Giveaway of the Day - Around the World in 80 Days

Introduction:

Most community members will be fully aware of what’s involved and how to play a match three or more game, so I’m not going to go into great detail about the mechanics of this game. The download is quite large for an arcade game at just over 38Mb (though it’s miniscule compared to many DVD based games that are available now). Once installed it is just over 55Mb in size.

Quote:

You only have 80 days to circumnavigate the globe. Think that sounds easy? Travel back in time to the late 19th century and get ready for spectacular adventures on land, sea and air together with the English daredevil Phileas Fogg and his loyal French servant Passepourtout. Use the unique chance to visit four continents and complete the inconceivable journey in this outstanding puzzler based on the classic adventure novel by Jules Verne.

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Reference: http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/2758/around-the-world-in-80-days/index.html?afcode=aff2fe81434f Accessed 6th Sept 08

The Game:

Apparently (I’ve read somewhere) this is an upgrade (from Playrix) of The Rise of Atlantis, another game that we have been given previously via the giveaway project. After playing several levels, I do agree that the game is very similar, and that it does have some improvements over its predecessor; though you’ll need to play both to be able to see the differences (apart from the obvious graphical differences).

I much prefer the way this games storyline unfolds. It sticks to the original by Jules Verne apart from the American leg of the journey which isn’t true to the original story. The graphics are gorgeous and the music okay. It’s classical in nature and works well with the overall feel of the game. Overall, I think the majority are going to be pleased with the game play despite it being a match three game. (check out the list of freebies at the end of the review)

You can access the options menu as well as the help menu and high scores from the games main menu. The options menu enables you to adjust the music as well as toggle between full screen and windowed mode. There’s also a toggle to switch between your default mouse pointer and a custom pointer and another to turn on or off the in game tips.

The game is fully mouse controlled, with only the keyboard required to input your profile name.

The game play follows closely that of Rise of Atlantis, including having to move broken artifacts to the bottom of the playing field (most o the time) to complete the level; though the storyline (as is obvious from the title of the game) is based around Jules Verne’s story as opposed to Atlantis. You earn power ups by creating matches of four or more. You can see what power ups are available from the help menu, and include (Amongst others) bombs, extra lives, time and points. Some of the power ups are upgradeable as well. The first one to become available when you’ve created enough matches of four or more is the hammer which you can use to knock out either one tile, unlock a lock or unfreeze a tile. As you create more matches this is upgraded to a super hammer which destroys all tiles of the same color; further upgrades include a bomb and a super bomb. This ability to upgrade power ups reminds me of Treasures of Montezuma and Sky bubbles Deluxe a little, though it’s in a much more limited way than those two games. As you progress some of the more advanced levels require specific power ups to survive the level; (unfortunately I haven’t got that far yet, so can’t elaborate). There are also bonus levels at the end of each country, where you have to uncover a stamp by clearing away the Golden tiles (which is proof that Fogg has visited that particular country) . An additional bonus with this game is the free screensaver, which is the very same screensaver that was given away back in June called Around the World: London. It appears that there are another six to unlock, but after reading other reviews, it maybe that only the first one, which is unlocked when you first open the game, is a screensaver. I think the rest may be wall papers. I hope I’m wrong though, because I like the Around the World screensavers that Astro Gemini sell for around $20 each

System Requirements:

OS………………………………Win 98, ME, 2000, XP and Vista
CPU……………………………..600MHz
System Memory (RAM)………..128Mb
Graphics…………………….…..DX8 or later

Videos:

The first link is my video, which covers the introductory story and the initial dialogue between Phileas Fogg and his valet Passepourtout as well as the first level of the game, though because I had problems capturing any video using the commercial version, I used the online version which although the same game does have a couple of slight differences to the menu buttons. The second and third links takes you to Reflexive and Big Fish Games (BFG) respectively. Both these video’s are worth watching, especially the Reflexive video. You’ll need to click on the video button once you’ve been taken to either of Reflexive’s or BFG’s web pages. The third video, posted on You Tube is very poor quality, but still conveys a reasonable impression of the game. I’ve also taken over 50 screen captures of the early stages of this dialogue and log book, as well as of the initial stages of the game:

