Luxor: Wrath of Seth [PSP]

"I've read a fe bad reviews of this game, gamerdad.com even stated the player will get bored by the second stage, and some people have berated Publishers who are putting out simple web based games such as Luxor, but the fact is they are perfect for portable gaming. They're perhaps not worth a full or budget UMD release, but hopefully these little neat and innovative titles from independant developers will do well from x360/Wii/PS3 downloads (and PSP downloads when Sony get their act together.)

As for the game itself, the mechanics involve sliding a recepticle at the bottom of the screen, similar to Breakout or Arkanoid (as such, I prefer the analog control) and shooting a ball into 2 or more of the same colour, with an indicator on the bottom of your 'shooter' showing what's next. So far so familiar, but unlike most other block/bubble/blob puzzlers, the different layouts of each stage really make a difference to your tactics, if you hesitate when the snake goes through a dip, or turns obscuring the rest of the chain, you might have to wait a while until the right part of the chain shows again, or shoot your ball away breaking your combo.

The combo system works well, as you get a helpful bonus item for every 3 'vanishes', whether you shoot a red at 2 reds, then a red at 4 reds, then blue at 2 blues, (GGRRBBRRRRGG) or you get the blue first, so one blue shot at the same chain above means the reds either side also join and vanish, followed by the greens which were either side of the reds. So some players will try to maximise the combo which is risky as the chain will get longer with all the groups of 2 made, waiting for that one ball to start the combo, while other players will get just as much out of the game by quickly firing off the balls to make the vanishes and not worry about bonus items and combos.

As well as the story mode which opens up the stages, there's practice and endless mode which are perfect to kill a few minutes. The graphics are clear and bright which is the main thing for a puzzler, and the green and yellow seem to be more distinctive than Puzzle Quest: COTW, so the game may be more colourblind friendly than other portable puzzlers. Sound and music are well integrated to the egyptian feel of the game, but the presentation feels a bit bare. At least the profile and save game system works well, for those who share their PSP. The thing that annoys me with some PSP games is it's hard to tell whether you share the same save, and input seperate names for hi-scores, or have completely seperate profiles (look at the difference between Lumines and Lumines II) Luxor has a system with seperate profiles, being able to quit the story at any time and continue from that stage, while the hi-scores for practice and endless modes are mixed, giving that competitive element.

Apart from the bare front end, my main gripe is that after setting up a combo, it's too easy to miss your rewards, as the bonus power-ups and coins fall quite fast. Overall a limited but fun game perfect for a few snatched minutes. 7/10 "

"I guess sooner or later a game of this type was bound to hit UMD and appear on my PSP. You probably know this as a webgame where you have to shoot balls in order to shorten and eventually destroy the snake of balls before it reaches the end. It has different online versions.. you can find this one, or the one where you shoot from the middle to the sides around you.

It's like this. You either love or hate this game. If you want to stop after 5 levels, this game is not for you. I'm still playing this game. It's awesome. I liked it online, but I usually wanted to do other stuff whilst sitting behind my pc so I quit playing it. On PSP it's a blessing. I only use my PSP when I'm traveling by train (just about every day) so now I could finally play it.

I guess it's easy enough to create a game like this. You just have to think of some power-ups that are useful. A story isn't even needed. It's an easy game to play as well. It graduately get's harder over time, but there hasn't been one single level I had to play more than 2 times to complete (I failed at 3 levels, but I nailed them the next time). It depends alot on what power-ups you get. I can't say anything about replayability because I haven't completed it yet. I'm still enjoying the levels. I suppose it has replayability because you get different strings and different power-ups each time you play a level.

The levels have alot of different styles. The balls don't often roll in the same way they did the level before. Some levels are twisted with tunnels, others are very straight and just go from left to right and up and down (which can be very hard at times).

I give it a 4 out of 5 because I can't stop playing it. Not a 5 because I just feel like the game has been rushed out. They COULD think about creating a story around it (instead of just levelnames).

Try playing it online first if you are thinking about getting this. Or just buy it. You won't be disappointed. Promise :)"