good

I just wanted to say that I find this game absolutely wonderful.. I've been playing it for over a month now and have completed it on one level and now I'm on to the difficult level. I have to say that it has a lot of options in how it is played in that you pick which type of bonus option you will use. I would recommend this game to anyone. The only problem is that it froze my computer a couple of times but saved the game at the point that it froze.

One of the best match 3 games ever. Truly addicting!!!! I love this game!!

is the best of all games in "giveawayoftheday"

Tried to down load onto a flash drive to save my hard drive space & wouldn't go there. But liked it so much that I sacrificed hard drive space for it. Too bad it can't go to any drive other than C:

One of my all time favorite from GOTD. Two Thumbs and Two big toes up. Way up.

The best game.

Husband and I are challenging each other with this game. It's the first time we've both been interested in the same computer game, so that's really saying something. We both agree that we'd pay $20 for this game.

This game should be forbiden: it's too addictive. And have nice graphics, and a good story.

Quick Review:

Installing the game was quick and easy. If you’re a fan of "Match 3 Games" then this one is for you.

The game is very easy to play and can be very addicting. After play just a few levels. I found myself really liking this game. All you have to do is match 3 of the same colored tiles to destroy those tiles. In each level you have to collect a number of gems in order for you to compete that level. After beating a level you are awarded a star. The star can be used to buy special powers. Like bombs, extra time, 7 different power Totems, and so on...

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Scoring:

Gameplay: 10/10 - This is a really nice match 3 game.

Graphics: 9/10 - Great graphics.

Music: 7/10 - Decent Music.

Loading Time: 7/10 - It's somewhat slow at the first load up.

Overall: 8.2/10

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If you have noting to do or you just want to kill some time then this is the game for that.

I am still playing this one and It is a great game. Reminds me of Search for Atlantis which you gave away last year. I am still waiting for that one to come around again ,since I have lost it on my PC. That one was addictive.....

Totally addictive and enough variations (including selectable upgrades) to keep it interesting. Still playing it instead of dealing with BF!!
Good job GAOTD
Thanks, T.

I finally got the idea and I love the game. I like any kind of match up game but this one is really good.

It kinda fun, but it just gets WAAAAY to hard after a couple of levels...

A couple days later and I haven't gotten a thing done. Most of my time's been spent in this game, currently stuck on Level 3-7. Not since Jets N Guns have I played a game from here this much. And I'm usually not a big fan of these kinds of games in the first place! Kudos to Alawar and Visual Shape!!!

I dl'ed this one for my wife, cuz' she like these type of games. I haven't seen her since! She was instantly addicted. Apparently a wonderful game.

Agreed; this game is truly addictive. Anytime I now see an Alawar game here, I'll download it. I'm also addicted to Aquaball, but have since neglected it since downloading Treasures ;) I was a Bejeweled person, but that seems like it was such a long time ago; this game is much more frustrating at times, but more challenging and requires you to actually think about your actions to complete a level, which I enjoy. I think I'm on 3.7 right now and am loving every minute of it...

Something is wrong with this game. I can't stop playing it. WARNING!!It's quite addictive!! WARNING!! :):)

Great game! Definately one I would buy.

The best I've seen on GGotD so far. I love the special effects running over the screen in 'Score Frenzy' mode. Those kinds of details really work for me. I'm on to play it now, thanks!

This game is one of the few (too few) that is actually worth the $20 price tag! Hours of fun await! It ranks up there with Brickshooter Egypt and Crime Puzzle as the best of its genre. go for it quick!

Concerning diagonal moves, some such programs on my PocketPC DO accept diagonal moves, those by ClickGamer, like "Cropped Out" and "Eggstreme : Yolk's Revenge" and all the "Snowed In" series, like "Snowed In 6 - Deep Freeze".

By the way "Snowed In 6" is free as a Christmas gift and available for MOST smarphones available these days, not only PocketPCs; it's even available for Windows desktop (Win32) and the GP2X game console.

Too bad The Treasures of Montezuma doesn't do diagonal moves.

Alawar is going to have to put a warning label with this: Warning--you will get absolutely NOTHING else done if you start playing this game! I didn't know if I'd like this, but I'm hooked on this just like I was playing that mahjong game the released a couple of days ago. Very fast paced, works on Vista. I think these games really help your memory skills and in this case, abstract thinking.

very, very fun connect 3 variant! thanks GAOTD!

Very enjoyable graphics. Cursor movement lags annoyingly behind (may be due to my old machine'sf CPU & GPU). Playability I would give only 7 on 10 as this d@m program doesn't accept diagonal moves!!! AND does NOT remove stones in a T or L shape if it's 3+2; it does ok if it's 3+3; it only removes the 3 in line, not the extra similar gem next to them; this is strange. It has a nice plot, very much plagiarising the Indy line of movies. Overall I'd give it 8 on 10.

