Game installed fine. I fired it up, played for a bit, then quit, got the message that my game would be saved. When I fired it up the second time, I had to put my name in again and start over; the original play session wasn't saved. It's saved every time since then, so I don't know what happened.

Game play is interesting; learning to think around corners in a match-three game was something new and different, so props there.

The framing story is kind of silly, and the cut-scene art was amateurish.

The ladybug rounds are problematic. First, as usual, I don't appreciate being forced to play arcade rounds in a non-arcade game. Mashing the ladybugs was doable, so this was only an annoyance, rather than making the game unplayable for me as has happened in other games, but when I'm annoyed I'm not having fun. Also, once I was past the first few levels, I had more money than I had garden-stuff to spend it on anyway, so the whole, "Hey, get bonus money!!" thing with the ladybug levels was completely pointless. Game would be much better without them.

Pelting the boss monsters with fruit is kind of fun. :) All around, not bad, but ditch the arcade levels.

Angie

.............................Moderator Comment...........................

Thank you for your feedback Angie, much appreciated

Hi Stephen,

Although this game seems to me to be aimed at a more juvenile audience than myself, I have been enjoying playing it. I agree with a lot of the comments/suggestions that have been made regarding improvement of gameplay. In particular, I would have benefited from a more informative tutorial (understanding the broom and bugspray was easy, but what does the key do?). I've actually been ignoring the spiders and worms for the most part, and the damage they do is eliminated with a reshuffle. I like it when a game that has auto-reshuffle when no moves are available. Building the garden is a bit like building Rome in Cradle of Rome - things are just placed in specific locations only when you are eligible to do so - and I prefer decorating more like the Fishdom series. Overall, I expect I will replay this game (aiming for gold medallions) as a way to pass time. So thank you Alawar and GGOTD for offering this, and to you, Stephen, for your excellent work in moderation.

Cara in NC

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback and support Cara, much appreciated. :).

My chief complaint with Alawar games in the past has been that they devoted too many resources to pointless story telling and not enough time to the game. I feel like this time around, the story telling is minimal and supports the game.

Alice and the Magic Garden is also interesting to play, introducing elements quickly and without too much explanation, but allowing for intuitive learning. So far, I'm neither bored nor frustrated.

The game is attractive, runs well, and so far hasn't shown any glitches at all.

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback Bell. :)

I, too, had deja vu when I saw this game, because I downloaded The Enchanting Islands earlier this year; but this remake is a real step up in Match-3 because of the 'lockers', or plain tiles which have to be matched to uncover the fruits, and the L-shaped matches allowed -- brain-warp!! I really appreciate the Relaxed-mode option, too, because this is a game you'd play to relax.

Good one, Alawar! Thanks, GGOTD, and Whiterabbit.

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback Mac.

This game is really unique! I love connect 3 games but this one is like 2 connect 3 games going on at the same time and that is the most original game-play I've come across! I love it! It's challenging yet I don't feel like it's going to be too hard. It is a bit simplistic in the graphics and music but that's not as important to me as the game-play strategy. This one is a keeper! Thanks to you for offering it and for Big Fish Games for giving it to us. I really enjoy their games!

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback JB. :)

Nice game. I think it is easy to learn but difficult to master. It may get difficult for some people later in the game. The graphics are nice and colorful and the mini games and boss battles are a nice addition to the match-3 genre. The music is and power ups are OK, but nothing special.
The power ups are OK but nothing that we haven't seen before. Maybe some more interesting power ups would be great. Sometimes it can be really tough even though you have a fairy to help you. Trying to remember to match "L" shaped blocks rather than the traditional 3 in a row can stump you for a long while. I think it would be better to see nice colorful graphics than just hand drawn pictures during the in story cut scenes.
Also I would like to see something that connects the actual fruits with the garden. For example, if I gather so many apples I can grow apple trees. Then maybe I can mix and match fruits and plants to get different fruit varieties which lead me to get different and more powerful power ups. Throw in the concept of genealogy and it could make it very interesting and lead to new ideas.
Overall a very fun game to play, but with average music and power ups. Boss battles and mini games are a nice break in the game. Thank you very much for this game. Until next time...

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback Real Bull, much appreciated. :)

The game has frozen for me once on exit - once not. I did not lose progress, so that's good. CAD and then EndProcess was the only thing to get my computer back.

