Spielzeugland (Toyland): Review
Hitler’s reign maybe one of the most reproachable and terrible eras in world politics, but it is beyond doubt one of the most filmable subjects around. Especially his cruel repression of Jews. Spielzeugland is one of the best in that genre, as haunting in its story as it is moving in its treatment.
This is just pure poetry set in music, a 13 minute treat of blooming love and innocence under Hitler’s dark cloud of inhumanity. Heinrich Meisner, a 6 year old boy, is led to believe that his Jewish friend’s family is going to travel to Toyland. You may think that you know what is next, but here’s the surprise – you don’t.
In Heinrich’s touching naivety, the background becomes much more important than the story itself. Snowy white streets, white smoke billowing out of gleaming black engines, children playing on sunny mornings – it is easy to see how Heinrich believed in a Toyland. His Germany seems just his ideal playground, if not, alas, for the atrocities going on in the world that he is blissfully unaware of.
Music dictates the whole of Spielzeugland – a haunting piano melody that single handedly tells the story even with the minimum of dialogues, a dreamy poignant duet which brings tears to your eyes. It forces you into that thoughtful, slow, almost wistful pace of Heinrich’s life.
Yes, this deserved an Oscar alright. Scarily moving. It leaves you with an effect that most other notable movies like the Pianist, or Schindler’s List takes hours to create.
Rating:
Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena
Developed by Mumbo Jumbo Premium Casual Games, published by Bigfish Games
In Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena, archeologist Samantha Swift has stumbled upon one of the greatest archeological finds in our lifetime! Sam`s quest to piece together the mystery and artifacts of the Roses of Athena is not without obstacles – she`ll have to use her keen eyesight to pick out clues, while she out-wits the greedy treasure hunter, Ravena Stryker in this hidden object, puzzle-solving Adventure.
Story: The talented field archaeologist Samantha Swift is the first to have found the location of the legendary scepter of Zeus! Sifting among the relics of the Acropolis in Greece, she comes across Athena’s shield.
Legend has it that Athena showered 6 virtues in the form of roses upon Athens – Rose of Industry, Rose of Conquest, Rose of Justice, Rose of Art, Rose of Wisdom, and the Rose of Skill.
Anyone who can gather all the roses onto Athena’s shield will gain the ultimate mastery of these virtues!
Shield of Athena
The (nearly) completed Shield of Athena
But a Greek priestess had dismantled the roses and spread them all over the world. Now it is the task of the intrepid Samantha Swift to travel over 3 continents to recover all the Hidden Roses of Athena!
The story goes surprisingly well. All right, the ending is a bit of jabberwocky, patched up, but then again – this game is not a story-centered game either. It is all about its enchanting gameplay.
Gameplay: Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena is all about its gameplay. It has a twin system of hints – one is where you can click each object and see its silhouette in your scanner; second, where you use a lightning bolt to point out the position of a specific object on the screen. You can collect endless lightning bolts from each level. Needless to say, this makes playing the game surprisingly smooth.
But also, the game becomes incredibly easy. In a way, that is good, as now you can spend more time admiring the scenery of the countries.
Graphics and Music: No comments. Just awesome. The clarity is delightful for a lover of hidden object games, and the finer details and the colour in the scene put many a contemporary hidden object games to shame.
The depictions of the 6 countries, however, might leave something wanting – if you’re nagging about such finer details. Each of the scenes focus on a small area, and in the end, all the scenes look like the same country.
But don’t worry – it doesn’t affect the game a bit.
Goddess Athena
Bottomline: Hidden Roses of Athena is one game that leaves you just speechless. The bold colourful shots and the puzzles which amuse the intellect without taxing it make for a fine game. Definitely play this!
As also, play the next game in the series – Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch. After the Hidden Roses of Athena, the next game will probably seem slightly repetitive – it has the same structural storyline, same villain, and same plot. It is a positive delight, none the less.
Check out the review of Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch!
Rating:
Treasure Seekers 1: Visions of Gold Review
Developed by Artogon Games, published by BigFish Games
Adventure runs in the family! Join Nelly and Tommy in their quest to retrieve their pirate grandmother`s hidden treasure! Test your skills with challenging puzzles that will take you from strange laboratories to the dangerous depths of the ocean. Play at your own pace with no timers or penalties, just hours of brain-tickling Hidden Object fun.
– BigFish Games
Story: Young Nelly has dreams every night – of her dead grandmother, the great Pirate Charlotte – and all the gold she had amassed. The prospect of recovering the gold – and above all, the alluring adventure of a treasure hunt – drives Nelly and her kid brother Tom out of their homes one morning when their parents are out. Trace their magical journey as they look for their grandmother’s loot with the help of a mad scientist!
