore, items repeat frequently, as do the locations.

There’s no question that the game is fun while it lasts, it’s just a shame that the game ends just when it’s really starting to cook. Still, that’s the beauty of the free trial. Try Cooking Quest by all means, and if you’re having fun but have already reached the fourth or fifth restaurant by the time the trial is over, keep in mind that there’s not going to be much more to unlock.

Review by Erin Bell
Gamezebo, Inc.

House of Wonders 2: Babies Come Home

House of Wonders: Kitty Kat Wedding, where you had to help an annoying little man named Larry raise money to pay for his cat’s nuptuals, was perhaps the tackiest and most absurd hidden object game yet created. And less than two months later, there’s already a sequel.

To be fair, though, House of Wonders: Babies Come Home is a better game that retains the quirky off-beat charm of the first but offers much-improved production values.

If you downloaded House of Wonders: Kitty Kat Wedding then you’ll already be familiar with Larry, the owner of the House of Wonders theme park. He’s once again bugging you for money, but this time it’s because his wife, Lucretia, is about to deliver quintuplets and he hasn’t bought any supplies yet for the delivery or nursery!

The way you’ll earn money is by completing challenges in Larry’s House of Wonders 2, which consists of 15 rooms of hidden object challenges, and five puzzle rooms. Each hidden object room is a different theme. Some will be familiar from Kitty Kat Wedding, like the Negative Room where objects appear like film negatives, and the Upside Down room where the entire scene is… well, upside down.

There are also things like the River Room, where items float by what appears to be a water-filled Roman aqueduct; Bubble Machine, a laundry room where bubbles float around obscuring items until you swat them away with your mouse; and the Sleeping Room, which inexplicably contains the gigantic and rather ugly head of a sleeping, snoring person in the background.

Like the first game, the quirkiness of some of these rooms is funny and refreshing, while others still take things a little too far. Some of the rooms, like the Bottomless Pit where items are falling and rotating on a red brick wall background, and the Bathroom which is warped into a fish-eye lense view, are still quite hard on the eyes. Also, the method of revealing hints is just a small white hand that blinks for a few seconds so it’s possible to miss it.

To the game’s credit, though, the graphics have noticeably improved. Instead of looking like mish-mashes of random cut-outs, the objects are more cartoonish, which gives the game a more unified-looking art style. Audio, which was another sore spot in Kitty Kat Wedding, is also more tasteful.

There are 14 rounds, and at the end of each you’ll get to spend the cash you’ve earned on new items for the delivery and nursery, like an overnight bag, transportation, blankies and cribs.

The shopping portion of the game is still great fun thanks to the fact that there are a variety of humorous items to choose from. The more money you have, the better quality item you can buy. For example, if you’re feeling cheap you can buy the babies five cardboard boxes with shredded newspaper to sleep in, or if you’re feeling generous you can get them the top of the line “Contempo-Plush brushed aluminum auto-temp” cribs.

Through the course of the game you’ll get to see the nursery and delivery room fill up with the items you’ve purchased, and these rooms look a lot nicer than the Wedding Room did in the first game, thankfully.

Although, given how much Larry can grate on the nerves with his constant stream of whiny, ungrateful comments (like “Well it’s something, but you’ve still got to find more things!) it’s very tempting to intentionally buy the aluminum foil blankies, pillowcases with eyeholes sleeper set, and whatever else is the cheapest, and spend the bulk of the money on a mansion for yourself instead.

While House of Wonders: Babies Come Home is definitely a try-before-you-buy, its production values have improved greatly over its predecessor enough to charm some hidden object fans willing to tolerate the game’s other quirks. This allows more of the irreverence and creativity to shine through instead of getting bogged down in a slipshod presentation, which is what happened with Kitty Kat Wedding.

Review by Erin Bell
Gamezebo, Inc.

Believe in Santa

For those who haven’t already gobbled their fill of Diner Dash and overdosed on holiday cheer, there’s no better way to ring in this Christmas than with similarly-styled outing Believe in Santa.