Some of the things in the game are not clear - like - the worm eats the fruit, and leaves just a shell behind. What does that mean??? I played the first boss level - I'm not sure what his weapon was, or what he was doing 'against' me. So - just kept doing the usual dropping of fruit, and won.

The faded blue of the lockers is a bit tough for me to tell apart. The bottom shade of the lighter blue boxes is quite close to the top shade of the darker blue boxes. Might be my monitor or my eyes, but more distinguishable colors could be used.

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your useful feedback Dave, much appreciated. :)

I downloaded the game, extracted the files and activated the game. There are only three files in the folders. How do I open the game to play? There is no file called .exe, only files are: readme, Setup and Setup.gcd.

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Hi Spider, you must be new to the game giveaway. Click on the setup file. Even tohugh the giveaway is over, you should be able to install the game so long as it's within an hour post giveaway *sometimes a little longer). Hope you manage it. If not, you can get this free 24?7 from Jenkat games (see my review above for details).

Game does not save progress. Using Windows 8. Played early this am until next to last level and clicked on save progress button. Came back this pm and name had not been saved. Created new player again and completed first level. Saved game again upon completion. Immediately reopened game and my player name is still not there and must start all over again. Too bad, I really enjoyed the play.

............................Moderator Comment.............................

Hi Beadgikded, there were some issues with a nother game when using certain letters. If you used those letters Ithin E and S, it wouldn't save progress. A few community members have reported this. Try using a different name and save after the first level to be sure it's saving.

PS-
running win7 64,everything up to date, plenty of memory. Don't have this problem on any other of my many games.
But thanks for bringing us so many nice games!

Game is fun, but I have this problem every time I quit it-Same problem as Joan, above- game would not close, had to force close. This is what came up in my system event log-Event log- application error 1000
System

- Provider

[ Name] Application Error

- EventID 1000

[ Qualifiers] 0

Level 2

Task 100

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2014-11-03T01:05:32.000000000Z

EventRecordID 190336

Channel Application

Computer Ellen-HP

Security


- EventData

AliceGardens.exe
0.0.0.0
2a425e19
KERNELBASE.dll
6.1.7601.18409
53159a86
0eedfade
0000c42d
3f28
01cff6fb731bc272
J:\Games\Alice and the Magic Gardens\AliceandtheMagicGardens_game\AliceGardens.exe
C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNELBASE.dll
821abddf-62f5-11e4-92dc-643150255524

.........................Moderator Comment............................

Sounds like you may have a User Profile corruption. To cure this, create a new profile, delete the old one then re create it, then you can delete the one you created to cure the problem. Before you delete the corrupted one (if indeed it is corrupted), make sure you copy all of the folders associated with the profile over to the new profile. you'll find these under C:\users - then open up the folder with your account name and copy all of the important folders such as desktop, Documents saved games etc. Those folders you aren't sure of, back up so that if necessary you can copy them back later for example the hidden folder AppData. To be able to see hidden folders you need to go to the control panel, set it to small icons then select folder options. click on the view tab and check the 'show hidden files, folders and drives. AppData will then be seen in the C drive. The App Dat folder contains information about most of the programs you install, such as configuration settings and in same cases saved games data, so it may be important to keep and then transfer back.

You can find info on User Profile corruption via the following link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/fix-corrupted-user-profile#1TC=windows-7


If you get stuck, or aren't sure, post this problem in the forums. There are a couple of Teck Savvy community members that are much more qualified than myself who may be able to ansswer the problem in amore enlightened manner. hope you get the problem fixed.

I'd love to be able to post a positive (or even negative) review of this game, but I have no luck anymore in downloading games from this site. I don't know what is different, but I just can't get them to work. I disable my firewall. The difference I have found for some time now is that the GCD file is different. I have AOL and it now only gives me the option to open it from there, but I can't open it that way at all. Does anyone have any advice for me? I get so frustrated, I spend so much time trying to download these games, I fiddle around and just don't have any luck. I have no problem downloading games from Big Fish, but this site now for me is an absolute no go. Thanks to anybody who can help.

........................Moderator Comment........................

You don't need to use Internet Explorer, but still need to have it running in the background and it must be set to online, otherwise you won't be able to download any giveaways from both sites.