Entrancing and fun! Best parts of chuzzle, matching gemstones and adveture yarns. Can see this will be among my favorites! Thanks GGAOTD.

Downloaded to desktop, opened readme.txt, followed dirctions and no problems!

Good Game!

#57 - that does NOT always work. I did that at least 3 times, probably more yesterday including re-downloading. I still only had the trial version. One time it told me that the time had expired.

There are just some cases that even following the rules exactly along with dotting all the 'i's and crossing the 't's will not work.

In general, you're right but remember Chandler's law - "The only completely debugged program is the one no longer in use". Yesterday, I found one of those bugs!

A superb game! This is one of the most fun games I've played.It has it all, graphics, sounds, details...a game that is worth the asking price.
A+ Visual Shape & Alawar!Thank you GGAOTD.

Omg... I have been waiting for this game!!! Finally here it is but I can't activate it! Same thing happened on yesterday...the monster game... there's a pop up message said "activation module failed to connect to game.giveawayoftheday.com . software activation is not possible at the moment . please try again later or check your firewall setting." I have activated many times with different games on previous occasions...I don't have this problem until yesterday... Anyone can help me pls???

thanks - what an improvement on the previous offering from Alawar. Yes a repeat working offer of Monster House would be great :)
thanks GGOTD

zbysheck comment #41. When you unzip the game you will find three files

1)…Read Me
2)…Activate
3)…Setup

Before you install the game click on the activate file (that has a stylized image of a key on it). Wait for the window that appears saying “successfully activated”, then you can install the game and it will be the full version.

If the trial window returns, delete the whole thing by going to the start menu and selecting programs, scroll down to the ‘Treasures of Montezuma’ entry then select uninstall. Re-download the game, ideally from the mirror link and then follow the instructions I’ve posted above.

I hope this helps :)

Another Two Thumbs Up and Two Big Toes UP!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks GOTD and Alawar.

In answer to one of the negative comments above (of which there are understandably very few) ……, Bejewelled 2 Deluxe was a great game to own a couple of years ago, but there are far better ‘clones’ of the match three gems game now. If I was told I had to spend an unspecified time on a desert island and only had enough time to download one game onto my laptop from a choice of ‘Bejewelled 2 Deluxe’ and ‘The Treasures of Montezuma’ before I had to leave, I'd definitely go for the latter without a doubt.

Yeah, the game mechanics is basically the same as Bejewelled, but the ability to upgrade the power totems you've earned in between levels, which can be earned by creating specific matches as well as updating them with additional multipliers to make them much more powerful (similar in concept to Sky Bubbles Deluxe which was given away several months ago) makes today’s giveaway a much more attractive package with better ‘game play’ and is a lot more interesting than Bejewelled, besides the graphics, which I know are not the most important point with a game such as this, are still nonetheless far more attractive and for me at least make the game more enjoyable to look at. Bejewelled may have four game modes, but, apart from the puzzle mode, which I do like (Luxor 3 has a similar mode) the other three modes, Classic, Action and Endless are virtually the same. Montezuma , unlike Bejewelled, also has an awards system, which you can find in a lot of arcade games of this ilk these days, which (IMO) adds a little extra interest and is an incentive to continue playing the game instead of just swapping crystals around for an indeterminable amount of time without much else to gain from it. Besides today’s game also has a storyline attached to it that adds even more interest to the game. All these extras are beautifully rendered with excellent art work and the music in my opinion is more listenable than Bejewelled, although the music for that game isn’t bad. There's much more strategy involved to Montezuma as well, because to open up most of the totems you have to create specific combinations of matches, for example to gain the fire totem, you have to create two groups of red matches in a row; and instead of only two power ups possible in Bejewelled, which are very basic indeed and cannot be upgraded, (and therefore become a little boring after awhile), you get 15 different power totems with The Treasures of Montezuma, all of which can be upgraded between three to four times to make them even more powerful. At the end of every level you are awarded a star which can be added to any of the totems that are unlocked to increase their strength. For example adding a star to the TNT totem will add a greater area of destruction. This in conjunction with the frenzy mode that is unlocked by multiple combo’s can result in massive score bonus’s. Of the 15 totems available I had two available to upgrade, which were the TNT totem as well as a Gems multiplier, which enables more gems to be shown within tiles during a level (you have to collect a specific number of gems by including them in matches to end the level. If you run out of time you lose). Other totems I was able to see, but were not active yet were a time totem that increases the time the level lasts and a Score Frenzy totem, that boosts you score by collecting the sand that results from destroyed tiles. (This will become clearer when you see it in action….most gems contain a certain amount of sodium and potassium silicate, which is sand, so the animation is quite appropriate)

Today’s game has a much more interesting and exciting game play than Bejewelled, and more importantly has a lot more replayability. A puzzle mode would have been nice, but hey who’s complaining, I’m sure The Treasures of Montezuma 2 Deluxe release will include a puzzle mode as well as even more power totems; just like we saw with the development of Luxor from the original to the latest amazing Luxor 3 game.