One of the most unabashedly gleeful titles we’ve ever played, it’s as much a spastic arcade experience as ode to seasonal consumerism that’s all-too-easy to get hooked on. Thank the title’s brilliant cartoon visuals, snow-filled intro screen, comic book-style story interludes and a fun-filled guest appearance by old St. Nick himself.

Well, that and a steady array of 40 speedy, mouse-mashing challenges featuring 25 different presents and a dozen different consumer types to keep you constantly hopping…

The story in a nutshell: Highlight-haired heroine Sandy visits her grandmother, who owns a gift shop, every year about this time. Only things have suddenly taken a turn for the worse; the bank’s about to foreclose on the store if she can’t pay back a $10,000 loan in record time. Thankfully, Santa appears and offers up two of his elves as handy helpers, who’ll assist Sandy as she hits the factory floor and cash register, hoping to please enough patrons and earn enough scratch to get grams out of hock.

So there you find yourself – at the candy-colored, animated boutique or mall kiosk – when the action begins. In the center of the screen rests a conveyor belt, upon which toys (cars, teddy bears, planes, action figures, etc.) appear when you pull the lever. Below, to the left and right, sit cherubic elves and several jars of paint in various colors ranging from red to blue, violet and gold. At the top of the display lounges a retail counter, at which customers arrive in steadily increasing volume as the timer, depicted as a ticking clock representing official store hours, counts down.

To the left-hand side of your monitor, you’ll also spot a display case where varyingly shaped/colored gift boxes wait. On the right, there’s a wastebasket for dumping botched creations, and a rack of cards and bowl of candy canes, which can be dragged and dropped onto customers to improve their mood.

Your goal: To make as much money as possible by frantically filling orders for these shoppers, whose happiness – depicted via heart-shaped icons above their head – wanes with each passing second. Hence the action plays out as follows…

Check the speech bubble by each customer to see a picture of the specific toy they want. Grab it off the conveyor belt (or summon a new batch of goods by pressing the lever), then hand it to the appropriate elf for painting. Once made, deliver it to the buyer for a cash reward, or add extras like balloons, flags, gift boxes and bows as needed before doing so. Collect the loot and move on to the next patron.

Mind you, the further along a board game-type map you move, the harder things get. The trick here’s learning how to queue up multiple actions to most effectively respond to the hordes of shoppers who soon start hassling you while making a minimum of errors. And, of course, deciding who to please first or temporarily ignore, depending on their maximum cheer level (which varies, and affects your ultimate payout) or whether a visiting clown is present to help you entertain them.

Repetitive as scenarios get – there are only so many flustered businessmen/women, flashbulb-snapping tourists and smiling grannies you can hand model roadsters or boy scouts ponies (don’t ask) before becoming frustrated – the outing still proves enjoyable nonetheless. Battle through some minor control issues, e.g. problems canceling actions, being unable to correct production errors while they’re happening and issues with accurately dropping tiny candy canes on customers’ heads while under the gun, and you’ll not only gain access to new background settings, patrons and toys. You’ll also get to decorate shops with cabinets, curtains, pictures and potted plants, plus access bonuses like gloves and magic potions which speed up the production process.

Besides, even for us Scrooge-like reviewers, it’s hard to say “bah, humbug” in the face of an awesome presentation featuring stunning visuals and jazzy, upbeat versions of seasonal tunes like “Oh Christmas Tree,” “Deck the Halls” and our personal favorite, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Which, naturally, those who pick this one up will undoubtedly enjoy…

Review by Scott Steinberg
Gamezebo, Inc.

Farm Craft

Help Ginger lend a hand to rural farmers and take on the AgroCorp, a big agricultural conglomerate that wants to develop the land outside of town. It’s up to Ginger to keep her farm and save the county! Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty in Farm Craft, an addictive time management game that digs its way into the farming, flower, livestock, and beekeeping businesses. It’s charming farming!

