I have Windows XP and had no problems with this game. It is two games in one since the game for Kit is slightly different from the one for Ellis. It is a match game with mini-games in between, and they are quite challenging. Overall, the Kit side game seemed to me to be easier than the Ellis side---right up until the final challenge (I never could win the Kit final challenge). The one bug was that you have to start the game over to get to the highest level, but you only have to do that for either Kit or Ellis (not both). Be careful not to spend all your bonuses on early rounds...they come in handy in those final rounds. Overall, enjoyable game with good graphics and interesting play.

OK, so I played all the way to level 30 on the "hard" puzzle mode and when the level started, there was no indication of how many of each type needed to be cleared. I ended up with all but 7 tiles broken out and they were filled with Pirates. The thermometer went to 0 and the game ended saying basically better luck next time if you had another chance. Any actually finish this game on the puzzle level yet?

I love this game. It's your 'match 3' game but it is full of tools to help you do that and you can play on easy, normal, hard and choose between arcade (my favorite) or classic.

In arcade mode, when you match of the same icon, it breaks the tiles they are sitting on. The screen moves down as you clear the screen. You have bombs, brick walls, lightning bolts Spainiards and other tools and hindrances throughout game play.

In classic mode you need clear so many of each icon. Again you have tools to help, my favorite is the magic bag that lowers the number of icons needed to end the level. The spider is a pain but he makes the gameplay more urgent.

I enjoy the game very much. Colorful and well put together.
Thanks for submitting it.

C

Had to come back and comment. The program was running fine for awhile. Then it crashed my computer, had a heck of a time getting windows to reboot again. (Vista Home Premium) As soon as I uninstalled and cleaned registry.
Everything was back to normal.
To bad, I liked the game.

I pass on most games here but this one sounded interesting and I gave it a try. Have to say I'm very glad I did! It's not your typical "match 3" puzzle game, and is quite entertaining. I'm also happy to see that you can close the game and when you open it your level has been saved. Thumbs up on this one!

I've bought several match-3 games and this is now one of my favorites! A little different, you have to choose your "match" piece, and drag it to the board and place. Nice alternative to "click and drag" of other match-3's. Thanks GOTD and Realore for another great download!

I like the game but the English is too off to fully follow story line.

ok..downloaded this booger 4 times..crashed! (I have vista hp) So I went to the publisher's website and downloaded the trial version..and walla, it worked. (thinking this might "clear any errors" in the free download, I tried again, and it still crashed) What this tells me is that your downloads are not complete or original, or the publisher is ripping you off! I really liked the trial version...I guess I'll have to buy it...GO FIGURE.

First post here, please go easy.

1. I am having a problem with the water level that I did not see addressed in the help file. Is there anything specific I can do to slow down the water from rising?

Thank you GGOTD for another awesome game!

Comment #48, about changing the game.ini so the game loads in windowed mode, fixed my DX8 error message! :D I tried it on a whim, so if you're one of the ones having this issue, you may want to give it a go, as well.

I have tryed all day to down load piratestories and i have never had any problems with other games, i have lost down load several times i even saved it, but won't pick it back up where it ended,so redid down load and boom, lost it after an hr or so again. have enough memmory, don't know what it is with this site's download about ready to giv it up.

I downloaded this the last time it was given away and really loved it. I still have it on my computer but haven't played it in a while. I'll have to make time for it again soon.

Thanks GGOTD!

How can you release a game in 2009 that won't run on DX9/ DX10 hardware. Absolutely pathetic.

It downloads fine but when I go to install it on my laptop which has Windows Vista Home Premium, it has an error and say that it has an invalid key? What gives?

Thanks Marcie, I tried it again, and it does save. That makes it just about perfect for match 3 fans. The English is charming, I imagine sea men and pirates probably didn't have the best English at the time they were sailing the seas in wooden ships.

This looks like a fun game!
I downloaded it without a hitch and have no problems switching between windowed or full screen mode.
I have xp which is maybe the reason...
Oh and the imperfect English is not an issue, IMHO.
It is a game, not a linguistics program.
Thanks GGOTD and Realore !

Game is really decent for a match three game. Easy to install and play. However, I just don't get the point of the storylines. They really have nothing to do with the game. At least they are skippable.

Did not work on my Acer computer (under Vista). It loaded, but then kept flashing pieces of windows that were open, such as the installation window. I couldn't do anything. It asked for my name and was unresponsive to the keyboard, as well as to the mouse. I had to ctrl-alt-del to bring up the task manager to end the process, because there were NO other options and the taskbar was gone. Maybe it's just my computer, but I can't see why there would be a problem like this, when other games run fine. My UAC is completely turned off, too.

Ok, one thing I forgot to mention was that hubby's computer is running XP.