Honestly, the story of Treasure Seekers: Vision of Gold is neither meaningful nor impressive. The red headed siblings, Huckleberry Finn-ish Tom and calm, composed Nelly look way too small to go out and do all the things they have to do – even giving them the free reign that heroes and heroines of games must have. And were their parents out on an intergalactic travel or what? If two children can learn about and discover an entire chamber filled with coveted treasure, all in the small interval one morning when their parents are out, I guess it’s time to send special forces to see if they got lost!
Don’t get me wrong, the plot has its high points too. Nelly’s initial dream rightly captures her excitement and longing to meet her grandmother. And in the parting dialogues – when the kids finally have the treasure chest open in front of them – Tom’s childish innocence and selflessness pays a fitting ode to their grandmother’s treasure.
Nelly and Tom Find the Treasure
Gameplay: Treasure Seekers: Visions of Gold is quite a satisfactory game to play, provided you overlook its own minor glitches.
Most of the game is made of purely interactive Hidden Object puzzles – you have to repair some objects in each room and use them as befits to move forward. And here is where the glitch lies – each scene requires you to do some totally unnecessary things to unlock the next room. Totally. With no explanations forwarded as to why using an elaborate contraption to knock a cap off a statue could have any effect on repairing a bridge (it doesn’t).
To be fair, Visions of Gold is one of the hardest games I’ve played in recent times. It’s not something you can play while relaxing in your reclining chair. The accompanying minigames are delectably baffling, not as much in logic as in their sheer complexity.
Dutifully enough, a Hint button and a Skip Puzzle button are provided, but here’s the catch – you can give your dog a nice bath and a massage to boot by the time the Skip Puzzle button will fully charge up. The Hint button is slightly better than that. So you’re forced to play much of the game with your own brains!
Pirate Charlotte
Graphics and Music: Treasure Seekers 1 is better than average when it comes to its graphics. Nothing much to say on this front, because its sequel, Treasure Seekers 2: Enchanted Canvasses, provides some mind blowing visuals that are simply beyond criticism.
Bottomline: Visions of Gold is good and true entertainment packed into an average sized game. For once there is no attempt to create a dark and gloomy atmosphere where there is none – the game is resplendent in the young children’s bubbling innocence and enthusiasm. For once, there is a beautiful and harmless ghost who touches your heart. And for once, a game with an awkwardly misconstructed plot that glitters in its brilliance and makes you come back for more.
Should you play this? Of course!
But more than that, you should check out the newer version – Treasure Seekers 2: Enchanted Canvasses!
Rating:
The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime Review
Developed by Trine Games, produced by Jowood Productions and published by BigFish Games
A crime wave has gripped the Hardy Boys` hometown of Bayport! Help the Hardys solve this rash of crimes and unravel the Perfect Crime! It’s up to the Boys and their detective skills to follow the clues and discover an incredibly deep plot in this Hidden Object game. Hardy Boys – The Perfect Crime will challenge you with tough minigames and detailed scenes. Can you find the mastermind behind it all and crack the case?
Story: The Hardy Boys are renowned in their home town of Bayport for their exceptional sleuthing skills. Now a case of unconventional theft falls right into their lap. The threads, when followed back, lead to a hugely complicated and ominous conspiracy of fraud and smuggling. Are the Hardy Brothers up to putting the criminals behind bars?
The game is typically hardyish, centering around the (sometimes annoyingly) precocious highschoolers Joe and Frank Hardy, a little around their parents, and a host of personality-less characters in Bayport, including police officers who are always ready to let the boys play the detective. As you play through the game, you’ll find that The Perfect Crime is a misnomer for this game. The plot simply doesn’t have the finesse to match up to the elegant name, and all the underlying swiftness and cruelty it implies. The lack of interesting material in the plot is tried to be covered by some unnecessary complexity that doesn’t work. Still it comes fairly close, and qualifies as an average Hardyish story. Despite the tidy narration, not as awe-inspiring as a point-and-click crime story could’ve been.
Gameplay: However flimsy the plot might be, playing the game isn’t bad (provided you’ve turned off the music). You start off with great expectations from the starting page – designed like a detective’s scrapbook. For the first few minutes, your interest will be well rewarded, for it starts with one of the best aspects of the game – the witty banter between the Hardy Brothers, Joe and Frank!
Then we move on to the Hidden Object part. This part is easy enough, but that’s the start of all the troubles. Instead of “hiding” objects, they’re reduced to tiny faraway objects that would require you to resort to pixel hunting to pick them up at all.
Hints are provided, probably 3 at each level. I cannot be sure, because the number was never mentioned in the entire game.