1)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AUR3SWGA8f0

2)

http://www.reflexive.com/AroundtheWorldin80Days.html?related=10

3)

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/2758/around-the-world-in-80-days/index.html?afcode=aff2fe81434f

4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P01MjiIWnVI

Images:

As a Slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Around%20the%20World%20in%2080%20Days/?albumview=slideshow

All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Around%20the%20World%20in%2080%20Days/?start=all

Googled:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Around+the+World+in+80+days+arcade+game&btnG=Search+Images

Other reviews worth reading:

http://www.gamezebo.com/games/around-world-80-days/review

http://www.gamemile.com/game_review/windows/view/Around_the_World_in_80_Days/

User reviews:

http://www.gamezebo.com/games/around-world-80-days/user-reviews

http://www.reflexive.com/AroundtheWorldin80Days.html?related=10

Conclusion:

Despite a preponderance of match three puzzles that abound these days, this is definitely one of the better ones (IMO). It’s got all the ingredients to make it a pleasure to play, including the storyline, which doesn’t interfere with game play because you can easily click on a button to pass it by quickly. I’m not a big fan of match three puzzles, (apart from Treasures of Montezuma and Sky Bubbles Deluxe), but I do think this is one of those you’ll find hard to put down once you’ve started to play. So I think it’s worth a good 8 out of 10 despite not being an original idea. The latter levels are very hard, especially the last ones where you have to move objects sideways rather than downwards. I would have preferred the power ups to be cumulative from level to level, but instead, you have to recharge them each time you start a new level.

Other Stuff:

The following link takes you to a free online version of Around the World in 80 Days; so if you missed today’s giveaway you can still play the game.

Free Online Version:

http://games.skunkstudios.com/games/show_web_game/1080

Free ‘commercial’ Games:

Also if you like this genre there’s two or three similar games available for free from both the Game top and Freegamepick sites. As always I should remind you that games from these two sites do open up your browser when you close the game down, though it isn’t redirected. You just have to click on the x to close it down. I’ve checked all the games from both sites with F-Secure and PCGuard and found no viri or malware attached to any of the files. Gametop have recently introduced more advertising which kicks in whenever you click on a game (while on the website); though you can bypass the advert. It just means a few more mouse clicks and an extra 10 or so seconds wasted before you can download your totally free commercially available game. There are a growing number of match three games now available from these sites. I’ve starred the ones I think are the better ones. You can find the following free commercial match three or more games:

Pharaohs Puzzle: *****

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/pharaoh-puzzle/download.html

Eldorado Puzzle: *****

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/eldorado-puzzle/download.html

Amazon Quest:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/amazon-quest/download.html

Gift Puzzle:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/gift-puzzle/download.html

Fairy Puzzle: (previous giveaway from Elefun)

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/fairy-puzzle/download.html

Adventure Match:

http://freegamepick.com/en/games_adventurematch.html

Matching Gems: *****

http://freegamepick.com/en/games_matchinggems.html

Music:

All the music is in the ogg format, so you will need to convert any music you wish to use into that format before exchanging the files found in the following folder. You can download a free audio converter from the freeware section of the giveaway project. There are two or three in the audio converters section. You must rename any track you change to the one you’re exchanging. I’d keep a back up of the ones you are removing just in case there’s any problems.

C:\……..\Around the World in 80 Days\Base\Sound\Music

While searching for a You Tube video of the game (so as to save me some time preparing one myself I came across an interesting Google Earth video called Around the World in 8 minutes (though it’s actually 8 mins 58 sec). It’s nothing to do with the game, but as it’s sort of related, I thought I’d post it with the review.

Around the world in 8 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5K4k4p8wEY

looks nice, but puzzle games just aren’t my speed thanks for the offer though