Game du Jour: Week of 19 July 2009

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. July 19th: 60% off on Aveyond: Lord of Twilight

Mon. July 20th: 50% off on 3D Pirate Barrels

Tue. July 21st: 47% off on Kari 3 PRO

Wed. July 22nd: 50% off on Science Girls

Thu. July 23rd: 70% off on Frog Bound

Fri. July 24th: 50% off on Pioneer

Sat. July 25th: 100% off on Blackwell Unbound

PC Game Review: Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light

I thought this game was custom-made for me. The logo had “ME” on it. Of course, the initials stood for “Magic Encyclopedia” not “Meryl Evans.” Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light follows Magic Encyclopedia, and continues with its hand-drawn adventure with a new story and main character.

Fans of the original will be surprised and delighted by the follow up, which has surpassed the original in terms of size, adventures and puzzles. This one tells the story of Katrina who had a strange (what else?) dream and her brother asks her to look into his professor’s disappearance. She finds herself traveling the world collecting scrolls and gems to figure out what happened to the professor.

The hidden object portion has you looking for pieces of objects to put them back together. Once you collect all the pieces for an object, it enters your inventory for use on one of the scenes and not necessarily the same one where you found its pieces. The last half of Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light contains a lot of narrow, stick-light objects that will frustrate the searcher as they hide so well. Maybe too well. Clicking items don’t always take either.

Also, parts hide in little black holes that you zoom in on when the mouse rolls over these spots. This neat feature is a little bit of a curse, too. Sometimes the spot sits very close to an interactive item and the interactive item keeps lighting up instead of the spot. Those teeny-tiny parts will have you relying on the crystal ball for hints. You have unlimited hints, but must wait for it to fill back up. But sometimes the crystal ball doesn’t cooperate though it looks full.

Mini-games pop up every now and then when you’re trying to access or open something on a scene. Some resemble the puzzles you see in other hidden object games while others bring something new. You can skip them after so much time passes and the skip button comes to life. The mini-games do challenge enough that I skip a couple after spending too much time on them. I still wanted to figure them out and I knew I could do that later because you can access the mini-games from the main menu and replay any after unlocking them. Love this feature.

The only thing below quality is the font used. The font looks like the oft-used font that comes with Microsoft Word and other software. It’s as tired and amateur as Comic Sans. Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light delights, charms and challenges with its graphics, audio and game play. Go download and try Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light.

Game du Jour: Week of 12 July 2009

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. July 12th: 50% off on 3 Stars of Destiny

Mon. July 13th: 50% off on Laxius Force

Tue. July 14th: 50% off on Boulder Dash Episode III: Final Blast

Wed. July 15th: 50% off on Boulder Dash Episode IV: Rockford Return

Thu. July 16th: 50% off on Grimm’s Hatchery

Fri. July 17th: 50% off on Aveyond: Rhen’s Quest

Sat. July 18th: 50% off on Aveyond: Ean’s Quest