Color Matching Perpetuity by Game Tunnel

The Casual Gamer by Jennifer Sandberg

Color Matching Perpetuity (April 19, 2005)

Red + red + red and you score. Color matching games are quite popular and deservedly so. They're a nice break from the mental exhaustion so many of us suffer from; while you may have to move fast, you generally don't have to think too hard.

Zuma and Luxor

At a glance, the main difference between Zuma and Luxor is the scenery. Zuma has a nice Aztec feel to it and Luxor is set in Egypt. Pop Cap brought us Zuma a year ago and Luxor was made recently by Mumbo Jumbo, but they look and feel so similar that they could easily be sisters. The graphics in both games are clean and crisp, the colors are bright and everything feels professional. Luxor probably has a bit if an edge, but then she is the younger of the two. The goal of these games is to eliminate the colored balls before they navigate the maze-like path and enter your sanctuary. You shoot extra balls into the chain and when you get three or more in a row they disappear.

Zuma's power ups are mixed in with the balls and launched automatically when a chain is completed. The coins are rather difficult to hit because there are usually balls in the way.

Luxor gives you a paddle that allows you to catch power-ups, coins, and gems break-out style as they fall from where they are hidden when you make a chain. Luxor also gives you a map that they use to chart your progress through the boards. I like the way the map pulls you into the game; it appeals to the explorer in me and makes me feel like I'm going somewhere.

The biggest frustration that I ran into playing these games was getting my ball to go where I wanted it to. I so often ended up with alternating colors instead of groups of colors. Luxor was more difficult this way I think because the balls seem to move a little faster and you are sometimes shooting from further away. After playing for a while, you get better at directing your ball. You still run into trouble sometimes, but it is only a really big frustration when you are at the point of fighting to stay alive.

These are busy games, they take a lot of focus and so are not exceptionally easy to pick up and put down and are certainly not suited to multi-tasking, but they are challenging and it is a lot of fun to see the new levels. If you are in an escape mood, these games will suck you in and keep your mind off of whatever you're taking a break from.

Zzed

Zzed by NevoSoft has an addictive quality about it, though I can't quite put a finger on what it is. In this game, you have colored blobs coming toward your space ship. The blobs represent chunks of space garbage (though they're not unpleasant to look at). You have to link colors to make chains disappear. As you advance in the game, you have massive amounts of this �"space garbage' coming at you from all sides, but there is a fair chance of staying alive. There are some power ups that really help, but what I appreciate most in this game is that you still have hope if chunks start getting too close to your ship. Shooting at them, though it adds more garbage to be eliminated, pushes the piles back and buys you a bit of time to keep fighting, and you can live through a collision or two with the stuff before you actually die. There's a story that goes along with this game, and though the creatures don't really appeal to me, it does add some interest, but the best part, as it should be, is actually playing the game. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.

Asianata

Asianata by Kraisoft is a color-linking game as well. Instead of racing to protect your keep from an advancing line of marbles, you are trying to arrange marbles in a straight line. It's a lot harder than it sounds because the marbles just won't stay where you put them. Honestly, it reminded me a bit too much of real life and keeping house with the help of my young children; as soon as something is put away and I have turned my attention to another project, the first thing gets messed up again.

The game has 3 modes: strategy, puzzle, and arcade. I would recommend starting out with strategy. You can take all the time you wish to complete the chains so it works pretty well as a tutorial. Maybe I'm a little slow, but it took me a while to figure out what to do with the bi-colored marbles. I would have appreciated a pointer or two.

A few boards into the puzzle mode things get pretty difficult. Marbles are quite unstable as building materials. I tend to give up pretty easily if I'm not strung along by little successes and a feeling that I have a good chance of winning. (It's a good thing I'm not into gambling!) Still, if you enjoy a challenge, this game will keep you busy. It's kind of like a computerized version of building with playing cards.

Fashion Cents

Fashion Cents is a fun little game that came out a year or so ago. It's the color-matching game made especially for girls—the more clothes you buy the more you win—and every young girl (and lots of the older ones too) who has tried it at my house has loved it! You have ten cute mannequins which you dress in color-linked outfits. When a girl is fully dressed (they come dressed in tasteful underclothes) then you buy the outfit. You purchase ten outfits to pass each level. It is really quite a challenging to keep track of everything as you move to the higher levels, yet the concept is simple enough that a 3 year old can have fun with it too. I appreciate that you can move at your own pace and think about what you're doing, though there is an element of luck that can foil the best of strategies--just what can you do with another pair of purple pants? Still, I can't stop coming back for more.

Fashion Cents is a great game, but the best part is that My Game Company didn't stop with simply releasing a great game. They keep improving it and they care enough about their customers and their game to make the improvements available as free add-ons. Patriotic, tropical, and western wear are among the offerings. The Dress for Success pack added an interesting dimension to the game play with the addition of dresses. The original game requires you to put four items on each mannequin. The dress combines the shirt and pants into one item and forces you to change your strategies a bit. On the one hand, you can get a mannequin half dressed in one step and dresses take up less storage space than separates. On the other hand, a dress limits your options more than separates might. You still get pants and tops that you can't use with a dress and you don't have as much of a chance of expanding your color options with a dress as you do when you can add a red and blue top to red and turquoise pants. (O.K., so the goal is not to come up with outfits that actually match, you just have to make sure there are color links.)

The most recent add-on, Ellie Gant, is a line of formal wear. The ball gowns and tiaras are my daughters' favorite items in the whole game—at least until they add a ballerina pack! So, kudos to My Game Company for their continuing efforts to make a great game even more appealing!

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By: Jennifer Sandberg
Posted: Monday April 18, 2005