I got my own laptop back this afternoon and just downloaded, installed and activated the game. Abosolutely no issue in my machine. Go figure! I told him to just delete the stuff I put in his today! I'm afraid to change any of the options based on others' experiences.

thanks for a good game.

Thank you #48 (JayG) for the clue about the .ini file. I'm running Vista and, although the program would run full screen, it crashed whenever I tried to change the settings. By manually changing the settings in the ini file, I was able to get the program to run.
A word for Vista users...before I could save the new settings, I had to change the User security setting (under properties) to include write. Although I'm running the game as administrator, Vista wouldn't accept the change until I changed the security for user.

A nice looking 3-in-a-row game, with good graphics and some interesting tweaks as you advance. The spelling and diction in the background storyline were, however, terrible and of the type expected from Japan or China. Whilst my 8y.o. kids loved the game I hated the poor English. A 50/50 rating from this household.

once again I will repeat that this game does save. I can only think that your game isn't saving because you have not entered your name as a player. I have started and stopped the game several times and I pick up at the level where I left off. GL

I'm sorry but I just don't get the point of this game! It's gone!

Lame been there done that got the (T) shirt..down load...unload.2 min..

Needed a replacement for 'Around the World in 80 Days' which had become unstable and started giving me some serious system crashes. This one just might work out, once I figure out the 19 pages of instructions.

Installed and played fine on XP SP2. I HATE the blackout levels but I'm sure I'll get used to them. So far Windowed worked but I'm used to this not working in certain games ('Golden Prague' comes to mind) so I will deal with it if I must. It didn't appear that my game saved initially as I had to reset the difficulty level but once I did I was right back where I left off.

Some day I am going to see if I can make a deal with some of these game developers to 'edit' their English help and game screens for them. My husband has a web design business... maybe it can be a sideline :)

Thanks GGAOTD and a special thanks to Whiterabbit for his in depth review. Hope you are feeling better (I recall you were under the weather a few weeks back) and hope your son is safe.

Happy New Years to all,

Lonni

Hey, is this an upgrade version since last time this was given away (my first ever game giveaway :))? If it is I'll upgrade.

Nice three match game but sadly the same as above mentioned problems with Vista HP it plays only on low resolution and loads slowly.
Tried everything but alas to no avail, uninstalled.

Hi Christy,

Sorry to hear you're having problems getting this game to run. There is always the possibility that the game isn't compatible with your graphics card. Some games do have conflicts with certain graphic chips so you may be one of the unlucky ones. There definitely seems to be a problem because several people have reported the same or similar problems.

What I suggest is a bit of a bind, but it would either confirm or not whether what I say is the case. Remove your graphics card from the Motherboard (making sure you've unplugged the computer and earthed yourself before you do this) which will automatically switch the graphics over to the onboard graphics chip. Check the back of your computer to see if there's a socket for the monitor (apart from the one (or two) that you find on the graphics card, where all the motherboard input output sockets are and not where the expansion bays are. If your computer is relatively new it should have at least a 32Mb RAM chip, which should work with this game.

P.M. me in the forums if you need anymore advice.

Regards

Stephen

I too am getting the "needs video hardware supported by DirectX 8.0 or higher version" error. I have re-downloaded and re-installed the game, I have installed the latest drivers for my GeForce 7600, I have DirectX 9 installed and running successfully (I play graphics intensive games, and also do 3D art, so I know my display is fine.) I have rebooted several times in the course of this process. I still get the same error. I am really looking forward to playing this game, can someone please tell me how to fix this error?

Thank you.

Like most genres of games, match three games come in several flavours, each with it’s own characteristics, so to say “Played one, played them all” is a very narrow minded statement, unless it's just that you're uninformed about the wide range of different types of match three games?

If you really believe your statement to be the case then you’re missing a treasure trove of excellent games ranging from the fantastic Luxor series (especially the last two in the series of five), the Jewel Quest style of match three, that includes games such as Treasures of Montezuma, Around the World in 80 days and the Rise of Atlantis (plus it’s even better sequel, Call of Atlantis that was released recently). Then you have others such as pathway match three games like 4 Elements and Finding Doggy and yet more like those where you have to uncover areas to reveal what’s beneath like Glyph or just to remove a specific covering be it gold silver or even wood for example The Cradle series and the Kahuna Reef Series. Then there’s the unusual such as Circulate (by Pie eyed games) where you have to bring together and matching coloured balls or sometimes cubes by moving a circular drum that’s filled with maze like pathways. Oh yes and lets not forget games like the bubble bobble games and the collapse series of games and another circular form of match thee game like Zenerchi and Full Circle, both of which have their own differences. All of these games I mention are very different from each other an in no way could be construed as being the same game dressed up in some different skins. Each one of the games I mention has different game mechanics. There’s even more such as those where you move whole rows and columns for example Mariposa, but my memory of Match three is relatively new as I only really discovered their pleasure just before the game giveaway started back in December 2006, so am missing a few that are just on the tip of my tongue so to speak..

