Customer Reviews

Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Short Version: At first I was a bit put off by how easy the mini-games seemed, but (as is often the case with Pop Cap's games) I found it difficult to put down. This is a good activity for getting your mental gears turning in a relaxed way.

If you need a gift for somebody $20 or under and you know that person has a DS, this is a good option for you.

The Long Version:
While the story does provide a nice theme for the various mini-games that make up "Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins", it's incidental.

I'm in my early 30's and, as I said, at first the puzzles seemed too easy for me, but as I played I realized that the puzzles were comfortably challenging. Some things were very easy and some things were actually quite difficult and at no time did I want to throw my DS against the wall. (Unlike Professor Layton and the Curious Village.)

Much of the game is made up of "find the object in this picture" levels, but each of those is accompanied by one of 5 mini-games.
- Memory Match
- Jigsaw Puzzle
- Tile Swap
- Mah-Jongg Match
- Find the Difference (between two pictures)

The game manages to keep things fresh by switching things up slightly. For instance, in the Memory Match and the Mah-Jongg Match they occasionally ask that you find similar items or items that go together rather then an exact match. So instead of matching two blue bird tiles you would instead match a blue bird with a yellow bird or a blue bird with an egg, depending on what the game was asking for that round. This keeps the various mini-games from getting too repetitive too fast.

Each "location" with a "find objects" game has two extra items, a jade mask and a jade glyph. If you don't find one or both the first time in a particular location they will still be there when you return in subsequent levels. As you find the masks and glyphs it unlocks each of the mini-games in "free play" mode and opens up "unlimited seek and solve". Amazing Adventures also has it's own version of XBox Live style Achievements which are called "Awards".

The game will penalize you for randomly tapping around the screen rather then carefully choosing an item you think is the one you need. Also, the "Hint" button is useful without being completely obvious. It will cost you some of your points to use, and it's also on a timer before it recharges and you can use it again. The amount of time the hint button takes to recharge is long enough for you to get involved in actually looking yourself again while you're waiting, but not so long that it's painful to wait. The developers have provided intensives not to abuse certain game play elements that would lower the difficulty of the task, but don't try to stop you from doing these things altogether. I rather like that approach.

The look of the game is nice and in keeping with theme of the game. (Very "Indiana Jones'ish".) Likewise the music pleasant to hear without demanding too much of your attention as you play.

If the person you are getting this for is a tween who's at that point everybody goes through where they decide they're too cool for.. everything, this might not be the right choice. However, if they give it a chance (when nobody's looking of course) and play it for any length of time? They'll be at it for hours just like the rest of us.

Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins
For Nintendo DS
Basic Reading Required
E rating: good for all ages

This is a family game that is a little misleading from its title and brief description. I was expecting a game where you travel from place to place, gathering clues and figuring out puzzles. It turns out that the game is nothing that I expected.

The game is more like I Spy, with a few other games thrown in.

The basic premise is this: You are an adventurer and you are paired with another character, such as an assistant or another scientist. You start at one archaeological ruin and solve two puzzles. From there, it leads to a "clue" about the next location you need to check out. Repeat.

The first part of a typical round is a picture on the bottom touch screen with a list of objects on the top. Your job is to find all the objects from the list in the picture and touch them to get points. In general, this is fairly straight forward. However, it does require reading skills and a broad knowledge of common objects, as some of the item descriptions are not simple (for example, 3 astrological signs; a great white; squeezebox; 3 shelled reptiles; in the night sky [for moon]). Other descriptions are very direct (3 shells; 2 stars; a moon). Once I explain to my 7-year old daughter what they are, she can independently play the game. There is a hint button if you can't find an object. If you randomly touch the bottom screen too many times, a penalty is given. Also, in each of these type puzzles, there is a jade mask and part of a glyph that you need to collect. It is used at the end of the game for a final puzzle.

The second half of the round rotates between various puzzles: a jigsaw puzzle, matching games, find the difference between the pitures or Maj-jong. These are also very easy, and because there is no penalty for guessing, it is easy to just touch the bottom screen until you get it right.

All of these games are timed. When you first start out, you have 20 minutes, but as you progress, the time allowed for each round is shorter.

Once you finish the second round, either the picture from the first puzzle or a picture from the second puzzle indicates where you go next. And off you go to the next ruin, to repeat the above procedure again (and again). You do not get to freely explore. It just sends you to the next place.

Point are added up depending on how many minutes you have left on the timer and whether you used any hints. As you increase the total points you have, you advance from amateur adventurer to more advanced. I have no idea what the increased levels do.

Scattered between levels is a short narrative, which is supposed to be the adventure part. It tells a story about finding new clues and other characters. However, this narrative does not become incorporated into the next level. You just go back to the two game rounds with the I Spy and second round mini-game. Honestly, it is pretty useless.

