So. You’ve played all the adventure games. You’ve played all the match three games. You’ve seen all there is to see and every time you pick up a new casual game you think, “Oh, this is just like [generic game x]”. Well dust off your mouse and buckle up, because Boomzap’s new game “Jewels of Cleopatra” combines all those styles into a really neat new gameplay system and adds a host of mini-games to boot!

At first glance, you’d assume that you’re playing yet another “match three gems and clear the board” type game, but you’ll quickly see that you’re dead wrong. In Jewels of Cleopatra your goal is to match gems and clear tiles, but you aren’t clearing the board. Instead, you lead the stunning and brilliant Dr. Tombstone from the entrance of a crypt to the exit by sending her across tiles you’ve cleared. You can left click to swap gems and use specials, and right click to redirect the capable Doctor to wherever you’d like her to move. It’s quite a fun system, actually, and combines the best parts of both adventure and puzzle games.

You’d get bored pretty quickly if that’s all there was to it, so Boomzap thoughtfully provided some obstacles for the brave gal to navigate through. You’ll have to carefully lead her around (or mercilessly destroy) scorpions, mummies, locusts, and all manner of nasty crypt-type traps and challenges. To help you on your journey, each level has a few treasure chests lying around that award you a random special to unleash when the stages get a bit rough (and you can collect up to nine of each type, for those of you that like to hoard things).

The game also has a number of minigames to break up the levels a bit, and they’re all pretty entertaining. The scarab races in particular are fun enough that they could easily be a stand alone game with a few extra features, and you’ll probably find yourself racing over and over to try to get 1st place for the specials that are awarded as prizes. Also, at the end of each temple there’s a special level where you get to race the game’s villain to the ancient treasure awaiting you.

The graphics and music are both well done (the music in particular has just the right feel to it), and while the sound effects can be repetitive they don’t really cross the line into annoying. The story, however, was a bit bland - but honestly the game would have been just fine with even a less interesting story. We did like the comic book style art for the story, though. Also, the left and right clicking functions might be confusing for new players until they really get the hang of it, although the game does a good job of explaining how they work via popups.

All in all, Jewels of Cleopatra is a really fun game that has something for everyone. You’ve never played something exactly like it, so it’s at least worth your time to download, and it’s got enough staying power to find a permanent home on more than a few hard drives.

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