Get this game. Right now. Download it right now. Everyone I have shown this game to has loved it, and they’ve all shown their friends, who also loved it. It’s that kind of game.

From the first five minutes you’ll see why Ancient Quest of Saqqarah deserves its high stars. The graphics alone are breathtaking, more than you’ll expect from a meager 26MB download. Immediately, rich artwork and dramatic cutscenes take you to an underground oasis in Egypt, where the chaotic god Seth is gathering his magic to break out of his prison and take over the world. Of course, you are the only one who can stop him.

Stopping Seth means unlocking the temples of seven famous Egyptian gods, like Isis, Thot, and Anubis. Each god’s temple has a different puzzle mechanic, though your final goal is the same: light up all squares on the game board. The way CodeMinion has executed seven unique puzzle types in one game should be applauded. The first temple starts out with simple Match-3 token swapping, but before you know it, you’re rotating tokens, highlighting them, lining them up… Each puzzle type does take some getting used to, but if you ever get bored or stuck, you can always switch temples and try something else – the game is built in such a way that you can unlock several temples within your first hour of play. It’s brilliant.

The only thing we dislike about this game is Khufu the magical monkey. He serves both as your guide through the seven temples and also as your backup power – create enough combos and he’ll unleash a spell that will clear difficult squares on your board. He’s mighty useful, and you can even upgrade his magic by playing a short but fun mini-game – but Khufu is a TALKING magical monkey and that makes all the difference. Fully voiced, his overly dramatic accent and sometimes insane laughter can distract you from enjoying an otherwise perfect game.

With more than 500 levels and additional downloadable content, this is the kind of game that can suck up hours of your time. If you’re not convinced, download this game and try it out. We guarantee you, you’ll never look at puzzle games the same way again.

Graphics:
Gameplay:
Story:
Sound:
Overall Rating:

• Use Shuffle power not only when you’re stuck, but also when there are many obstacles on the screen. Shuffle’s magic will crumble them all.
• In the Isis temple, try to start by making matches on the bottom of the board. That way the whole board will be scrambled and many combos can come out of this.
• In the temple of Thot, when you are completely stuck, it’s often a good idea to restart the level. Each time the puzzle is a bit different.
• When solving a Thot’s puzzle, you can get a hint of the final solution by observing the initial layout of tokens. For example – if there’s a lot of red pieces in one spot, there’s a huge chance that it’s the place where most of red tokens should go.
• Remember that colored fields in the Temple of Thot don’t have to be connected. For example – you can have several closed groups or red tokens and it will still count.
• In the temple of Anubis try to make chains as long as possible. If you match 5 pieces, you will be rewarded with a multicolor token. The multicolor token will be charged if you manage to create an even longer chain.
• In the temple of Sobek, if you are having a problem with a nasty Tomb or Seth’s Symbol obstacles, try fidning a charged token, move it close to the obstacle and detonate it by making a match.
• Temple of Sobek is easy if you’re patient and realize that you have a very big control over the board and that you can move tokens across the grid by rotating fields.
• In the temple of Horus the time falls down very quickly. However, you get additional time for making matches. The bigger the match, the more time you get.
• The temple of Bast requires more strategy and planning than other temples. Each time your move doesn’t end with a match, new tokens appear and you can get stuck.
• In the temple of Bast, you can prevent small tokens from growing by placing another token over them. It’s very useful for avoiding obstacles like the Seth’s Symbol.
• In the temple of Osiris there are often some places of the board separated from the rest of the grid. It’s often a better idea to try to make as many matches as possible to charge Khufu’s magic, than to try to fill them manually.

(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

 Loading ...