Casual Review

Full Review

You know what I like about casual games? You can sometimes play a game and know that someone really loved this game, and really put their heart into it. And there is something about some of the games from Eastern Europe that really give you feeling – and this is definitely one of those.

Sure, it’s not an original gameplay mechanic – let’s get that out of the way up front. Puzzle Labs made like a dozen games on this base mechanic over the last few years, and we really loved almost all of them. So when we first opened Ancient Mosaic, we were tempted to dislike it on general principles. But then, after we played for a while, we realized that the guys at Bee Games had really taken the mechanic to a new level, and added enough originality to the genre to really make their own new game. You could say that Ancient Mosaic is to Tile Quest what Luxor is to Zuma. They are both great games, and the new one is certainly similar enough to raise an eyebrow, but when you get into it, you see that they really are two different and complimentary games.

If you’ve never played a mosaic game, you can likely learn it in less time than it would take you to read this description. There are shapes – and you fill them in with other shapes. The shapes are all made to look like temples and animals and what-not. When you finish one, you get a little picture to show you what they were. This is good, because some of the shapes look a little like the esoteric wads of Lego blocks my daughter calls lions and tigers.

The biggest thing we liked about the game was that you could play through the whole story mode in three different game styles. You could play Action, where the mosaics move left and you have to fill them before they fall off the screen. This is the most stressful, but also the most entertaining. There is also the strategy mode, which has no timer, but moves the mosaic left each time you place a piece. This was great for when we were distracted, and didn’t want to worry about time. Try playing it while watching TV – I seem to get about one location per episode of Seinfeld. Then there is the classic mode, which is what you may be more used to – where the mosaics don’t move, but you are pressured by the conveyor bringing new pieces. To be honest, with the two new play modes available, I didn’t play this much.

In all, this is by far the new standard in cool mosaic games, and we’re pleased to see that Bee Games is continuing its string of highly playable casual games. Go check it out.

Review by Nick Kojima