This is certainly worth 8 out of 10 for its excellent game play, gorgeous graphics and replayability.

The options menu has the usual music and sound sliders as well as two quality toggles and a wide screen and full screen/window toggle. The help menu describes the basics of the game, but you will need to play the first level to see and appreciate the power totems I mention above. At the end of each level you are presented with a page where the totems are stored. Early in the game many of the totems cannot be seen, although there is a silhouette.

While in game you are given the opportunity to shuffle all the tiles on the board a couple of times. It looks like this feature can be expanded as well, but I’ve not had time to delve deeper into the game yet. Also as with Bejewelled there’s a hint button, but this is very costly with respect to your score as it reduces it by quite a lot. There seems to be a difficulty level because in my first game it said medium difficulty; however I was unable to find or see any toggles or tick boxes to select the difficulty.

I apologise for the very late comparison review. I decided not to do a full review as I didn’t download this game until 10 hours into the giveaway. I would have loved to include my own in game screen captures with this game, but that takes time to sort and upload. See below for a Googled set of images though that do show you some of the things I mention such as the different totems and awards as well as lots of in game images, some showing power totems in action. :)

As with others I was unable to get the game giveaways page to load yesterday or this morning. After my hydrotherapy I was too exhausted to even check to see if the problem had been resolved and it was only when I woke up after my afternoon cat nap that I found I finally had access again.

I did actually write a review for yesterday’s game as you could see what the game was in the usual place over in the top right hand corner of the giveaway page. I thought the game giveaway team must have had problems and at the time I thought it would probably be resolved before the end of the giveaway so decided to downloaded the demo’ from Alawar and prepare a review. By halfway through the day when it still hadn’t re-opened, I decided to post the review over on the giveaway site to inform those who may have been having the same problem accessing the game giveaway site, but were still interested to at least check the site out before the giveaway ended as I’d changed my mind a little about the game. The first time the game was given away several months ago, I thought it was an appalling game and my children didn’t show any interest in it over the few days I kept it; so it was deleted. However I decided to gave it reasonable chance this time around because of my interest in reviewing these games (not really an interest, more like a way of keeping my mind active). I was surprised to find I actually enjoyed playing it the second time around, although the last level I played before the demo ran out was so hard to beat because of the speed the monsters appeared, also if you lost you had to start from the beginning again.; I may post the review in the forums sometime this week because I reckon it will be repeated sometime and I can then just add a link to it rather than rewrite it. :)

Unfortunately the post I made over on the giveaway site was deleted by the moderators, although they left my second post which was posted immediately after it to correct a slight mistake was left and really looked out of place due to the reference to a drain pipe lol. Anyway, I digress.

Thank you for sorting the problem out so that today I didn’t miss out on an excellent game and a very big thank you for today’s game as well; because it’s one game I hadn’t bothered to buy previously as I already have quite a few of this genre (including Bejewelled 2 Deluxe) Honestly folks if I had the choice, Montezuma wins by a mile, despite Bejewelled 2 Deluxe having been released as an original much earlier. Being first doesn’t mean it’s the best. If you are thinking not too bother downloading this offering because you’ve already got plenty of these clones, then please reconsider, I reckon you won’t regret it. :)

The game only require the bare minimum of 3D hardware, with a 16MB onboard GPU chip (graphic processing unit which is basically the same as a CPU but this only controls your graphics). The computer specs are minimal, as is the RAM requirements.

=============================================================

You can buy a graphics card with this amount of memory from the bargain bins of many computer shops for virtually nothing because they have been superseded by far more impressive beasts. You can even pick up Motherboards (MoBo’s) with suitable graphics chips and audio chips as well for as little as $30 or less; however MoBo’s these days (at least since the beginning of this Millennium) have had onboard GPU’s that are at least 16Mb, but more likely to be 32Mb or even 64Mb if it’s a recent Mo Bo. With a SLI set up, you can have around 1.3 Gb of Memory for your Graphics rendering. However in terms of cost you’re talking at least a dollar for every megabyte, lol. There is however budget medium to high end graphics cards (Nvidia GeForce 8600GS 256Mb) that in an SLI configuration will give you a useful 512Mb of temporary storage while a game is being played. Mine cost me around $250, which definitely isn’t needed for this game lol. What I quote above is only the tip of the iceberg with respect to GPU’s though, so if you are interested in learning about graphics cards go to one of the many tech sites that will often give you an unbiased view of the technology today. :D


I didn't mean to write so much because it's so late in the day. Only 7hrs 30 mins left to the next game. :)

Downloaded and installed easily. Great graphics. This one's a keeper! Thanks GGOTD.