And yes, some minigames are provided, but it seems the developers were pretty reluctant to put much effort to it. Three or four separate puzzles of nursery stage are replayed again and again, each more brain sapping than the previous in terms of simplicity.
Graphics and Music: The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime scores poorly in this department too. The graphics going with the HOG are incredibly mediocre, with a narrow angle, unimaginative decoration, and low lighting.
And the music? It is totally unworthy. I turned it off after the first few minutes of the game. Trust me, no detective could work properly with those tracks blaring in the background.
Bottomline: The sole point I loved about the game was the dialogues between the Hardy brothers. Their repartee and sarcasm are outstanding and refreshing after each level of tiring gameplay. If you’re a Hardy fan, this game could qualify on your list of Must Play Games. For others, you might want to try it out for the constant leg-pulling and the well-recited plot.
Rating: 
New releases in Bollywood: 2009 Complete Guide Part 1
Finally. Two months, several tons of paper, litres of ink, and financial losses later, here we are, at the end of the rainbow – the end of the Producer-Multiplex strike in Bollywood.
The terms are yet to be finalized. The whole agreement will probably take shape by today, 8th June, 2009. While the profit distribution rates seem decided upon, the other demands of the Producers, like more reasonable prices for movie-goers find no mention in the papers. We can only hope that they’ll have kept that in mind today.
With the strike at an end, several big films are on their way to our cinemas. Here’s a list of the most anticipated ones:
Anubhab: An Actor’s Tale
Release Date: 5th June 2009
Director: Rajeev Nath
Starring: Sanjay Suri, Gul Panag, Jackie Shroff, Anoop Menon
Already released on 5th June, Anubhab stars Sanjay Suri, Gul Panag and Jackie Shroff in chief roles. The banner and the trailers proclaim an offbeat film with a chance to leave its mark. Unfortunately, it could suffer from a shortage of any good story.
Read the review at NowRunning.Com
Kal Kissne Dekha
Release date: 12th June
Director: Vivek Sharma
Producer: Vashu Bhagnani
Starring: Jacky Bhagnani, Vaishali Desai
Now this is one of the most publicized film waiting in line to get released. Directed by Vivek Sharma, the film looks suspiciously like a star son’s overhyped entry into Bollywood. When was the last time we saw that? Right, Love Story 2050. And Kal Kissne Dekha might very well end up doing a Love Story 2050, what can be guessed from the odd drifts of its story. Jacky Bhagnani (producer Vashu Bhagnani’s son) plays a college-goer who can see into the future. And therein starts an action filled tale of drama, adventure and saving-your-girlfriends stuff. Whether it becomes a fruitful or fruitless attempt is yet to be seen. Just bear this in mind: Jacky himself said in an interview, “Turn off your brains and watch this movie, it is solid entertainment.” Anyone like the first part of the sentence?
Vaishali Desai looks good in the songs. However, Jacky might at best be passed off as cute. Any further comments on his looks will need great leaps of imagination.
The music of Kal Kissne Dekha is by Sajid-Wajid. It doesn’t sound very bad for the most part. “Soniyo Billori” manages to mix the now compulsory Punjabi beats quite well. But the title track, “Kal Kissne Dekha” is pure crap.
Karma: Crime, Passion, Reincarnation
Release date: 12th June
Director: M.R. Shahjahan
Producer: Dhiraj Kotkar
Starring: Vijayendra Ghatge, Alma Saracci, Carlucci Weyant
An American girl meets Indian boy themed horror story directed by M.R. Shahjahan. It takes a lot of sensible thinking, good scriptwriting, well-researched and innovative direction and inspired performances to make a successful horror story in India. And if reviews be heeded, Karma: Crime, Passion, Reincarnation has none of them.
Read the excellent review by Kaveree Bamzai.
Zor Lagaa Ke Haiya
Release date: 12th June
Director: Girish Girija Joshi
Producer: Kartikeya Talreja
Starring: Mithun Chakraborty
A Hindi Mithun Chakraborty movie where he’s composed and serious, not playing the goof. Maybe it’ll be another National Award winning performance by him(the film has already won 4 International awards), but the trailers don’t seem very promising at all. Some children, a village, a homeless man – together they save a tree. It reeks of low budget, and what’s worse, an absence of a guiding story. It might ultimately fall into the Children’s film category which no adult would watch – except in during a strike – but I’m not sure. Here’s hoping the performances are heartwrenching enough.
