Giveaway of the Day - Age of Japan

Introduction:
Age of Japan received a positive 89% of 210 votes when it was first given away back in May 2007 and prompted 66 comments which you can read by following the link below; in particular read Merril’s comment #36 and also Swans comment # 35
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/age-of-japan/#

The following is the introduction to the game given at Realores home page:

Quote:

Age of Japan is an incredible puzzle entertainment, which shines with unique graphics. All 40 game levels are rendered with Japanese style and show different seasons of the year. The objective of the game is to swap game pieces to clear filled cells. You have a choice of two modes. In the Arcade mode you must clear cells in a limited time. A more relaxing play experience comes with the Puzzle mode, which lets you clear cells at your own pace

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Ref: Realore Studios: http://realore.com/ageofjapan/ March 15th 08

The game:

There are two game modes with bonus levels; 40 levels in all for each mode. The arcade mode is timed. The aim of the game is to remove sets of three or more jewels which are overlaid with filled elements. This must be accomplished within a predetermined time, which is different for each of thee three difficulty settings you can choose from the main menu. Each level has a different shaped board and filled elements pattern. New power ups are introduced as you progress through the levels and include such delights the multicolor bonus, score multipliers, the quake bonus a gem of a bonus that when collected in a matched set will cause the whole board to shake and destroys all matched pairs on the board; there’s also time bonuses and extras moves. You’ll also find special elements such as the broom that can be used to clean away any element you choose from the playing field (apart from locked elements) and two types of locked element and a trash element that cannot be destroyed under any circumstance.

There are bonus levels which differ from the main game in that the aim is to make as many combinations as possible in a given time as opposed to getting rid of specific elements and which can earn you bonus brooms, which are accumulative and may later help you through the more difficult stages.

The Puzzle modes game play is basically the same apart from it’s not timed. Instead you have to remove all the filled elements within a specified number of goes, which decrease from 43, to 35 to 30 depending upon whether you choose to play the game on hard, medium or easy difficulty settings.

You can leave a game at any time though your progress for that level will be lost. You have two options, to abort the game and return to the main menu where you can choose to start the same level again, play earlier levels, including the bonus rounds or choose to change modes. Or the second option is to exit the game that takes you straight to the exit screen and thence to windows.

The help menu shows you the basic moves, describes each bonus item and elements as well as differentiates between the three modes, (puzzle, arcade and bonus levels). The options menu has relatively few options to speak of. There are the usual sound and music sliders as well as a window toggle and also a toggle to change the elements of which there are two choices; either translucent jewels or more day to day objects such as leaves, fans and scrolls.

Images: All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Age%20of%20Japan/?start=all

Images: As a Slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Age%20of%20Japan/?albumview=slideshow

Images: Googled:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Age+of+Japan+game&btnG=Search+Images

Video: (you need to search about half way down the page for the Age of Japan video)

http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/123527/Age-Of-Japan.html

System Requirements

Operating System…………….Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista
CPU…………………………..Pentium 200 or higher
System Memory………………64 MB RAM;
Video Memory——————-2 MB
3D emulation………………….DirectX 3.0 or higher

Conclusion:
There are loads of games similar to today’s giveaway, for example, Jewels of Cleopatra and 10 Talismen are remarkably similar, though the former does have an excellent twist in the form of Dr Turnstone in which you have to guide the doctor across the playing board. I do love Age of Japan for it’s polished finish, though there are better. I actually missed this the first time around due to being in hospital, though it didn’t matter as I’d already bought it I unfortunately lost the second version almost as soon as I’d got it on boxing day. There’s also the sequel to Age of Japan and others called Jewel Quest and Jewel Quest 2. Jewel mines and an excellent one called Jewel match that is nearly as good as today’s offering as well as that superb jewel matching game Treasures of Montezuma to add to this sub genre of match three games. Though I think the best of this genre partly because of the fish is the Big Kahuna Reef and it’s sequel. Ultimately I’d go for at least one of those plus 10 Talismen, Montezuma and Jewels of Cleopatra in preference to Age of Japan; that said, it is a worthy game to have, especially for free and in my opinion well worth 7 out of 10 for playability. Every level has a different board shape and as an added bonus, each time you replay a level, or start a new game, that pattern of elements is always random, adding a lot of replayability to this game.

I love the introductory music, but find the in game music a little too boring. Thankfully you can change the music provided you convert whatever you wish to use to the ogg format first then rename it to the file you’re changing. You can find a couple of audio converters in the freeware library:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/cat/Audio_Video_Audio_Encoders_Converters/

Thank you very much Realore and to the game giveaway team for repeating this giveaway.