3 star rating: The reason I gave this a three star rating is because of its repetitiveness. There are 17 levels and they are pretty much all the same. Around level 8, I became bored with the same hunt. However, my daughter is still having fun finding objects, as she is a huge I Spy fan. In addition, because the picture is so small, it is often difficult to identify objects. I found myself having to turn all the lights off in the room and tilting the screen to more clearly identify whether the brown blob in the corner was the shell I needed to find.

Overall, this was a fun game, especially for I Spy fans, but very repetitive. If you are looking for a good I Spy game, I would go with the I Spy series of computer games from Scholastic. Cuter rhymes, spoken words for those who aren't as advanced readers, and better graphics. Also, they have more interesting objects to find with neat features, like you have to look through a microscope to find things, and a good centralized theme (such as Haunted House).

This game is really fun! The graphics are great and the game concept is entertaining and challenging. I love hidden object games but so many of the ones I've played for the DS don't really show up very well, the screen is too dark, the items too small to really see, etc. This one is far superior to most. If you liked Mystery Case Files MillionHeir, you will love this game, too. It's very well done and I'm extremely happy with it!

UPDATE on January 29th, 2009... Wanted to remove 2 stars because of the repetitive nature and this being the same exact game as, "Mystery PI".

My husband and I LOVE this game. We really enjoy puzzle games. This is a game that sets you on a quest to find the forgotten ruins. Is isn't a platform game where you actually have a character going through levels; rather you go through levels with the provided puzzles.

There are many varieties:
Find ten items in different backrounds

Put the puzzle pieces in the right order to form the picture provided

Puzzle where you flip cards over and have to match items (the items have to be similar not identical)

Puzzle where you flip cards over and they have to be IDENTICAL

A version of Mah-jong...the difference is that it has to be similar items Example: hand goes with glove or tennis racket goes with tennis ball

Another fun puzzle is to find the difference between two pictures.

Very basic puzzles but HIGHLY addictive fun. Tapping on the wrong thing 3 times loses you 1000 points. Asking for a Hint will cost you 4000 points.

Bottom line: If you love puzzles and being challenged, then this is the game for you. If you do not enjoy sitting still and trying to figure things out, or aren't great with giving attention to detail, then pass on this one. I feel that a very smart 8 or 9 year old can play this without losing interest. We are respectively 27 and 32 we are obsessed!!

I found this game is entertaining at first, but it quickly became tedious due to the repetition.

There are 20 "missions", each consisting of a few paragraphs of a journal and 5 game "levels". Each level has a search-and-find puzzle, and then a mini-game. The mini-game's picture or background is the basis for the next search and find puzzle.

With 20 missions and 5 levels per mission, you are doing the search-and-find 100 times. But there are only 18 different scenes. So each scene is used 5 or 6 times. The image is exactly the same each of those times, but the list of things to find varies. A particular thing to find won't be on the list every time you visit the scene, but it may show up 3 or 4 times. You quickly memorize where certain key items are within each scene.

You are also doing the mini-games 100 times. But there are only 5 different games. So each game is done 20 times. How many times can you play the memory game before you are bored to tears? Also, the mini-game variety is tied to whichever search screen comes next. That means that even though you do the jigsaw puzzle game 20 times, there are only 4 different jigsaw puzzle pictures. You do the same exact jigsaw puzzle 5 times! The same is true for the tile swap puzzles - there are only 4 pictures, and you get to do each of those pictures multiple times. Yay.

There is no aspect of collecting clues and solving a mystery. You are simply reading the 20 journal entries describing an archaeologist searching for the ruins. The only tie between the gaming activities and the story is the imagery. And the imagery does not change as the story progresses.

The ending is anti-climatic. You get a final journal entry, then a message saying "You found the ancient ruin. Do you want to do the bonus screen?" And then a chance to do a 19th search-and-find.

This review is written from the perspective of a 40-ish female, who enjoys puzzle games like Professor Layton, TouchMaster, Big Brain Academy, and NY Times Crosswords.

Although the packaging makes it look like a role playing game with graduated levels of problem solving and play it actually isn't like that. The theme of a Mayan Adventure is a way to create a look.

If you're looking for strategy, tactics and higher level problem solving this isn't it. You'll be disappointed. But if you like to solve various types of puzzles or if you're like me and have a long history with getting online and playing the Pop Cap games, you'll really like this. The graphics are nice and the music is pleasant. Me, my 9 y.o and my five y.o can all play it and it it entertains us all on varying levels.