New York
Release date: 26th June
Director: Kabir Khan
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Starring: Katrina Kaif, John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan Khan
Now here’s another biggie that’ll hit the theatres by the end of June. It stars three of the hottest and most sought after actors in Bollywood – John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, and Katrina Kaif. The three play a trio of friends in the background of 9/11 New York. With the World Trade Centre’s destruction, they come under the scanner in police interrogations. New York includes the much awaited nude John Abraham scene surviving torture, but sorry to disappoint you, nothing obscene will be shown – Abraham is conveniently covered by shadows at the right points.
The trailers make the film seem an impressive cross between Dostana and Dil Chahta Hai – a copy, yet impressive, as any well-portrayed story of friendship must seem. The rest of the trailers are filled with explosive visuals with a conspicuous lack of Katrina Kaif in the action parts. If these trailers are to be believed, New York seems to be trying to fit too much into too little a space. Too many facts will be hard to knit together in a single average sized movie.
I wouldn’t be giving New York too much credibility. It might be a hit – it seems to have all the ingredients ready – but most probably not a good film.
Kambakkht Ishq
Release date: 10th July
Director: Sabir Khan
Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Sylvestor Stallone
Three ‘K’ s in the name. Will this numerological tweak work to make the film a hit?
Maybe. Kambakkht Ishq, starring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, with Sylvester Stallone in the background, is one of the most promising films that’ll be released this year. Promising in the Akshay Kumar potboiler sense. Not the sense Chandni Chowk to China was. A stuntman and an aspiring-to-be-a-model surgeon fall in love – what happens next? We’re all awaiting this movie to know more.
Aladin
Release: 24th July
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Sameera Reddy, Juhi Chawla
One of those rarities – a fantasy movie in Bollywood. Oh, I mean the fantasies in Bollywood movie are adequate enough, but Aladin is a magical adventure-based fantasy like Harry Potter. And Director Sujoy Ghosh lays claims to it being influenced directly by the harry Potter series.
Aladin is still the story of the boy Aladin (Riteish Deshmukh) and the genie (‘Genius’ the genie, played by Amitabh Bachchan) residing in a magical lamp. But reportedly, much has been changed to fit the demands and expectations of the modern cinegoers.
Here’s the take: Aladin show great potential. It is dark, and rare in its niche in Bollywood. Except for the fear of the fact that most high budget and high aim films in recent times have seen themselves going up in smoke, Aladin should manage to be a tad more sensible and build in all the high-on-adrenalin swashbuckling stuff such movies need.
Blue
Release Date: Unknown
Director: Anthony D’Souza
Producer: Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd.
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif
Blue is a pathbreaking new film – or one that could well be. With a budget of over 100 crore rupees, a stellar cast comprising Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, and a totally experimental premise, Blue comes only second to the Three Idiots as the most anticipated film of 2009.
It is India’s first “official” underwater film, with overreaching attempts at getting the right “international” feel to it – just look at the number of foreign technicians on the set. Predictably, it is a thriller with lots of underwater scenes and fighting and treasure hunting. At least it has the correct amount of suspense and dark mysterious feel in its initial promos.
And oh, it also includes a song by Australian singing sensation Kylie Minogue. For once, no stone has been left unturned.
Watch out. Blue could just be one of the biggest hits of 2009.
Kissan
Release: Unknown
Director: Puneet Sira
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala, Sohail Khan
Starring: Sohail Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Jackie Shroff, Dia Mirza, Nauheed Cyrusi
Kissan looks suspiciously like a happy-Punjabi-farmer-fighting-trouble sort of story, the thing that the Deols look good in. And yes, to put speculations at rest, Sohail Khan does have at least one scene in the movie where he manages a Bobby Deol act. Not cool.
The only ray of hope is that Kissan is produced by UTV Spotboys’ Ronnie Screwvala, and his films are generally offbeat and brilliant. Let’s see who tilts the balance further – Screwvala or Sohail Khan. With every hope and wish that the story is something new, will Sohail Khan and Arbaaz Khan get their much awaited first hit in Bollywood?
I won’t put too much hope on Kissan doing that.
Runway
Release: 30th June, 2009
Director: Sunil- Praful
Producer: Rita J. Shukla
Starring: Amarjeet Shukla, Tulip Joshi, Lucky Ali, Sharat Saxena, Shawar Ali, Deepal Shaw
A very obscure film so far. One of the most obscure, in fact. It has plenty of running, fighting, chasing, blood, and probably – revenge for a messed up past.
Except for one or two trailers that have been released, each sporting Hollywood style dark presentation, nothing is known of this movie.
It seems promising because of two reasons – one, the immediate reaction to one of the trailers; two, it comes from a little known banner, and as we know, they’ve been carrying out many upsets in recent years.
However, Runway also seems too ambitious on a weak premise. That inclination to gimmick might be its easy road to failure.
I’d give Runway a fair amount of credibility. It just might turn out an above average film which will hearten others to follow that ambition.
