Giveaway of the Day - The Cursed Wheel

The Cursed Wheel:

10 second review:

If you don’t want to read my full review, here’s a 19 second quick review. I’d give The Cursed Wheel 8 out of 10, It‘s an unusual slant on the match three genre with three distinct modes of play to keep you entertained. Well worth downloading if you haven’t already got it from a previous giveaway. It’s free standing so can be played from a flash drive and/or can be transferred from one computer to another. Excellent giveaway.

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Main Review:

Installation:

The Cursed Wheel received 51% of 328 votes when it was given away back in January 08, and only 48% of 467 when it was given away last November 08. Don’t let the poor voting put you off though as this is quite a versatile game despite it’s match three connections. (b.t.w. – I don’t mean to imply match three’s are rubbish by that last sentence – I’ve bought several match three games over the last year {eg Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife, 4 Elements, Call of Atlantis plus others I got free for beta testing}).

Read November 08’s comments HERE

Read January 08’s comments HERE

Installation is a breeze. The zip file, which is just over 12Mb unzips to two files, the read me and a dual activation and set up file. The installed game is around 29Mb and you have access to the game via the start menu or a desktop short cut. The following is quoted from the developers download page:

Discover the ancient secret hidden by the Mayan pyramid! Use your skill and dexterity to spin the cursed wheel, beat the Stone Guardian and loot the treasure!
Get ready for some action! Play as much as you want in Arcade mode. Random levels that never end, your skill sets the limit! Slow paced play in Puzzle mode. Get through the pyramid in Maze mode, up to 10 different ones! 4 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard and Extreme. Can you beat them all? Easy and intuitive control, just use your mouse to play! Featuring stunning graphics and an awesome soundtrack. On-line high scores ranking for Arcade mode. Show your friends who’s the best!

Reference accessed 14th November 08

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Game information:

The option menu is very simple with only sound and music sliders and a window toggle. There appears to be no help menu, but when you click on the start button you get four choices one of which is a basic tutorial level:

• Tutorial – Several windows pop up giving you pictorial prompts, as well as a few tips

• Puzzle Mode – This is an un-timed mode. You are given in game tips as you progress initially.

• Maze Mode – You have to avoid the guardians of the maze, collect items and get to the treasure chamber without being caught.

• Arcade Mode – This is a single level that ends when you are unable to match any more gems together. It becomes increasingly difficult as you progress.

Check out the screen captures by following the links below. There are over 40. Most of which show the various in game tips.

Images:

All on one page:

See images all on one page HERE

As a Slideshow:

See slideshow of Images HERE

Maze Mode:

The Maze mode is similar in game play to the Arcade mode, but is distinctly different to the Puzzle mode. I spent more time on the maze mode as I was intrigued by the level selection, which is basically a hidden maze that as you progress through it the tiles next to the level you previously chose will appear. If you come to a branch in the maze all possible routes will be shown, but only the beginning of each. At the start of the Maze game you only have one tile to choose from, the rest of the maze is blank. There are blind ends which are shown as red tiles. Do not try to move further along a blind end (you will be given the choice when you’ve finished that particular level) because if you do, the game ends. Somewhere within the maze is a map that will reveal the entire maze and enables you to finish the maze game quicker if you wish. I’ve taken several screen captures of the maze as I progressed through the game, but have deleted the particular screen capture that shows the whereabouts of the map, though if you really want to know where it is, a careful look at all the appropriate screen captures will give you a clue as to where it is.

Marbles fall at a pre determined speed which depends upon which difficulty level you choose. There are four difficulty settings, Easy, Normal, Hard and Extreme. You have to move the rings so as to capture the marbles. You must ensure that the topmost space on the outer ring (that is the one at 12 noon,/em>) is always empty, if it isn’t when the next marble falls the game will end.

In the Puzzle mode the game board is already full of marbles. The aim is to empty the three rings of marbles. You do this by matching up sets of three. This game is timed, but I didn’t think to check to see how long a level lasted. Playing on normal I played for over nine minutes, but taking a Screen capture crashed the game. There were no difficulty settings in this mode as far as I could see. You can move any combination of rings to make a match of three marbles. While moving the ring you may find that you create more than one group of three. You’ll see what I, mean when you play the game. Right clicking your mouse button will cause a marble to drop from the dispenser at the top of the playing field. As with the other two modes you can see up to ten marbles, so it is possible to plan your move ahead a little, though not too far ahead as the way this game works when the rings are relatively full of marbles it’s easy to make matches. Once a space has been created by matching three marbles (at which point they disappear) moving either of the middle or outer rings will cause the first marble to be placed over the gap to drop down into the space in the central ring. The aim of this mode is to clear all the marbles from the board (though I think that’s an assumption because the help menus are not very clear) so before you move either of the outer rings (in relation to the innermost ring) move that ring so that the space is filled (though this may cause a marble from a space elsewhere to be filled)

Looking in the games folder it appears that there are 10 different mazes to work through, so this mode should hold your interest for some time to come (assuming you enjoy the game in the first place).

System Requirements:

OS…………………………………………………Windows 98 or newer
Processor……………………………………..500 Mhz CPU
System RAM………………………………….128MB
Video RAM…………………………………….16MB Graphic card.

Conclusion:

This game is excellent. All three modes are enjoyable and in my opinion this game will give many hours of entertainment. It’s easily worth 7.9 and maybe even an 8 as I think if I lose this one I’d be tempted to buy it. (though it’s unlikely that I will because it is free standing as already mentioned above) It’s not like your usual match three games and I take my hat off (not that I wear one) to the developer for coming up with such a great take on the match three genre. To have three modes is even better.

The only down side is that there is no easily accessible help menu, which would make this game complete, though there is a basic tutorial level that takes you on a short pictorial journey through the simple moves. There are also quite a few in game tips that cover such things as bonus marbles such as color changers and bombs. I would suggest to the developer that he adds a comprehensive help menu to the main menu which could include all the in game tips and a list of all the bonus marble as well as a description of each game mode. You can access a brief description of each game mode by holding your mouse pointer over each mode in the menus, but a more in depth description would be much more welcome placed in a help menu via the main menu. You could also add a slider for controlling the speed at which the marbles drop in the maze and arcade modes. This could even be placed in the level itself, so that if you find the level too slow or too fast you can adjust it more easily, though there are four difficulty settings together with the right mouse click to enable the marble to drop faster .

Despite me thinking it was a brilliant game it actually received more negative reviews than positive the last time this was given away. If you like match three games in general check out Gametop for several freebies in this genre.

Link to several free match three games

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Useful Information:

Music:

If you don’t like the music, you can change it by going into the sound folder and replacing the correct files with something you like though you will need to convert the file to an .ogg file and rename it to the one you are changing. I would suggest that you create a backup folder and place those files you intend to change into that rather than overwriting them. You can download a suitable audio converter from the freeware library. The following link takes you to a list of several that are available for free:

Link to Audio Converters

Other games with a circular concept:

If you like the circular concept then try Zenerchi, which is a much more polished looking game (IMO), though it doesn’t have as many game modes to play with; or alternatively you could try an excellent circular breakout, or in this case BreakIn. I’ve had BreakIn for nearly three years and have still to beat it. It’s much more difficult than your usual breakout and finally Circulate, another match three with a difference. You can find links to these games in the forums via the following link:

Checkout demos of similar games HERE

Thank you Merscom LCC and the GameGiveaway team for a great game.

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If you have any problems running this game please post them in the forums where it will be easier to sift through the comments that are made throughout the next 24 hours. To post you’ll need to register in the forums. Thank you:

Go HERE to post any problems with this game

The Audio Converters link doesn’t work.