A sunken ship, a mysterious map, an ancient artifact all lost beneath the ocean's surface... you'll discover all this and more in “Secrets of the Seas” a unique new puzzle game from FlowPlay.
The game starts off with a lovely narration straight out of a storybook; it tells the unfortunate tale of Juan Ruiz Hidalgo, who once upon a time was entrusted with safeguarding a fabulous treasure, the crown of the last Inca king. But during his travels Juan lost the priceless relic and has been unable to find it!
Wow, you’d think he’d be a little more careful with something like that, right? I mean we’re not talking about a spare set of keys here this was a priceless crown for goodness sakes!
So of course he now needs some help in recovering the missing item which involves diving deep beneath the oceans surface.
Alrighty there Juan don’t you worry I’ll help ya; I wasn’t doing anything that important today anyway. And besides it might be a nice change of pace from running a diner or manning a bar.
Although, something tells me when all is said and done and we find this old relic of a headpiece our buddy Juan over here, is gonna take all the credit!
Even though this might look like just another match-3 puzzler you’ll be happy to know that although it does still involve you making matches, “Secrets of the Seas” does it in a rather unexpected exciting and catchy way. Quite frankly it makes other games within the genre (Jewel Quest or Big Kahuna Reef) come out looking all wet! I was hooked, line and sinker!
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Instead of rotating squares or having to tug at rows or columns to make matches, you're in control of Tetris-like shapes, which contain several tiles displaying different pictures such as shields, gold crosses and Trojan horses. Your goal is to make squares, rows or columns containing 4 or more like stamped tiles.
Moving the pieces around is done with the mouse, using the right click button to rotate the pieces and then tapping the left click button to place them.
Don’t take too long strategizing because the clock is ticking, shown in the form of a bubbling air tank and it is shrinking with each passing second! A seemingly simple but challenging game play mechanic, believe me it really packs in a lot of depth.
As in all good puzzle games you are rewarded for all your hard work and clever matchmaking skills with several handy dandy bonuses and power-ups, earned by collecting gold coins. Extras include whirlpools which swirl across the screen, shuffling objects all around, lightning bolts that show up every so often zapping a bunch of tiles, and anchors that fall, crushing entire rows. The best part is, these rewards aren't just awesome to look at (shaking the screen and literally blowing icons to bits) they’re also really clever and very useful. Love it!
The graphics are nicely done and so are the sound effects; everything looks and sounds like it's been dunked in gallons of water.
“Secrets of the Seas” isn't what I’d call a revolutionary or even particularly ingenious game by any means. It simply takes the standard formula of matching puzzler and does it better!
So I , thank you Flowplay for taking the time and effort to bring us a game that performs 20,000 leagues better than any casual puzzle game that I’ve played a long time.
It almost brings a saltwater tear to my eye! Sniff, Sniff.
Get Secrets of the Seas Here
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Posted by oxyjen on Apr 9, 2007
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1 Comment(s):
On April 9, 2007, jamie said:
nice review and the game sounds like fun!
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