Jashnn: The Music Within
Release: Unknown
Director: Raksha Mistry Hasnain S Hyderabadwala
Producer: Mukesh Bhatt
Starring: Adhyayan Suman, Shahana Goswami
Produced by Mukesh Bhatt, Jashnn: The Music Within seems pretty much akin to the cliched tale of a nobody who became a somebody and his life of love, trust and betrayal. You get the drift. I won’t bet much money on it till more facts come to light.
Did I mention who the hero is? Our very own loverboy from Raaz: The Mystery Continues, Adhyayan Suman! In the teaser song, his face is still curiously devoid of emotions. Seriously, I hope he has taken some acting lessons in the meantime, for otherwise this musical seems doomed.
Visit the official site at Jashnn.Com
De Dhana Dhan
Release: unknown
Director: Priyadarshan
Producer: Venus Productions
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Neha Dhupia, Sameera Reddy
Being dubbed Priyadarshan’s most complex film yet, equally little is known of the Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif starrer De Dhana Dhan. The hit duo could give us yet another blockbuster in this movie slated to be released in the later part of the year.
Veer
Release: Unknown
Director: Anil Sharma
Producer: Vijay Galani
Starring: Salman Khan, Zarina Khan
Behold – here comes Salman Khan’s six pack superhero act inspired by Aamir Khan’s Ghajini and Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish combined. It is supposedly the story of the Warrior King Veer (Salman Khan) slaying enemies. The story – if one must expect anything such – has been written by the star Salman Khan himself.
Even before the shootings began, Veer attracted enough attention with first Salman Khan choosing a Katrina Kaif lookalike for his heroine. Then there was a saga of touching friendship which ended in Salman accepting Aamir Khan’s suggestion and dumping alcohol for a few months. More melodrama than even Veer has, probably.
Expectedly enough, this movie would probably be labeled “strictly for Salman fans”.
3 Idiots
Release Date: 25th December, 2009
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Starring: Aamir Khan, R. Mahavan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani, Mona Singh
Here it is – probably the most anticipated film of 2009 – 3 Idiots, slated to be released on 25th December, 2009.
For the past two years, Aamir has been releasing his films in the Christmas season, and each of them – Taare Zameen Par and Ghajini – has been a superhit. There is no reason why 3 Idiots will be a deviation.
The reasons are plenty. One, Rajkumar Hirani. He’s the guy who gave us the lovable Munna bhai. Secondly, Aamir himself. He is known to choose his films only after much scrutiny, and he has hardly slipped in the estimate of a script in the recent years. Thirdly, the rest of the cast – Madhavan and Kareena Kapoor to be exact. They’re enough to set any film ablaze.
Fourthly, and here is an equivocal detail – the film is “inspired” by Chetan Bhagat’s “Five Point Someone”. Good as Chetan Bhagat’s books may seem in print, we all saw what came of his One Night at the Call Center which was turned into “Hello”. On the other hand, 3 Idiots is only “inspired” by Chetan Bhagat and not a ditto copy, which spells hope for a good movie.
In the end, I’d put much of my money on this movie. Primarily for Aamir Khan. Although I may not be a fan of some of his acrid ways, he is the most dependable success formula in Bollywood at the moment.
Raavan
Release: Diwali
Director: Mani Ratnam
Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Vikram, Govinda, Prithviraj, Manisha Koirala
So little is known of this movie that there isn’t even a poster available!
Loosely based on the mythical story of Ramayan, Raavan is a modern age take on the old story of Ram-Sita-Raavana. The twist? Sita falls in love with Raavana.
Well, you know what to expect. Just like Dev D, Raavana would probably do good on the “adaptation-along-modern-lines” front. The rest of the film’s details are very jealously guarded, so we’d have to still wait a bit to know how the 21st century Ramayana unfolds.
Kites
Release: Unknown
Director: Anurag Basu
Producer: Rakesh Roshan
Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kangna Ranaut
With a successful Cannes run under its belt, Kites is the story of love reaching across borders. Hrithik Roshan is a salsa teacher, the Mexican beauty Barabara Mori his student. Inevitably, they fall in love.
Now this movie can be something. Seriously. The desi-meets-videsi fomula gets a twist here with the hot hunk Hrithik Roshan redefining the desi man in the genre. And who in India doesn’t love musicals?
Definitely worth a watch, the soon to be coming Kites.
Wow, that was a whole lot! One of the most heartening trends I notice in the above list is that the movies are of such a great variety – hardly to be found in such a list of Hollywood movies either – not just romantic potboilers. Now if only they can rock the box office, well, what more could one ask?