Installed and activated fine on XP Pro SP3. But when I tried to run it, the screen wobbled and flashed, and wouldn't accept mouse input. This is probably old-hat to some, but I was most gratified to find that right-clicking on the shortcut I'd created, going to Properties tab, and checking the box for "run in 640 x 480 resolution" (or somesuch) seems to have fixed the problems. I went to and from a couple of other games to test it, and all seems well now.

So yay! I now have a version of this game with a Relaxed mode! Thanks, all!

...........................Moderator Comment...........................

Nice one Delilah, glad you sorted it. :)

OMG!!! This is so addicting! I love this one.

I gave it a "thumbs down" on the basis of the posted comments.

But I like match threes, so I ended up downloading it anyway ...

It's dopey, but OK if you like match threes.

One thing I did like is that the "help" explains what the power-ups do, something often missing in game help.

Great game. Slight twist in that you have to match the locker colours first before seeing what's behind them to do your matching. Because of this the higher blocks don't always drop like they do in other games. Just another element to consider when playing. I really enjoyed it and can see it becoming quite the time waster trying to get all levels up to gold medallion status.

...........................Moderator Comment...........................

Glad you like it Sally, thanks for the feedback.

This grandma thanks you for the hours of entertainment and brain exercises this site has given me. This is the kind of game I like and can sometimes win. My husband was able to retrieve most of my Games of the Days after my computer died. This game is a great one to start building my nightly relaxers again.

...........................Moderator Comment...........................

:)

This match three game is a little different than I am used to, but once I got the hang of it, I find it nicely challenging. I also appreciate the hints that show up if you hesitate too long. I haven't gotten very far into the game yet, but my only "constructive" criticism is that there should be an explanation for the fireflies that drop onto the screen. It took me several seconds to realize what you're supposed to do. However, it's a great game with good graphics and I'm looking forward to playing more. Thank you to GGOTD, Alawar and especially to Whiterabbit for all the work you do.

...........................Moderator Comment...........................

Thank you for your feedback Diane.

Cute match 3 game - totally worth the download.

As I play so many different games I would have never remarked it is similar to Enchanted Islands *silly me*

Thanks for this one again!

...........................Moderator Comment...........................

:)

A nice game. I like the twist of lockers and then the fruit - It adds a bit more to the usual swap 3's. I'm working at forcing myself to see the L connections as well - it's hard to not see just the straight ones.

No problems, complaints, or suggestions yet :-)

...........................Moderator Comment...........................

Thank you for your feedback

I've enjoyed the first few levels of this game, I love match 3 games and find this a good one so far. One problem is that when I went to exit the game it froze and I had to end it via task manager.
I play the untimed version and found enough challenge avoiding the spiders and worms. I like the new (to me) idea of breaking the tiles first to reveal the fruit underneath.

I, for one, appreciate all the time and effort the GGAOTD team, Whiterabbit and the developers put into making the games available to us. I'm about to do a refresh of Windows on my computer, so I'm not going to install this one because it'll just get lost in the process, but I enjoy the games that Alawar makes available to us. They are a company that provides consistently quality games.

...........................Moderator Comment...........................

Thank you

Great game - really enjoyed it. More interesting that general match 3 games.


I always log on to your site and download and enjoy most of the games. I don't, however, leave feedback, because of a nasty message I got the first time I left a message - when I simply said how much I enjoyed a giveaway. I suspect that I am not the only person who doesn't leave comments because of this.

I do, however, REALLY appreciate the giveaways and the time you give up to review them.

..................................Moderator Comment...............................

Hi Dawn, I cannot find any previous comments from you on the game site, was it the other side of the giveaways that you mention?. If you've changed your IP address that would explain why. I am the only moderator who has ever left comments on the game side of the giveaway comments. I do remember some of the moderators used to leave sarcastic comments when community members left comments that may not have been constructive over on the applications side. I would never leave a sarcastic comment if someone was saying how they enjoyed the game. There have been occassions where I've posted negatively but that's very rare and is usually justified. Let me assure you on this sie of the giveaway, you would never get a nasty reply to your comments. I will usually reply in a reasonable manner to those who do post rude and inapproriate comments. I admit I have lost my patience a few times. One communmity member in particular posted stupid and personal comments for months. Eventually I had to reply and say he would be banned if he continued.

