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Sound
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Value
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| | Publisher: Mumbo Jumbo  Genre: Puzzle & Trivia | | | Min OS X: 10.4 CPU: G4 @ 700 MHz RAM: 128 MB Hard Disk: 25 MB Graphics: 32 MB VRAM |
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If you’re up for a terrific ball-blasting session set in a beautiful landscape of ancient Egyptian artifacts, then prepare to be blown away by MumboJumbo’s new release, Luxor 2.Luxor 2 is a sequel to Luxor, which was named the number-one casual game of 2005. It builds on its predecessor’s success with even better graphics and a superior soundtrack. However, the game continues to suffer from a bug that keeps the desktop cursor active during game play. The game is played on a series of maps representing everything from villages to rowboats to tombs. The artwork in the maps is nearly photorealistic, with a wide variety of ancient artifacts lit with glowing torches and other lighting. Adding to the realism are the many surface textures employed, including realistically rendered liquids flow and swirl in context to their surroundings. If the architecture, lighting, textures and exciting game play aren’t enough to trip your trigger, Luxor 2’s soundtrack will surely do it. Not only does the game entertain you with a beautiful set of tunes, but the sound effects are absolutely stunning. Of course, if you’re actually playing Luxor 2, you may not have time to gaze at all these architectural delights. You may be too busy just busting the many colored spheres that roll through the maps. One of the most enjoyable challenges of the game is the depth of the maps. In the initial parts of the game, the course of the balls keeps them pretty much at an equal distance from your shooter at the bottom of the screen. However, as the game progresses, Luxor 2 adds depth to create an additional challenge. At times, the balls follow a course that takes them very far away from the front of the stage, causing them to be rendered at a much smaller size. In the physics of Luxor 2, to hit a distant target you must allow for the time it will take for your ball to travel. What’s more, you may not be able to hit that distant target because other objects nearer to you get in the way. The object of the game is to use your ball shooter to shoot balls into a moving train of multicolored balls. You gain points by destroying the balls and eliminating the entire train before its head reaches the room’s sepulcher. Balls are destroyed when the ball you shoot lands in a like-colored group to make three or more of the same kind. For example shooting a green ball into a group of two green balls will burst the three greens. Once those three greens are gone, the train’s two halves will slam together. If there happens to be another three or more of a kind match where the halves join, those will also explode. The more chain reactions you like that you can get, the bigger your score — and your prizes — will be. The best I chain reaction I ever did was eight ball bursts in a row off a single shot. However, the funny thing was that it was actually a total accident. I was shooting at another part of the train and missed my intended shot. Suddenly everything on the board was ablaze and nearly all the balls were gone.
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