#27 Pirate:
I have no idea what you're talking about. I read the readme.txt file, and I didn't ask for any help at all. I don't have a problem with this game. It's one of my favorites. I was commenting that putting time pressure makes it more of an arcade game than a puzzle game, which too many developers do these days. But I really like it in spite of that. The time bonuses offset this a lot, but a "puzzle" game should need more thought, like a crossword or Sudoku, for example (just my opinion).

If my comments infuriated you in some way, I apologize. My only excuse is that I had no idea I was asking you for help.

Great Game! Nice switch up on Bejeweled and other Match 3 style games (my favourite kind!) Saying that there is only one true match 3 game (Bejeweled) is like saying that there is only one way to serve chicken or only one kind of chocolate! Variation is the spice of life and I enjoy the variations - I have 13 Match 3 at this point and am always looking for new challenges. The graphics are good and easy on my low vision. Thank you Alawar and GGOTD!! :)

#41 I believe that if you get a trial version then you did not get the game "activated" properly. (although I could be wrong on that)

I like this game! It is fun and entertaining. I also liked the Beezzle game from the other day but this one has more action. The 'scoring frenzy' portion can be very wild for a match 3 game. Keep up the good work GGAOTD and Alawar!

PS I also could not get Monsters House downloaded as a regular game. I did get a trial version but that doesn't do me any good, by the time I decide if I like it or not, the trail period is over.

#38 - narfit Yes you are whining! You are complaining because you don't like the offering today. It is a FREE game offered if you want it. If not, then DON'T DOWNLOAD IT and come back tomorrow to see if there is something you do want. If you want a specific game, then go out and buy it. This is a 'take it or leave it' concept. If you do download it and don't like it you are entitled to leave a bad review of the game, otherwise, it's just whining.

yes , please re-run monsters house, your site was gone/unavailiable for many hours yesterday much to joshouas disappointment. (my 12 yr. old ) todays game does work on windows 2000 just fine. its a great game and much fun. thank-you alawar ;)

I love this game! I played the demo from a few sites before, being too cheap to buy it, lol! I'm so happy that it's free today. Thank you so much! I look forward to many hours of mindless entertainment ;) It's one the whole family enjoys.

ref: knightstar / onspeed

You do understand how it actually works don't you ? (i'm guessing not!) - you connect via a proxy to onspeed, where their server retrieves the page and images, then downsamples the images before sending it to you.

You see a marginal increase in perceived throughput due to the reduced quality of the images, but it *doesn't* work on data files - only images.

What may help if you're on a faster line but the remote end is limiting throughput, is something like Orbit Downloader (free / spyware free) - it will connect to the remote source several times, and grab from different parts of the file simultaneously - so if you were only getting 75k/sec with one connection, once it's connected another 5 or more times, you'll get the file at 375k/sec.

It won't help much on dialup unless you have a provider that disconnects you after a period of no-use (we all know how connections drop from remote servers from time to time), but it's better than nothing.

If you only get/have one match three type game..... make it this one.
Super clean/crips graphics and incentive rewards.

This game is awesome; too bad I already own it. Unlike yesterday's which my daughter really wanted, but could not get it, because I could not even get the website page to appear. Please consider a repeat giveaway of Monsters' House soon, so I can get my 6 year old off my back about it....

Poncho

This one also works with WindowsME. And it rocks! Gameplay is similar to "Age of Japan" which is my favorite puzzle game. Montezuma has very nice graphics and handling and (hopefully) some long-term motivation. Definitely a keeper!

Anyone knows why I have only TRIAL? I can play only one hour :(

This is the Best game for free I ever saw!!
Play is lightning fast
Sound is awesome -- I like to listen to Symphonic Metal while playing
as it gets my heart racing ...!
The graphics Rule!

Thanks!

Great fun! I've just wasted far too much time on this.

Thank you.

Match 3 games get an automatic thumbs down. The only match 3 game that is worthwhile is the ORIGINAL one (technically its sequel) Bejeweled 2 Deluxe. As soon as a game company decides to make a match 3 game, they are automatically A. giving up, and B. showing that they didn't have what it took to begin with and could care less about anything other than getting a few ignorant people to buy their shoddy knockoff of something that was new 3 or 4 years ago. Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, don't bother to respond. Those who do will understand and appreciate my frustration. I am not simply whining because I didn't get a good game today, I'm simply expressing just how pointless it is for us to be offered cheap copies of copies of copies of what was once an original and not monotonous game concept. It's like being offered a new variant of Tetris - nobody cares anymore!

If you are interested in the best and only match 3 experience you will need, try Bejeweled 2 Deluxe.

http://www.popcap.com/games/bejeweled2