Taking to heart your request this morning for more feedback, it is a pretty cool game. I played for several levels and still have not adjusted to being able to join items in an L shape. i almost never have my speakers turned on since my computer is right next to the TV so I have no comment on music or sound effects. I had trouble exiting the game and had to resort to Task Manager, but I will still keep it. I will try to comment more often from now on in. I usually download about 75% of the games you feature but often forget to activate them before the day is over. Old Timer's strikes again! thanks for all your work.

..................................Moderator Comment...............................

Hi Stonebec, thank you. I appreciate the time you take to post comments. :)

My game wouldn't close down fully. I got a dull picture left on screen and had to use escape key to close it. Then when I opened it again, my game hadn't been saved. I don't want to play again and then lose my game again.

.................................Moderator comment......................................

Hi Joan, strange, I've never come across that sort of problem before? Check the Event Logs/Event Viewer to see if any error messages were thrown up when you tried to close the game down (to view the logs type Event viewer or Event logs into the search function). If you can't find anything, try running the game again and play a couple of levels, then close it down. If the error repeats itself, immediately open the event log. If there is a log of the error, it will usually indicate what the problem is. I don't want to speculate without some sort of reference, though it could be out of date graphics drivers that are causing the problem, or even low memory. Do you know what system RAM and graphics RAM your computer has? You can find out by typing DXdiag in the search field. That opens up the Direct X diagnostics panel.


I've taken a screen capture of the dxdiagnostic panel from one of my computers and marked the appropriate bits of information that you'll need to check. The image of the display tab below, shows what graphic card you are using and the graphics RAM. The name of the manufacturer and the cards name are required so that you can download the correct graphics drivers. Just go to the manufacturers site and look for a link to their drivers page. The rest is self explanatory; however, if you get stuck, post a note in the forums. Check the amount of memory you have against the games specifications. Remeber that your compouter may be using memory for other processes. what you need to know is how much unused RAM you have available. you can check this by opening up the Task Manager and clicking the performance tab.


System Tab showing the amount of memory you have:

Display Tab showing the graphic card manufacturer, model and graphic RAM:

Thank you Alawar for a "relaxed" mode!

Hi, I think that You, Stephen have this Site spot on! It is a very much FAMILY site, where 'hard core' technical/problems/advice matters concerning Games strictly - are mixed with variety of personal messages, health issues and such (including advice how to combat them.., how can I forget comment about merits of vitamin C in form of injections, or generally speaking!? Wonderful!:)) So, although some (constructive) comments help Developers to do what they ought to do - others must rise an eyebrow, or make them.. amused?, lol. From time to time this Site resembles totally unruly classroom:), where You, or others try to bring much needed 'Decorum' and calm things down, including reaction to 'less polite' entries to put it mildly..

I find this Site very helpful and enlightening, and yes, warm and 'human' in many other shape and form, and try to comment from time to time on something downloaded and played, or when I can share my own views or experiences on Games I know well. Let's be grateful for unstinted time and efforts it takes to Moderate it, naturally Games given for free in most clean way, but also for entire SHAPE of it. It's unique indeed!!. Thanks GGOTD and Alawar for today's Gift and make 'em rolling!:) I happen to have it already, not for myself, but younger family members. Evening All.

.................................Moderator comment......................................

Nicley put Fran. Thank you for your support. I've been coming to the giveaway site since late November 2006, and, apart from when i was in hospital, and when I've been away on vacation, I've rarely missed a day viviting the place. The forums are a lot quieter than they used to be, which saddens me, some of the regular members have obviously moved on to pastures new, others sadly such as Scuba Guy and Pavid (my dear friend) have passed on to hopefully something better. I continue to moderate both the forums and these comments section and try to post reviews weekly becasue I no longer work, and have found the company pleasant. and as you have mentioned, informative, safe, friendly and a unique place to visit. :)

The game is fun but I keep getting an exception Einvalidpointer error after closing the game out. Sometimes it saves my progress sometimes it does not.

.................................Moderator comment......................................

EInvalidPointer is the exception class for invalid pointer operations and is raised internally by the memory manager. I'm no expert, but it may be that you need to update the windows memory manger drivers. I'd consider researching this first; also post the question over on the giveaway forums as there are a couple of tech savvy community members that post regularily and may be able to help.

I am really enjoying this game. It is SO different from other match 3 type games. After I got the hang of it, I liked that you had to activate different parts of the board to make the matches. Nice dimension to change it up.

