Snark Busters: All Revved Up

In Brief

Snark Busters: All Revved Up is the second in the snark series and is a Hidden Object Game.

Installation:

Snark Busters: All Revved Up downloads to a 296 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a readme). Those with multiple hard drives can save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 371 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Snark Busters - All Revved Up

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch taskbar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Help the racer Jack Blair in his pursuit of Snark in the part of breath-taking series of games about Snark! Are you ready to join the ravishing adventures that will transfer you to another reality with myriads of imaginary worlds? Here you appear in the era when the greatest inventions were made. The era of dirigibles and steam trains. The era of the greatest inventions and mystifications. So brace yourself for incredible adventures in the company of notorious Formula 0 champion Jack Blair, who has everything and now his dream is to catch Snark!

Lots of miraculous realms are open, where you’ll dive into mirrors and materialize in the prehistoric age to unfreeze mammoths and meet dinosaurs. Look into another mirror and materialize at a mysterious fair with bizarre clowns and conjurers or fly in the steampunk dirigible!

There are a lot of colourful hidden object scenes in the game Snark Busters: All Revved Up. Explore all of them to assist Jack and chase his dream of catching Snark. Solve mini-games and find parts of broken keys, unlock closed doors, repair torn electrical wires and even join Jack in inventing new devices. Explore his laboratory and help him find necessary tools.

There are lots of theories of what Snark is? Some people think this monster symbolizes happiness and inspiration, that’s why there are so many people chasing it.

Edited reference accessed HERE. 25th November 2018

The Game:

The original Snark Busters: Welcome to the Club was a fantastic game, so it was with high hopes that I went into Snark Busters 2: All Revved Up, the second chapter in Alawar’s Snark-hunting game series. And it does not disappoint; Snark Busters 2 falls just a wee bit short of the very high standard set by the first game but it is still a very enjoyable romp through a bright, bizarre steampunk world.

You are Jack Blair, world famous auto racer, following in the footsteps of your grandfather Robert, whose prowess surpassed even your own. The greatest race driver the world had ever seen, Robert disappeared at the height of his fame under circumstances most mysterious: he drove into a tunnel while running his last race but never came out the other end. No trace of him was ever found. Perhaps one day your legend will outshine even his, but for now you’ve left the racing world behind in pursuit of other, even more exciting and exotic adventures as a Snark Buster!

Snark Busters 2 relies on fragmented objects rather than conventional hidden object searches to drive the action forward. Veteran HOG lovers should feel at home, while new players will find the introductory tutorial easy to follow yet very thorough. The game is broken up into six different levels, each of which must be passed before you; that is, Jack can gain admittance to the Snark Busters club and the hot new race car they want you to drive.

Each area begins with several fragmented objects that must be assembled and then put to use in various ways, with the ultimate goal of retrieving a special medallion that will open the portal to the next level. There are a few puzzles to solve along the way, including one or two particularly good brain-teasers, and some of the fragmented object searches can be quite challenging, but the game has a comprehensive help function that will keep things moving along at a good pace and that recharges quickly, too.

The gameplay in Snark Busters 2 is quite good but the game’s real strength comes from the unique and very interesting world in which it’s set. Nodnol is a weird place, to put it mildly. Everything runs on steam, so pipes, valve and assorted bits of unusual plumbing are everywhere, yet the technology is still very advanced. Your travels will take you to an elaborate tree house, a great, luxurious airship, a strange amusement park and more, as well as through the “backward worlds” the Snark hides in on the other side of mirrors. Your pursuit of the mythical creature, meanwhile, is echoed in the pursuit of you by Jessica Marrey, the persistent television news host who chronicled the hijinks of Kira Robertson and her father in the first game and is now determined to break the story of Jack Blair.

Kira gets a mention in Snark Busters 2, which is a nice touch but also highlights the game’s one failing: it’s just not quite as wonderfully charming as its predecessor. Where Kira was a sly, lovable rogue in the first game, Jack Blair comes across as vacuous and arrogant in this one, and even worse isn’t nearly as interesting a character. It’s all played for laughs, but it lacks the self-deprecating appeal that made Kira so much fun. The absence of a sub-plot like the one involving her overprotective father is surprisingly noticeable, and the fact that we don’t come a single step closer to the Snark than we were at the start of Welcome to the Club is actually a bit disappointing.

On the other hand, it’s a very lively game, with plenty of animations, sound effects and other such goings-on to keep things engaging. It’s bright, exaggerated graphical style is visually striking and although the jaunty music can become a little overbearing at times, it’s an ideal soundtrack for the pseudo-Victorian setting. And it’ll keep you busy for a good while, too, with at least three hours of good, solid gameplay.

And to be honest, if Snark Busters 2 doesn’t quite live up to the standard of its predecessor, that’s at least in part because the original game set the mark so very, very high. But it’s challenging, amusing and an awful lot of fun, and that’s really the point, isn’t it? The Snark Busters club is a very exclusive one, with membership reserved for only the best and the brightest, and Snark Busters 2: All Revved Up is definitely a worthy addition to the roster

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Andy Chalk on Apr 26, 2011, reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 25th November 2018

Other Reviews and Videos of Snark Busters: All Revved Up:

You can see community comments from Big Fish games HERE

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE (русский), HERE (Nederlands), HERE, HERE, HERE (日本人), HERE & HERE and a written walkthrough HERE plus a walkthrough strategy guide HERE.

Conclusion:

Snark Busters: All Revved Up has fun level designs and high-quality production values with a unique style, though the story is a little confusing. Not as good as the first in the series, but definitely still worth downloading. I reckon HOG fans will enjoy playing this.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways home page, then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or, If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Big Fish Games.

You can get all three Snark Busters games via Steam as a 6 in 1 bundle HERE that includes Snark Busters: Welcome to the Club, Snark Busters: High Society, Snark Busters: All Revved Up, House of 1000 Doors: Family Secrets Collector's Edition, House of 1000 Doors: Palm of Zoroaster Collector's Edition, House of 1000 Doors: Serpent Flame Collector's Edition. for only £2.24/$2.99, or there’s an even better HOG bundle HERE; called HOG Bundle of Bundles, that contains four bundles (Hidden Object 4-in-1 bundle, Hidden Object 5-in-1 bundle, Hidden Object 6-in-1 bundle). There is a total of 20/21 HOG’s (Snark Busters: Welcome to the Club, Snark Busters: High Society, Snark Busters: All Revved Up, House of 1000 Doors: Family Secrets Collector's Edition, House of 1000 Doors: Palm of Zoroaster Collector's Edition, House of 1000 Doors: Serpent Flame Collector's Edition, Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge, Mountain Crime: Requital, Vampire Saga: Pandora's Box, Weird Park: Broken Tune, Twisted Lands: Shadow Town, Stray Souls: A Dollhouse Story, House of 1,000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster, Dark Strokes: Sins of the Fathers, Eternal Journey: New Atlantis, Cruel Games: Red Riding Hood, Kronville: Stolen Dreams, Panopticon: Path of Reflections, Lake House: Children of Silence Collector's Edition, The Other Side: Tower of Souls, & Mexicana: Deadly Holiday). There’s actually 21 games, but one is repeated as a standard and collectors editions (House of 1,000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster) for a total cost of £6.08/$8.36 (80% off, saving over £24/$33). The Steam Autumn sale with over 14 thousand games on sale ends on the 27th November at 10am Pacific.

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Snark Busters: All Revved Up to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try whitelisting the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Snark Busters: All Revved Up and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Snark Busters: All Revved Up doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums).