Magic Maze was originally given away on the 17th Feb 2013, you can see the community comments HERE. It received a 77% positive rating from 329 votes. The following review is an edited version of my original review with some changes.

On booting up the game a second time I received the following message ''Domestic PC hardware isn't yet capable of silly resolutions like 1024x768 x 16 bit. If you get this message select properties from the desktop shortcut and then select the compatibility tab. check the ''run in 640 x 480 screen resolution'' check box to fix the issue. Check the end of this review for links to six FREE AAA Batman games.

Magic Maze

In Brief

Magic Maze is a well constructed dungeon crawler with an isometric view. Basics of the game: find crystals to unlock the gates to the next magic maze, collecting gold and other loot from random drops, crates and chests, plus killing cute looking monsters on your way, with a boss monster at the end of each maze. The game is relatively easy to beat, and if parents don't mind a cute looking cat shooting cute looking dogs, then this is probably ideal you younger children.

Introduction:

Find yourself in a gloomy dungeon with nothing but a firearm, a keen nose for treasure and a desire to get out. So your aim is to find the way out and treasures in a dark labyrinth of a dungeon. Explore the maze, but beware of awful monsters teeming there. Every new level brings you upgrades. Apart from your trusty firearm you’ll get the ability to freeze the monsters and acquire the chance to clear your way to the exit with toxic gases.

You can progress from level to level as soon as you find the Three Gems on each level. So pluck up courage and advance through hordes of terrible monsters to the exit!

Excellent visuals and intense action keep the gamer in suspense ‘til the final level. Challenging levels and absorbing gameplay won’t let anything entice you from your PC. Download Magic Maze totally for free and dive into the gloomy and sinister atmosphere of a dungeon. Play Magic Maze right now to enjoy the most challenging action game ever!

Reference accessed HERE. 21st September 2019

The Game:

Magic Maze is a funny adventure of a cute cat looking for treasures hidden in the mazes labyrinth. There are loads of creatures and traps a waiting for him everywhere. Still, the cat is very sly and well-weaponized. The only enemies you may have difficulty with are the huge bosses. Magic Maze includes lots of levels with intriguing titles like “The Trap”, “Candy Land”, “The Glacier”, “Dangerous Heights”! You've got a number of lives when you enter the game. These can be added to as you progress through the levels, and there is always a mission given to you - a number of stones - as well as the route! There is a magic map and you can trace where and how long you are going to follow the path and how many twists and turns are ahead! The Underground Labyrinth is full of 'surprises' and gems. Don't forget to shoot the rabbits and other creatures otherwise you'll never escape the level. Also, you should destroy all the wooden crates becaue you may find e bonus item hidden inside.

Every mission is all about magic chests and keys necessary to find, obstacles to overcome and miscellaneous cute looking monsters to defeat.

Victory over the enemy will give you bonus's, for example, a key to open golden chests or become invulnerable for a set period of time, replenish your health and even get an additional life. Some of the boxes and chests contain optional skills that will help you, so make sure you open them all up .

The following skills are expressed as a percentage. You start the game with all skills at 0%.

⦁ Health
⦁ Bonus time
⦁ Group Attacks
⦁ Dodge Attacks
⦁ Powerful Shot
⦁ Fatal Blow
⦁ Slow Monsters
⦁ One Shot Kills
⦁ Monster Freezes
⦁ Experience Boost

The 12 locations include a closet, desert a glacier as well as others I'll let you discover for yourselves. :)

To start the game you must first create a profile. there are three places, so this is good for a small family or group of friends who like to compete against each other. When starting the game proper you will first be taken through a brief tutorial that explains the various aspects of the game. To move the cat use the Left mouse button to direct its movement. The right mouse button allows the cat to attack. It's worth reading all of the tutorial messages as it will give you a good grounding in the rules of the game. Basically it's straightforward, kill as many enemies as possible, open up all treasure boxes (if possible) and earn skills so that you are better equipped to win the boss battles. :)

Originally posted by Whiterabbit-uk 17th Feb 2013, re-posted with edit, 21st September 2019.

Features:

• New missions every level
• 12 large levels
• A lot of enemies ahead
• Gems and bonuses inside chests
• Useful map to follow the route
• Labyrinth game - Absolutely FREE
• 10 special skills to utilize

Game play Images & Videos:

You can see a slideshow of around 50 images HERE and a couple of game play videos HERE & HERE.

Music:

You can change the music by swapping the music files via the following path:

C:\program files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Magic Maze\data\sounds

You will need to rename each file and convert them to the .ogg format, make sure you only select the files specific to music and not sound effects as there are all jumbled together.

Conclusion:

Magic Maze is a colorful 3D maze from an isometric viewpoint, with 12 large mazes to complete. I found the game became a little tedious after the third maze as there was very little difference between the various monsters present. It was well presented, with a simple tutorial that introduced you to the game mechanics. I was hoping for something a little more challenging instead I found the game very easy, which would indicate that this may be a candidate for the younger children or adults that are new to this type of game. With respect to allowing younger children to play this game; I'm not sure how happy most parents would be with the shooting aspect, but it is cartoon like and easy to play. Personally I found the music a little annoying, so turned it off. (I've posted details of how to change the music above 'if you also find it annoying'), replacing it with something you enjoy listening to (I replaced it with the Woodstock version of going Home {original by Helicopter} played by Ten Years After) If I was scoring for an adult I'd give this a reasonable 6 out of 10. for a child maybe 7.5 out of 10.

If today’s game doesn’t appeal to you and you still need a game fix, there are always alternative freebies available, or you could check out some of the indie bundles that are available via Indie Gala and the Humble bundle; there are loads of different indie bundles available , but the two I mentioned consistently include decent games that are worth buying, especially at the prices being asked, whereas 'most' of the other indie bundles that are still available tend to include a lot of those £0.79p games most of which are rubbish, though there are exceptions such as the Fanatical bundles (formerly called Bundle Stars). The latest Epic Games freebies include six batman titles worth a total of £100, the Arkham collection (three batman titles), which you’ll find HERE and the Batman Lego Collection HERE. These will be available for free until next Thursday 26th September when they will change over to two more games called Everything an epic, award-winning interactive experience where every object in the Universe is a playable character - from animals to planets to galaxies and beyond. Travel between outer and inner space, and explore a vast, interconnected universe of things without enforced goals, scores, or tasks to complete. Everything is a procedural, AI-driven simulation of the systems of nature, seen from the points of view of everything in the Universe. The second game is one of my favorite post-apocalyptic FPS games called Metro 2033 Redux. Also, check out Indie Gala for lots of freebies (20+) HERE. They add new games regularly (at least 2 or 3 every week) via their Developers showcase section, so its worth checking a couple of times a week. As some are added, some are removed. Once added to your indie Gala library, they are permanently attached, so you can access then at any time. You can download a free standing version of each game (some even have Mac versions to download). Recent additions include Survivor Squad (a Strategy Action game where you control a Squad of up to four survivors and guide them through a highly randomized world looking for supplies to aid you on your journey.), Crowd Control , HERE (a bloody love story between Bunny and Carrot not suitable for children due to blood and gore, despite having a childish graphic style), Lucid Nina, Journey of a Roach, Welcome To... Chichester OVN 2 : Master Tormentor Grendel Jinx !?, Hell Cat Redux, Lady’s Hentai Mosaic, Pixel Hentai mosaic; (some of the latter titles include adult content), plus Land it Rocket (moon lander type game), Poly Golf a simple top down golf game), Pixel Hentai Mosaic (adult content), Five Nations (A futuristic real-time strategy game that follows the events of a mind-bending opera of space about the survival of humanity.) and Snake Eyes Dungeon (a dice based dungeon crawler).

Ubisoft have a special on at the moment HERE that ends on the 30th September, where you can play loads of AAA games for free by signing up for a monthly deal. you can cancel the deal before the end of the free period and there’s no charge. Otherwise it costs $12.99 per month thereafter. I've not signed up for this myself partly becasue I already have most of the games that are available to play. Games include all the Assassin Creed games, all the Tom Clancy games, plus loads more games such as the Crew, Rayman Origins, Watch dogs 1 and 2, Prince of Persia franchise, Heroes of Might & Magic franchise, Anno' franchise, From Dust, Track-mania franchise, and loads more (around 200 games to choose from).