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your feedback and glad you are enjoying it. :)

Downloaded onto a windows XP platform with no problems. The game play seems a bit too old for youngsters and a bit too young for adults. Not sure who the designers are trying to target. Maybe a practice session with more hints, explanation and instruction would help. Consider adding the "bonus" collection of fireflies to the help section with an explanation. Thanks for the free download.

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your feedback Deb :)

Yes the pictures here do remind of prior giveaway (s) but giving it a shot seeing comments it is ok Windows 8.1. Looks like a nice pickup for 15 mins break to shake cobwebs. fwiw Thanks for pointing out the freebie at Origins, Crusader: No Remorse. Warning though that for me the old DOSBox routine/game scrambled my Win 8.1 after uninstalling game. Had to use a Macrium Reflect image to recover C: drive. I always make image prior to installing older s/w and Crusader is that. Old school graphics & game play of Win 95 or Amiga era. Thx for Alice.

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your feedback :)

Simple, amusing and a good time waster. Very good features are: the ability to turn off the background music; matches made in the shape of an L (perhaps add a diagonal as well?); the ability to turn off the timer (for we older coordination challenged folks).

Kudos to the developer, Alawar and, of course, to you, Whiterabbit

I like this game better than the previous one that is similar. The gameplay is fun and challenging. I like the bright graphics even if they are not as 'polished' as other games.

One thing that I would like to see changed is the 'bonus' items. It would be nice to have an explanation of how to use them. Did I miss something?

I also want to choose what I want to buy with my money, not have items locked out. If I want to save up 10,000 coins for a specific purchase it should be my choice.

I really like this game but I got an error when quitting. My screen went to 800x600 resolution and I got an Alic exception error. I clicked OK and it went to my regular resolution. (W7 premium 64 bit)

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your feedback Nan Grif. W.r.t. the slight glitch, have you updated your graphic drivers recently? Doing so may cure it. :)

Never seen that other game they talk about, must have missed it. In comparison with yesterday this is a much better game. However again (like yesterday and like most alawar and playrix games) it is only in 800x600 / 4:3 Please developers take in account that many many people do not use 4:3 anymore and 800x600 is reaching the "not used"status rapidly. Nice m3 game though, bit different than I am used to see with those blue blocks. Thanks Alawar and GGOTD, will have some hours fun with this.

Please do not curse out the mods and site, they do their best for you, I dare you to find another giveaway site where you get such an elaborate review every time a game is given away and go there for your games if you have something against this site or the way it is working ;)Thanks for all your work great white hopping one

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thanks for the feedback and for the support. Unfortunately we can't please everyone. Sadly, no matter how good a job is, there is always someone who isn't satisfied. :)

I really like this game. The graphics are cute and colourful. For a moment I had a deja vu, thinking I already had the game, but found out quite quickly that it was a new game. I think the combination with the boxes and fruit is brilliant. It adds to the challenge and makes it more interesting. The spider and worm are nice diversions as well. Love the garden. I think it is nicer than in the Enchanting Islands. It is good that there is an untimed relax mode. The bonus level with the ladybugs is getting tyring after a while though. So far I have enjoyed playing it for the last few hours. I usually turn the music off right away, so cannot really comment on that. Only with a few games I can listen to the music before it drives me crazy to hear the same tune over and over again. The reason why I have not commented for so long now is that often I do not have anything constructive to say other than I love the game, the graphs are great, etc. or not. With this game I could do with a minor improvement. Please leave the text a little bit longer on the screen, because you really have to read it very fast and I am not a quick reader. You have to read the text in the cartoon, but also the text beneath it and I am not quick enough. Although I am enjoying the game, I do not think I will play it more than once. Anyway thank you for the game. I really appreciate having a free game every weekend and will do my best to send more often some constructive feedback.

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your excellent feedback Merlyne, much appreciated. :)

I recognized the similarity to Enchanting Islands right off.

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/the-enchanting-islands/

I found this a bit disappointing at first because, even though Enchanting Islands was enjoyable, I didn't think a remake would be very interesting. Now that I've tried it, I'm so glad that I was wrong! Instead of a remake with similar pictures and a different storyline, we have a new game with a new playing style that doesn't feel at all familiar. This was confusing at first, since I kept trying to play it by the familiar rules and couldn't understand why it wasn't working. Now that I've gotten the hang of the lockers, I'm really enjoying this game. I'm used to having the matches in a straight line so I kept thinking I was trapped and was so relieved to realize that the groups of three or more need to match along a side but not necessarily in a straight line (as Whiterabbit mentioned but I keep forgetting). All in all, I'm really pleased with this. Familiar enough to be comfortable and different enough to be more interesting.

