Luxor 2

"Enjoyable puzzle fun on the XBLA"

This review will be on the Luxor 2 port on the Xbox 360 (the original being off of the PC). Mumbo Jumbo has developed an interesting puzzle game that combines quick thinking and quick reactions……but will it be enough to pull in the console gamers on this as they did with the computer ones? Lets find out….

---
Story (5/10)

Please Note: In a game like this, story doesn't necessarily play much into the experience. This game does have a story of sorts so I'm covering it here. However, when I put in my final score it will count for far less then I'd normally would.

Anyways, the basically premise is that Set, Ancient Egyptian God of The Underworld, is out to take over the lands of the Nile. You are a humble nobody granted the powers of Osiris for some reason to combat Set's nefarious plot of sending colored balls into the pyramids of power via evil scarabs that are located all over the world of Luxor. As you progress, you elevate yourself in position so that in the afterlife you can enjoy it better as you proceed to defend the lands.

….Not a story that's going to win any literary awards for sure…..but then again, it's not interfering in the main gameplay either. This is a good thing indeed.

-----
Gameplay (8/10)

Gameplay is simple yet surprisingly deep. You are the winged paddle shaped think at the bottom of the screen. Unlike a Breakout or Arkanoid clone however, you are not rebounding objects off of yourself, but rather you use it as a launching platform for sending up your own colored balls. What you are launching at is well……more colored balls…..being pushed in by Set's bug minions from different starting points on the map you are at. The purpose of the game is to match up 3 or more of the same colored balls in a row as they are being pushed around the game field before any balls are pushed into the pyramids of power located at the end of a set track the bug minions follow. When balls match they explode and depending on gravity (which in this game pulls down towards yourself) balls that might have been ahead of the ones you've destroyed will either stop moving or roll backwards towards the remaining balls further back on the track or to the bug minion. If you are able to destroy all of the balls a minion pushes, they blow up too in a shower of point items and tokens that are accumulated for extra lives. Blowing balls up in general can also sometimes result in tokens coming down….as well as special power ups that you can use to help you complete your task. Power ups include a safety net to catch items falling to the bottom that you can get to in time, calling in a thunderstorm to randomly destroy balls, slowing down time, and many other powerful effects. You keep this up over LOTS of different levels (many of which do get recycled from time to time) and at varying different speeds and different numbers of individual insects on the screen at one time. In the adventure mode, there is a final stage or goal to make (as well as bonus stages where you get an energy dagger weapon and you have to destroy all the balls on the screen before they leave the screen a la Galaga)…..but there are also other modes to play as such as survival, multiplayer, etc. Because the game is so long, you can stop a play session at any time and pick it up later on. The downside to this is that you can only ever have one save file (and it's only a temporary save, so if you lose you have to start again) and if you start over instead of reloading the game you will lose it. That is probably my biggest complaint about the game play and it's really just a minor annoyance….so that says a lot about this game.

---
Sound (9/10)

I have to say that I really liked to sound effects and music for this game. The music is obviously stereotypical Egyptian music but it's well synthed and appropriate for the theme that this game takes. Stereo surround sounds very nice on this, but mono isn't going to disappoint either. Effect sounds include some one or two liner announcement VOs (from a male or female VO and sped up or slowed down to make it sound like there were more VOs then just 2) as well as explosions, clangs, gongs, and the such. All of it just really fits in well in terms of tempo and giving a sense of urgency.

---
Graphics (7/10)

Graphics are colorful and vibrant but simple in design. I understand that one shouldn't expect Gears of War or Blue Dragon graphic effects…but to be honest, this could of easily have been made for an X-Box or Gamecube with no changes from the 360 version. Sometimes, the backgrounds can make it hard to determine where a launched ball will hit (half of the time it's intentional for difficulty purposes, but half of the time it's not) but in general it's not something that's going to make or break this game. Hi Def obviously improves color saturation and some definition…but again, it's something that could have been done on a last gen system.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In conclusion, I can't stress enough how much fun I've had with this game. There are plenty of times that I've just been in a mind exercise mood and this is a good choice for those types of days. It's not original, and it is available (sometimes even easier and cheaper) on the PC…….but for a nice low price budget XBLA game, it's a great value and fun for the whole family. My score has been rounded up from the original 7.9 as I think it deserves credit for simple fun and accessability.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/07