* Build and design your farm to meet your needs
* New and challenging elements added with each level
* Hone your skills to earn all 12 awards

Christmasville

Santa Claus is missing and Christmas is doomed! Dooooomed! At least, that’s what the Abominable Snowman would have you believe. Unless, in the guise of private detective Arthur Knight, you can solve the mystery. So, don your snow gear, sprinkle some magic dust on your noggin and it’s off to Christmasville. With a bit of help from Yeti, Reindeer and Elf, you just may discover the truth about Santa before the holiday’s ruined.

If you’ve played any of the hidden object adventures Magic Academy, Mysteryville or Mysteryville 2, you know exactly what to expect in their holiday-festooned younger sibling. Dialogue-based cut scenes are interspersed with item hunts and various merry mini-games to tie the disparate elements together into a cohesive whole, telling a humorous (bordering on corny) tale while challenging you to solve the various mysteries that ensue. A single, timed mode of play is provided, but more than sufficient time is offered to solve the game’s puzzles and mini-games. You can also replay completed stages at any time.

As with most seek-and-find games, Christmasville is all about locating various objects buried in the midst of rooms overflowing with a menagerie of mostly out-of-place junk. While not every location is a complete muddle of accumulated paraphernalia, it’s still pretty messy by most folk’s standards. It’s from this accrued collection of hundreds of bits and pieces that you must extract the necessary goods. Click on an item to select it, but avoid random clicking. Too many haphazard mouse presses will result in a time penalty.

Hidden object puzzles are comprised on three basic varieties. The first requires that you locate objects from a grocery list by name. For example, an abacus, toy soldier, horseshoe, pineapple, paper fan, bowling ball and reindeer. Second is a variant that supplies you with just the silhouettes of objects that you must identify by shape alone. Then, there are hunts where you must find all items of a certain type such as wrapped presents, bottles or letters of the alphabet. Finally, you have searches based on locating objects that differ in two almost identical side-by-side scenes of the same location.

Christmasville also offers a variety of mini-games to punctuate the object-hunting action. Included are games of Concentration-style tile matching, jigsaw puzzles where objects are simply rotated in place as well as those requiring more traditional piece relocation, matching pairs of playing cards and word scrambles to rearrange letters and unscramble notes. Nothing extremely original appears, but it’s all entertaining nonetheless.

So, what can you expect in this holiday potluck of gaming? Here’s a for-instance. At some point you need to meet Ear. Actually, Ear is Bear once you locate the missing “B” from his name in a find-all-the-letters puzzle. But, to reach him in the first place you need to uncover a whistle at Elf’s house, and to do that you have to perform several hidden-object searches followed by a hunt for some missing instructions. Once the document has been located, you need to unscramble it so you can use the whistle to call Reindeer, who then takes you to Ear, err, Bear. However, before he can do that you must locate a hidden map and then reorient all its pieces so they make sense. By the way, Reindeer will need some magic potion to recharge his flying ability, too, so you’ll need to collect all the bottles in Elf’s house before he can fly you to your destination. And, that’s the gist of play.

A fun-filled way to begin the holiday season, Christmasville features attractive visuals and snappy music. It provides an enjoyable mix of hidden object puzzle types and more mini-game varieties then much of the competition. The story and characters are a bit on the silly side, but it flows well. And, with 20 stages of play and multiple levels per stage (around 80 levels in total), there is a fair bit of play in store – about three hours sans the dialogue.

And speaking of dialogue, there’s way too much in comparison to actual playtime. The cut scenes drag on interminably, but at least you can skip them if you wish. More significantly, though, the puzzles are simply too easy. Most take, at best, take a little over two minutes to complete for an accomplished object-hound, and some under a minute. It really screams out for an adjustable difficulty setting.

Still, if you’re in the mood for some holiday fun and you simply can’t get enough hidden-object fare, Christmasville may be worth the investment. It’s easy, but not abominably so, and somewhat en-deering. Go ahead. Download the demo and give it a try for your elf.

Review by Chuck Miller
Gamezebo, Inc.

Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst

Emma’s soul is free. But her ghost has delivered a dire warning: evil still lurks in Ravenhearst Manor. This takes you deep inside the cursed estate in the thrilling sequel Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst. Experience Ravenhearst`s spectral halls as never before with new adventure-style game play and an epic original soundtrack. Feel the floorboards creak as you move from room to room solving puzzles and seeking out clues in over 150 detailed scenes.

Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe

At the risk of sounding cliched, HipSoft has done it again with Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe. Not only does the game offer a fresh set of challenges the third time around, but it continues to succeed in its unlikely quest of making real estate both accessible and fun.

As the name implies, this time around you’re stamping your passport and heading across the pond to Europe, where you’ll spend time in countries like England, Spain and Switzerland helping the locals to spruce up their towns by building new properties like Spanish haciendas, English cottages and Swiss chalets.

Through an intuitive point-and-click interface, accompanied by informative menus that don’t bog you down with too much information at once, you’ll complete the goals laid out by each town liaison to complete the level. These might include building a certain number of houses, raising the town’s curb appeal, and earning a certain amount of total cash or rental income.

Unlike previous games, in Build-a-lot 3 you don’t just spend a chunk of time in one location before moving on to the next. Instead, you really do get your money’s worth out of that passport, using it to jet-set back and forth between countries one level at a time. It certainly helps to keep things interesting.

Some of the most fun features of Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year are back in Build-a-lot 3, including the ability to paint your house different colors and landscape the yard, both of which add positive curb appeal. You can also build landmarks like hedge mazes that positively affect the curb appeal of the houses around them. Industrial buildings, on the other hand, lower curb appeal, so you have to be careful about where they go.

Curb appeal is taken a step further in Build-a-lot 3 with the introduction of run-down lots. These derelict buildings generate no rental income and have negative curb appeal — in short, they’re what you’d call “fixer uppers.” However, buy one cheap, renovate it, and slap on a new coat of paint and you can sell it at a tidy profit.

Another new feature worth mentioning are the new weather conditions like snow and rain. These not only make the game more interesting from a visual standpoint, but actually affect the speed at which you can do certain outdoor jobs like repairs and painting.

Build-a-lot 3 also introduces various crises that pop up from time to time. When you see a particular icon urgently flashing above a building, it means something’s wrong, and you have to click on it to dispatch the appropriate service to take care of it. If your house is on fire, as is indicated by a flashing smoke alarm, then you’d better send the fire truck out right away. Inconsiderate neighbors playing their music too loudly can be persuaded to turn the volume down by a visit from the police.

If a house is in crisis, you can’t collect rent on it. There’s no way to guard against these random occurrences, although if you build service stations like a hospital or Fire Station at least you won’t have to pay every time you send one out. This adds a nice random element of surprise to the game, and ups the click factor significantly so that at times it’s almost like playing a time management game.

If there’s one thing that can be said about Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe, if you’re waiting around even for three or four seconds, you aren’t playing the game properly. Like its predecessors, Build-a-lot 3 has great pacing that keeps you on your toes and always planning ahead. If it gets too hectic, though, you can always pause the game to collect your thoughts until you’ve worked out a strategy for tackling the level.

At 43 levels, the game is longer than its predecessors, and it seems significantly more challenging as well. Unless you’re a strategy game buff, it’s safe to say that you won’t be getting Expert on every level the first time around. The passport makes it easy to skip to any level you wish to replay, and if you want a break from campaign mode you can head into casual mode. Here, you can play around and take as long as you need, or try to beat the clock and record the fastest completion time.

If there’s a complaint it’s that I miss some of the more colorful mayors and their crazy requests from the previous Build-a-lot games. The characters in Build-a-lot 3 didn’t strike me as being quite so memorable or unique, and seemed there mainly to just introduce the level goals. I guess it’s a case of “you can’t have everything,” because the rest of the game is completely enjoyable.

Many games have tried, with varying degrees of success, to duplicate the real estate/construction strategy gameplay that the original Build-a-lot so deftly pioneered, however none of the imitators have yet to come close to nailing the superb pacing and deep layers of strategy that continue to be hallmarks of this excellent series. Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe included.

Review by Erin Bell
Gamezebo, Inc.