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your feedback Nass, I couldn't have put your explanation about the differences between this and enchanting Islands better myself. You could say it's a sequel; as most sequels are just extensions of the original game, except this game has some additional twists that chage the game play mechanic. :)

I agree with comment 7, the graphics are almost identical to those of The Enchanting Islands, but although it may have been repackaged, the match 3 gameplay is not the same. The Enchanting Islands has a horizontal/vertical match style, but Alice and the Magic Gardens has two elements to the match play; unlocking blocker tiles, and matching fruit, both of which can be done horizontally, vertically or in groups. In addition, Alice and the Magice Gardens offers a time free option, which is preferred by some players. The variation in gameplay makes Alice and the Magic Gardens a little more interesting to play.

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your feedback Ryel, it's much like many sequels to some well known match games, where the basic structure of the game remains the same, but you get new levels and some changes in gameplay mechanics

@ morich: I noticed the same thing. They use 'lockers', to try and change the look up slightly, but all in all, it's the same game. Even the song is the same; they made a few changes, but I recognized it immediately.

As to the gameplay: I found the match three elements in both games fairly clunky, and not extremely enjoyable to play, but that's a personal opinion. I prefer games that move more smoothly. I didn't mind the 'building the garden' part of the game, but as in the Fishdom series, it's not my favorite part.

The main difference between this one and Fishdom is that you can move the pieces you buy around, and make the 'fish tank' somewhat more of your own personal creation. That would probably make the game more difficult to create, but I think that it might help make the 'garden building' more interesting.

All in all, I think the game rates about a three out of five (I won't toss it out, but I doubt I'll play it much, either.)

@ White Rabbit - I'm sorry you have to put up with our grumpy complaints. I know that GGOTD has to work hard to get developers to give up their hard work for free, even for one day, and I'm as guilty as the others about not commenting unless I don't like the game. I'll try and do better with both positive comments, and constructive criticism in the future. Thanks for all your hard work.

..................................Moderator Comment....................................

Thanks for your feedback dusty.

Negative or positive comments that are contructive are all that I ask. Most community members who post here are polite and usually comment about the game. It's when someone gripes about the lack of any decent games or has to resort to unsuitable language (on what I'd call a family site), that I get annoyed. :)

Donna Friedman, the Giveaway team has NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER given away a game with a corrupted file and NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER will! They put each game through a RIGOOOOOOOROUS series of tests to make sure that it is squeeeeeky clean! So, if your computer doesn't run them, blame it, not the game, and get on over to the forum for the help you so desperately need.

Thought, I would help you out there, White Rabbit.

I LOVE this game! Not as much as Alice's Magical Mahjong, but a WHOLE lot more than most other games. The graphics are top notch! The game play is stupendous! Who ever thought a spider could be so CUTE!

You go, Alawar! You are the DUDES, dudes!

................................................Moderator comment........................................

Thank you for your help Swampy. :)

7: Good catch; thought it looked familiar - matching fruits and all.

So glad to see this one turn up here! I finished it several years ago on a paid website but now I can replay any time I want. Great little game and IMHO best of the e-Fun Soft M3 games! Thanks Alawar & GGOTD!

................................................Moderator comment........................................

:)

My favorite type of game is the match 3. I have several, from both Alawar and Playrix, which were featured here on Give Away Of The Day and I have enjoyed playing them. Thank you, GAOTD and game developers for providing these free and safe offerings. As for the statement that games have been sparse on this site lately, still, I know I have more games than I will ever have time to play, so I have no reason to complain about that.

................................................Moderator comment........................................

:)

Morich (#7),

The two games are indeed very similar, especially the "map" and such. However, the layout of the individual levels is different in the two cases.

Also, both games are offered by both Jenkat and MyPlayCity. Those sites do not normally offer 2 versions of the same game although the same game being offered under multiple names over the several sites total is common. This is not the case.

The games are similar but not the same. Both are nice Match-3 games. I have both -- one from a CD that contained many games (by Viva Media) and one from MPC.