3 Days Zoo Mystery Review
By Realore Studios, published by BigFish Games
3 Days: Zoo Mystery finds five of the world`s most unique animals stolen! Help Anna track down and return these rare animals to her uncle`s zoo. The ultra-picky zoo inspectors are on their way, so you will only have three days to solve this mystery and save the zoo. This Hidden Object Adventure game is full of challenging minigames and dark secrets. Will you be able to capture the crook and save the family zoo?
Story: Animals from your family zoo are getting stolen mysteriously. You, as the zoo owner’s niece, Anna, must take up the duty of finding the animals. But you must recover them in 3 days – or the zoo will be shut down forever!
The premise is short and simple, but both unexpectedly and refreshingly, it opens to reveal one of the most level-headed, seriously enjoyable and closely knit story in games of such genre. It is satisfactorily long, and although it sometimes drags for the game’s sake, you’ll never feel bored.
Gameplay: Just as the eccentric name might suggest, 3 Days Zoo Mystery has a sense of straight-faced humour in every single character interaction – from the biased sheriff to the clown. Sadly, it has been disappointingly underplayed.
The game unfolds not as Anna setting off right away to bring the perpetrator to book, but rather by she taking the most common method – informing the police. Such sensible steps build this game to be a very good homely tension-free detective game.
As you follow up links around town, moving from suspect to suspect and unearthing mind baffling clues, you’ll also have to do many of the townspeople’s chores for them – like stacking the dishes, serving food, arranging rooms, etc.
3 Days: Zoo Mystery has an added feature – it allows you the use of a Magnotron. What is the magnotron, you may ask. It is a brand new invention by your town’s scientist – it can make objects disappear into a parallel universe! The scope of its use is very limited, but nonetheless, it is a very interesting addition to this bright and cheerful game. And it also gives a chance to the Sheriff to barge in with one of his funny comments whenever you try to make his desk disappear!
Graphics and Music: No complaints on this point at all. Clear, soothing graphics and entertaining music – 3 Days Zoo Mystery makes sure it is perfect on each point.
Bottomline: This is one of those rare Hidden Object/ Adventure/ Detective games which does everything right and leaves no room for complaints. This game is a must play.
Rating: 
Download the full free version from AdnanBoy!
Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses Review
By Artogon Games, published by Bigfish Games
Story: Tom leaves for Romania in search of the Philosopher’s Stone while his sister Nelly is enjoying her holiday in Guatemala. But Nelly distinctly smells danger in Tom’s new adventure – he’s gone to the evil Totenkraft’s castle, after all! She must follow suit and save her estranged brother in a magical journey through Totenkraft’s enchanted castle!
Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses is that sort of game where it suffices to create a semi-occult atmosphere and use a particularly holey storyline to present a great game. Never in the game is much stress put on any linear storytelling. Nelly does wail a lot about her lost brother, but there it starts and stops.
Gameplay: Playing as the red-headed sister Nelly, you’re required to break the spell and bring happiness to 5 of the Enchanted Canvasses hanging on Totenkraft’s wall if you must find your brother again. Upon successful completion of this, you can enter the 6th portrait – the Boss Level – where Totenkraft is holding your brother prisoner.
Treasure Seekers 2 is a delightful little game to play. Each level is of a healthy length, or made so by the sheer difficulty. The general gameplay is extremely logical and intriguing. A rechargeable hint button is always at your disposal, and you’ll find the need to use quite more than once!
From time to time, as expected, certain well-chosen and well-known minigames will pop up. The Skip button comes in helpful here, as by most chances, you’ll want to skip a few of the puzzles at least.
Graphics and Music: Like puzzles or not, you can’t help being bowled over by Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses’ awesome presentation, smooth captivating graphics and sprawling level maps. What more can be said? The game is truly flawless in this aspect.
Bottomline: On the whole, Treasure Seekers is a short but interesting game. While not truly innovative, it is a worthwhile game for casual gamers and puzzle/ adventure game enthusiasts alike. And of course, when you consider the quality of the ambience and the total appearance of the whole game, it is a great loss if you miss this.
A perfect 5 for the Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses!
Rating:
Also check out the review to the first part – Treasure Seekers Visions of Gold!
Pahelika Secret Legends Review
By Ironcode, published by BigFish games
Long ago the ancient book of legend, Pahelika, was used to defeat an evil warrior-king. In order to protect the book, it was hidden and guarded in a secret temple. As the descendent of the original wielder of the book, it is up to you to prove your mind, body, and soul worthy of the magical artifact! Advance through unique tests, and travel to a mysterious world in Pahelika- Secret Legends, an exciting Hidden Object Adventure game!