This "hidden object" game was the worst I have played on the DS, or ever. Here's 4 reasons why:
1. it is fun for a while, until you find yourself going back to the same exact place over and over - finding pretty much the same objects (which really sucked the fun out of it)
2. the graphics were not very good, not the worst but by far not the best
3. even the mini-games at the end of each hidden object level were repeated over and over - they also were not challenging
4. there is no mystery or story even worth following, I quit playing because I was sick of doing the exact same thing over and over again - the "mystery" was so lame I couldn't care less to torture myself and finish to see the ending

I would definately recommend Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir or Cate West The Vanishing Files for the DS instead. Millionheir being the better, because even after the mystery was solved, I still play in free mode.

This game was a lot of fun. The way the hints for the storyline were laid out, the hidden pictures games, and the minigames in between were all very creative and a lot of fun. I loved the related item games, where players match items that are related instead of identical. It really added an additional level of challenge to the games.

But even so, the games are far too easy and far too short. Supposedly the levels get more difficult as you progress through the story, but that was not really my experience. I finished the story part of the game very quickly in less than a day of play.

The effort to add replay value with the hidden levels and extra minigames was nice, but the additional levels were also too easy. There are a very limited number of puzzles to put together and hidden items to hunt. After a short while of replay, it just becomes too repetitive to be much fun.

I would recommend this game for a very young player or perhaps someone not very accustomed to the Nintendo DS yet. But for experienced gamers, especially ones looking for a good puzzle, this isn't a very good choice.
Easy levels, easy puzzles, little replay value...it isn't really worth the purchase.

My 7 year old was excited to see an exotic looking adventure title for the DS, he was even more thrilled when we found out that core of the gameplay mimics the ISPY series of books where the reader spots hidden objects in a picture. What is neat here is you get to poke around the various screens with your stylus and are rewarded with a shimmering sound effect when you poke an item from the randomly generated list each level throws at you. The gameplay is sharp as it takes away from your score if you are just tapping at the screen blindly. Also nice is the gameplay timer as optional if you don't want to feel the pressure, as well as a save feature that lets you quit in the middle of the adventure anywhere. The minigames that follow the poke and seek adventure are basic but oddly addictive, particularly the memory match games. Each of these games can be unlocked for unlimited freeplay outside of the adventure,(with a little effort). This game was a sweet find as it feels and plays like a more grown up version of one of my sons fav DS titles CRAYOLA TREASURE HUNT. The excellent artwork/design and solid concept make the stylus controls shine in the decently written main story, and side games. Fun and hard to put down.

This is probably one of the more unique reviews of a game, but I feel it's really valuable.

My wife (who is from Japan) doesn't speak more than a wee bit of English--mostly greetings and standard replies to standard questions--and as I found playing video games an excellent way to improve my Japanese when I lived in Japan, I thought my wife might benefit from an all-English game that she found fun as well rather than something targeting ESL learners. This game has certainly fit the bill.

The games I played in Japanese were mostly action games: Metal Gear, Tomb Raider, Ace Combat, Tenchu Shinobi Gaisen, et cetera. I would read the instruction manual and some bit of the story, but that was about it--nothing I couldn't have just figured out without actually understanding the language. This game presents a lot more in the way of language learning opportunities as part of the playing aspect rather than merely understanding the instructions, and yet it has the benefit for non-native speakers of not having a lot of dialogue--as many kids games do these days--which can really discourage someone who doesn't easily understand it. In my wife's case, too much dialogue causes her to rely too heavily on me translating pages and pages of text that don't really have anything to do with actually playing the game--such as is the case in her all time favorite game, Animal Crossing, which we had to order the Japanese language version of eventually.

For example, at some points in the game they have the player find various objects hidden in a picture, which are listed on the lower screen. My wife loves this. She pronounces the words to ask me what such-and-such is so she can find it, and when I'm not home she simply looks them up in the dictionary. Though the game doesn't have the benefit of vocalizing the correct pronunciation of a word, she found some sites on the internet that do when I'm not there--and she can choose to hear the words pronounced by a woman's voice as well.

The hidden objects are nicely varied too, so you don't have the standard words that anyone, in any country, with a middle school education knows in English--such as dog, cat, apple, pen, teacher, and other tedious repeats. The objects are good, general, common objects that anyone would be familiar with regardless of country, and yet not elementary--such as "spool of thread."

BOTTOM LINE: My wife would not play a game if it wasn't fun (seriously, she wouldn't pick it up again if was simply educational but not actually enjoyable), and she enjoys this game not only because of the actual game play itself, but the learning aspect it represents as well. This is a good mental exercise for native English speakers and an excellent vocabulary builder for those who aren't, or for kids who could always stand to learn more words.

While I'm sure it wasn't the game designers intent to be educational, the game gets an A+ for providing an excellent learning opportunity.