Downloaded twice, both time failed, arriving without the required GTD.exe. Don't know if anyone else had that problem, it could easily be because of not so great "high speed DSL" service provider, (not mentioning any names... ATTchoo!)
Thanx to Donna Friedman for her comment, I thought it looked familiar, but I do enjoy a nice match 3 so I thought I'd give it a try... twice. Well, three times, since I came back again, but now I'll just go play Enchanting Islands again instead.

Rabbit, I have commented here - very infrequently - over the many years. Hopefully we can nudge the responders and commentators up past the 1% mark and thanx to the GGOTD team for the many, many hours of entertainment over those years. Any chance of a "make your own jigsaw puzzle" type thing on the docks?

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EHi Napoleon Park, have you checked the FEAQ's section over in the game discussion sticky section? you may find a fix

I think that the reason I don't leave comments about the games is that, having downloaded them, I often don't start the game for some days. I then feel that any comment would be outdated and useless as people would not then be able to download the game.

BTW, I thought Namariel Legends was wonderful! Thank you for your hard work.

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Thanks for your feedback. I think commenting, even after a week or so can be useful. If developers do check back, it could be at any time, so please do post your impressions/ideas and/or complaints about any game.

I don't know if anyone else will notice but this match 3 has much of the same graphics as ,The Enchanting Islands, a match 3 that was given away in May 2014 they've just changed from having a sorceress holding a staff at the beginning to having Alice hold a staff, then in actual game play graphics are nearly identical and background music is the same. It looks to me like they just repackaged it into a different story line is all. If you liked that one you'll probably like this one , not one of the best match 3s but not one of the worst either works fine on Windows 8, thanks GGOTD and Alawar for the game and thanks Whiterabbit for all you do it is greatly appreciated.

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Thank you for your feedback Morich, will have to check that out later (If I have time).

finally a game without a corrupted file!

A deliciously fruity and sunny match 3 game. Good graphics, but not spectacular.

A happy Sunday game. I'm enjoying the gameplay.

Thank you!

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:)

Installed fine on a Win 8.1 computer. No shortcuts added to the tiles or the homescreen.
The layout is a bit childish to my tast, but very clear and bright colors. The game is a not too difficult match 3 game with two games on one board. Break the tiles and combine the fruits.
Those were the first rounds, I hope it will be as difficult as Age of Japan 2 at the end (hint, hint!)

The music is a bit annoying after a while. Gladly there is an option to turn it completely off. Options screen is limited to sounds, music, screen and tutorial.

A decent Alawar game, fun for the whole family. I will keep it as a time spoiler.
Have a nice Sunday!

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Thank you for your feedback Daan, much appreciated.

We got both versions of Age of Japan in the first year of the giveaways. I ended up buying them both as ther were/are superior match three's.

@whiterabbit-uk: Sure, if you unit does not tolerate the truth and know that many will agree! Coward ...

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Hi soisit,

The comment wasn't for todays giveaway. You should have left it in yesterdays comments section. That aside, it was still nothing to do with the game itself, just an opinion about the game giveaway site.

Please remember that the service the game giveaway team provide is a free service. You're getting commercial games totally for free, with no added extra's that you get with other game sites such as MyPlayCity, FreeGamePick etc. Granted, the selection of games has been rather sparce of late, but that's because not many developers can afford to give away their games. You just have to take into account the changes that have occured since the game giveaway started back in December 2006. We had the recession hit in 2008. Games were, prior to that date, sold at $19.99 for an arcade game. Since then (2008), games have been reduced in price to around $6 per game and many games are now incuded in the growing number of indie bundles that appear within weeks of the games being released; (you are basically getting each game for less than a dollar when you purchase one of these bundles). Many small distributors and developers have gone out of buisness and those that are left are hardly going to give their games away, especially when the majority of those who download them don't even bother to comment, say thank you or leave inappropriate comments.

I've tried my best to get the community to leave 'constructive' comments over the last few years. Some community members have been great in this repect, but they only account for a very tiny percentage of the whole community; (the last time I calculated, it was around 0.01 percent of the community leaving comments). Considering we are getting free games I think that is appalling.

The potential for Developers to see this site as a useful tool for ideas to improve their games, or even for beta testing has always been a possibility, but the community have not been helpful in this respect.



If you want to leave comments at least point them towards the game. Give some useful positive or negative feedback instead of lambasting this site just because you are not happy with the games being given away.