Story: The ancient city of Roop Nagar in Mathura in India was full of happiness and sunshine….. until one day, the demon king Asura struck! Dethroned by the evil attacker, the sad young king fled, leaving his countrymen to doom. But one day he returned…. with the holy magic book of Pahelika. Alone he dueled the invincible Asura, and alone he defeated him – by the power of the book!
Zoom out to years later. You’ve just learned about this legend, and your desire to test this incredibly story is aroused. To get the book, you need to finish six of the toughest puzzles of all times. Can you retrieve the book of Pahelika?
Resembling Azada 2: Ancient Magic on many counts, Pahelika also uses Indian references to spice up its occult theme. This bit is OK, given that Developers Ironcode are based in Dehradun, India, but in the grandeur of the magic book, it conveniently forgets to mention the history and identity of the player. And why the hell the secret portal to getting the dangerous book was in his storeroom.
Not that it really matters, because as you’ll see, the game is so outstanding in all its aspects that it completely eclipses this bit of patchwork.
Gameplay: When the game tips during loading the game says that 2000 man hours were spent in making Pahelika, you have to believe them. There is no way those impeccably flummoxing puzzles could have been made otherwise.
Let’s start from the beginning. After a short graphic novel styled narration of the first part of the story, you are presented with the tutorial-cum-prologue right in your messy storeroom. As you learn to feel your way around the game, you also assemble the portal that can transport you to the different levels of the riddles that hold Pahelika secure.
After that’s done, comes the main 6 levels of the game. Trust me, each of the levels are tiny in length, but each is so dumbfounding in its unique puzzles, you’ll be lucky to get even a few steps through without the strategy guide. Primarily, what makes the levels such a punishing insult to your intelligence is because often the connections required to be made are by quite nonconventional methods, or because your path is strewn with distractions.
And just let the puzzles requiring you to solve two or three different rooms simultaneously come up – you’ll be in for a ride!
There are some minigames from time to time – like guessing the sequence, jigsaw puzzles and sliders. Needless to say, the developers have made them as tough as possible too. The only parts that are easy are the questions you have to answer to the magical guardians throughout the game.
Graphics and Music: Again, a worthwhile result of the hard work that went behind Pahelika. The 3D graphics, while not particularly outstanding, are better than most, and anyway, who needs high definition graphics when you’re tearing your hair off after some riddle?
The opening menu is quite quirkily impressive. It depicts the main character’s study, and you can click on the different items in the room to access the standard menus.
Strategy Guide: Since Developer Ironcode has thoughtfully provided a strategy guide to the game, apprehending the impossibility of most players to advance in Pahelika, a note must be made on thatt too!
All in all, the strategy guide was fairly helpful. It doesn’t list the detailed solutions of all the minigames – like the sliders or the sequences at least. If nothing, they could’ve added a “Skip” button within the game, because that is where most people will find themselves stuck.
Warning: After you’ve read the guide, you might feel very stupid for not noticing the very obvious solutions to your problems, most of which are present hidden in the very offending room itself. So try a bit harder before you reach out for the guide!
Bottomline: Just like Azada, Pahelika will be a purist puzzle lover’s dream come true. It has all the elements of a few grueling hours in front of the screen, albeit not very intelligent, but vexing at the least. It doesn’t waste more than the requisite time bothering about the story, or the animation, or the effects. It just gives you the hard puzzles. And you can have a field time solving them, or trying to, if nothing.
Perfect game. This is a must play for anyone who loves puzzles!
Rating:
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: Review
By MagicIndie Softworks, Published by Big Fish Games
Inspired by Daniel Defoe`s classic masterpiece,Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a story of a man who survives a terrible shipwreck and finds himself cast away on an island in the Caribbean. In this incredible hidden object adventure that spans over 28 years, help Robinson explore the island, fight with cannibals, visit a lost village and construct a new boat to sail back home!
Story: Who needs to be reminded of Daniel Defoe’s classic 17th century story of Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday? Robinson Crusoe, the strapping young son of an English merchant, sets sail one day in search of adventures. The rest 20 years are history.
The game never veers off the main course of the original story. Highly linear, and highly subjective, the game includes only the pressing highlights of Robinson Crusoe’s life in a compact format. And oh, the entire story is narrated at the beginning of each of the chapters.
Gameplay: Adventures of Robinson Crusoe includes 6 chapters, each subdivided into 6 others – so a total of 36 parts. You’ll find Robinson Crusoe a small and fairly easy game – except in a few places. Those certain places, heh heh, you can find yourself desperately stuck without any hints.
Unless you’re ever stuck, the game is easily finished under an hour.
The game is built around Robinson Crusoe’s long toil to build a new boat for himself. You don’t directly participate in any of the boat building activities, but everytime you successfully finish a chapter, you get the option to update your boat. I wish there were some direct involvement required for constructing the ship – could’ve an extention on the game.