The following are a list of match three games that I would highly recommend anyone who isn’t sure what’s what to try. I’ve included games from most of the decent varieties of match three. You can get them all as demos if you Google them.

Zenerchi, Circulate, Sproink, Around the world in 80 Days, Glyph2, Zodiac and ZZed ( marble games that I forgot to mention above), Big Kahuna Reef 2, Rise of Atlantis and Call of Atlantis, Treasures of Montezuma, Serpengo, Age of Japan II, Alchemy (another one with an unusual twist on the match three genre, where you have to fit different coloured shapes together. Even games like Psychoballs could be considered match three (though only loosly). And there are others that I won’t bother to mention as I’m sure I’ve made my point. Though all of the above is rather academic if what you really meant to say was that you just don’t like match three games, lol.

I was so disappointed last time this game was offered because it kept hanging on level 10 for me and I couldn't get past the bonus level. I had my fingers crossed today after installing; everything is working great! Beautiful game, it has the "it" factor that makes some games better than the rest. Nice graphics, good sound, challenging play as you get further into it, backed by a fun story. It even has a pretty good help file. You can't save but I think that is meant as part of the challenge. I haven't tried the puzzle mode yet but think it will add to replay ability.
9 doubloons out of 10, keeper.

While an interesting twist on the whole Match Three thing, this game ran so slow that it was pretty much unplayable. Also, the grammar burns...

I love this game! Sadly, I am also having the above mentioned crashes.
I am running Vista Home Premium.
When I go to options, I can change the volume and turn tips on and off, but if I go for graphics quality, or try to switch to windowed the game crashes.
Tried a few things, no change.
But other than that, the game plays fine, and I will def. be keeping this.

Thanks GGotD :)

Thank you for this great new years gift.
I like this game. Great music and good graphics.
Keep on bringing those games!

Exceptional match 3 game. Kit & Ellis is the game that got me hooked on GAOTD, Realore and match 3 games. None have been half as enjoyable as this one. Simple and beautiful graphics paired perfectly with equally haunting and compelling music. I love that you can play either as Kit or Ellis and get their take on the story. Fun and challenging!!! WTG and Thank You, GAOTD & Realore! In my humble opinion, this one's one of the very best!

Match 3 game. Snore. Played one, played them all.

Oh Fantastic game...many thanks.

comment by spiritwolf... no instructions. I find the "help" button on the main screen answered all my questions. Was there something specific you wanted to know?


Comment by Johan Great game - I loved it. Only negative is that you can’t save your game!
My game saves, did you put in a player name for yourself?
I don't understand why vista players are having a hard time. I have vista and have none of your problems... with this game or anyothers downloaded from here. Maybe its good not being computer savy, I just hit download and don't worry about anything else.

Thank you! Looks Great!

I forgot to mention, I installed on Vista Home Premium 64. Video Card is NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS.

I'm also having a hard time getting this game to run. It installed ok yet when I double click the desktop icon, the screen flickers off and on a few times then gives me an error message that says I need DirectX 8 or higher. Ran dxdiag tool and it says I have version 10. Also tried deleting and re-installing, got the same thing again. Any help as to the problem?

Installed easily XP Pro. Game play similar to other match three, with a twist as mentioned in previous postings.

Have to point out the negative about the story line. With the horrible lack of English grammar, spelling, and punctuation, the story line is kind of hard to follow....

All in all, give it a 6/10.

Thanks GGOTD!

Easily downloaded and activated. A truly fun game as well. Thanks GGOTD!

How unfortunate, when I try to change it to windowed, it crashes! :{
Looks like a good giveaway, though.

Great potential, however, once arrived at level 20 it's programmed to not let you go further unless you switch to "hard" and start all over again... which deserves a thumb down as I think it's not a good idea to make people start all over in order to go to the end of the game. As much as I liked both Age Of Japan I and II as less I like this one.

Thanks! My favorite game from Realore is "Age of Japan." Looking forward to this one.

I downloaded it and have played it up to round 10 but he killed me. I really like the match 3 type of games and all. Just will take a bit of time and practice to figure out how to kill the level 10 guy I guess. I am sure I know how to do it, he just surprised me was all, so I am sure I can get him next time.

This is a nice game. Realore Studios games are always nice. But what would be better is a game that was not a repeat. 2009 is just starting. Hopefully so will some meaningful game downloads.

Great game - I loved it. Only negative is that you can't save your game!