The hidden object puzzles as well as the minigames are quite easy – except a few places I talked about before. You get the usual number of hints, and you can add more by locating any inscription on wood in the scenes. Keeping in sync with the new style, you need to interact with part of the environment to gain some of the objects in the list – opening a chest, pulling a chain, looking into a sack, etc.
Graphics and Music: Adventures of Robinson Crusoe comes with crispy fresh and bright graphics, suitably accompanied by a mix of middle age English and modern music. Cheerful atmosphere alright!
Bottomline: A short game, with not too much stress on syncing with the main story. So what? This at least has nothing unnecessary to clutter it up, nothing excess to bore you. It is just an hour or two of good old plain entertainment. And mind boggling puzzles.
Go for it!
Rating:
Righteous Kill 2: Revenge of the Poet Killer Review
By Overture Films, published by BigFish Games, 2009
As an investigator in the NYPD, hunt down a copycat killer and try to stop a rash of murders across New York City! Work through multiple murder scenes, collecting evidence and clues, and examine the items in exciting forensic based mini-games. Put all the clues together to determine who the new Poet Killer is before another victim is found, and decide who to trust as the suspects begin to include those inside the police force.
Story: Drugs. Illegal weapons. And a righteous murderer with a poetic inclinations out to make everyone pay. Detective Erica Dean doesn’t need any more to confuse her as she tries to make sense of the series of brutal killings that plague New York City.
A more dangerous and sophisticated plot than the first Righteous Kill that starts brightly but drops pace into the first few chapters and reduces to the same idiocy that was the main fault of the original Righteous Kill game. How long can you watch unworthy incompetent detectives who constantly miss clues about 10 times in each location and get dragged on a noose by the murderer?
Righteous Kill 2: Revenge of the Poet killer also suffers from the shadowy ghosts of the first story. In fact, the general premise is exactly the same – plenty of evidences planted overwhelmingly against one person (note: it is never explained how such farfetched evidence could actually be planted), then the detective starts going after an inconsequential object (in this case, a cheap pen) and then the tides turn in the direction of a completely different person. Only thankfully, this time the antagonist isn’t an obvious suspect.
Clearly, the plot could’ve been way better narrated and included the involvement of the detectives in some way. Otherwise, the story is almost all about one man’s thirst for vengeance – and the official force’s total ineptitude in stopping him.
Gameplay: Finally, Righteous Kill 2 brings some detective feel with it. Now besides finding the same items in a considerably larger variety of locations, you also have to interact with certain elements of the locations to further unlock new objects.
Innovations have been added here and there. Like in find the difference puzzles, you’re not given the traditional nearly identical versions of the same picture – instead, you’re given 4 pictures of the same point taken from different angles. The old fingerprint finding puzzle from Righteous Kill 1 is given a new polish – you’re given powders of different colours for different objects. The game’s definitely spiced up! The internet hacker trapping game has been extended into three levels; however, the light background turns out to be a distraction for this minigame.
The new minigames that have been added strongly resemble those in CSI: New York or Women’s Murder Club. One is “reconstructing the face”, done in a very callous way compared to CSI: NY – it isn’t even a minigame at all in the end. The others include the alchemy-like forensic lab testing games found in Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet. They’re interesting, and unlike WMC: DIS, kept short and only whenever necessary (which is rare, given that you’ve no detecting to do).
As for the actual playing part, you are given a GPS enabled cell phone by Sergeant Vasquez. You flit around New York from one location to another using this. The number of locations, I presume, is slightly greater than before, but they’re still repeated shamelessly.
For those that have trouble finding the items, the new unofficial hint system has been added – you can click on an object in the Hidden Object list to see its silhouette.
Graphics and Music: Righteous Kill 2 doesn’t have as clear and bold graphics as Righteous Kill 1; the hidden objects are also more devious to find. The makeshift animation and the deceit in the name of providing original clips from the movie – which incidentally include only cars driving by – just as in Righteous Kill 1, are enough to drive one mad.
The music is thankfully fine, perfectly accentuating the atmosphere of thrill and suspense in the game.
Bottomline: The plot is better presented and although thoroughly confusing and at times, meaningless, it has some dregs of believability. Neither is it as shallow or predictable as before. The poems are well placed enough to be impressive. Now if only the animation didn’t want to make you boil your head in soda water, the game would’ve been mighty fine. But as it is, a story of a cocky yet “the best” detective making mistake after mistake, this is just an average or slightly above average game.
But a better game than the first one. If you like Detective games and engrossing hidden object games that require your undivided attention for a few hours, play this one.
Rating: out of 5
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