Customer Reviews

Jewel Master Egypt

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved Cradle of Rome, and this game is a fantastic sequel! Egypt is identical in format. You get to build your own civilization by earning gold and resources through game play - match at least three symbols to clear the blue tiles from the board. The symbols are new, vibrant and beautiful, and for a little extra fun when you've finished clearing tiles, you get a lapis lazuli scarab beetle which has to be dropped off the board before your water pitcher timer runs empty!

The tile swapping movement is smooth as silk in this game, I noticed it immediately. New symbols fall in fast like silky lightning. This game is very nicely done, and is already a must play for me all the way through to the end. It's highly addictive and gorgeous.....if you love Jewel Quest or other gem swapping puzzle games, this one is outstanding!

Jewel Master: Egypt is a fun and highly addictive tile matching game and I've now wasted many hours playing it over the last few weeks. If you've played any jewel matching game like Bejeweled or Columns, you'll be right at home here. The board is filled with different symbol tiles (gold coin, blue rings, figs, flower, logs of wood, etc). Some squares are painted blue, and the objective is to get rid of all of these to uncover a scarab beetle, then clear a path for it to drop off the screen, all before time runs out (represented by a water jug on the top screen).

But instead of arranging pieces that fall from the sky, you swap tiles with neighboring squares. A tile can be slid sideways or vertically. If no match is made, the tiles slide back to their original place. Connect 3 or more of the same tiles and they'll shatter, causing any tiles above it to avalanche down, and new tiles to appear to fill any empty spaces. Chain reactions are a lot of fun to see.

Besides the goal of clearing each individual level, the bigger objective is to build up your civilization. Each tile represents 1 of three resources: food, building materials, or gold. Collect enough of each and you can buy the unlockable item bonus of each age (resource upgrades, or magic tiles). When you've bought all 4, you progress to the next era.

The levels get harder and harder as you go on. Each one has a different shape, making the flow of tiles difficult and removing the beetle very hard in some levels. Some tiles are chained up (or double chained) and cannot be moved. You have to make a match first to break the chain before the tile is freed. Each level will have squares of 1 magic type (dynamite, water refill, green potion (removes all of the same kind of tile), lightning (removes 20 random), purple shuffle orbs, etc) which fills up a meter. When it's full, you can use the item. The game is very very hard after I'd say about level 20. There are 100 levels in all. Be prepared to retry many levels over and over until you get lucky. The good thing is that unused magic items and meters carry over from retries and previous levels.

My complaints: the timer is on the top screen, requiring you to look up at it. The "Relax Mode" isn't very relaxing. It lets you play any previously completed leave and it's still timed. Also, when double chained, some of the tiles are a bit hard to identify.

This is a very fun and challenging game suitable for all experience levels and makes a great gift for puzzle freaks. Highly recommended for puzzle fans and a great way to waste some time! The 100 levels will keep you busy for many many hours.

UPDATE 1/10/10: Upon beating level 100, I was 50 coins short of being able to buy the last civilization upgrade. The game said I failed to build my empire and kicked me out to the main menu, where I could replay the last dynasty (5), starting me back at level 81 and taking away all my coins and upgrades for this dynasty. I am taking 2 stars off my rating because of this harsh punishment after having invested many hours playing. This should not have been designed this way. I have to play 19 levels again if I want to try to beat the game again. The levels were already frustratingly hard to beat the first time around.

NO LONGER RECOMMENDED!

If you loved Cradle of Rome, you'll love this game. It's a lot like Cradle Of Rome. You are a Pharaoh. You match 3 items to earn gold, resources and food to build your dynasty and keep your subjects happy. You can earn tools as you go to help with the more difficult puzzles. One difference, when you finish a puzzle a scarab (a blue beetle) is inserted somewhere in the puzzle and you have to let him fall off the bottom of the board to move to the next level. This is good, because if you have time left you can still earn resources until the scarab fall off (or bad, because if the beetle take too long to fall and you run out of time, you have to replay that level). The music is better than Cradle of Rome, and the graphics look much brighter and bigger than Cradle of Rome. I'm on level 62, and like Cradle of Rome, there are some hard levels and some that are a little easier. The chains and double chains are back, and keep you playing for hours.
I'm glad I got this game, even though it is a lot like Cradle Of Rome, it is different enough to keep me playing. BTW, I loved Cradle Of Rome and played it through 3 times. This game will be relayed also, because every time a level comes up it is different and there's no way to remember how you played it before.

As the other reviewer pointed out, this is a sequel to Cradle of Rome. The game structure is all but identical, and the number of levels is the same. They seem to have made the game tougher (not that Cradle of Rome is easy!) by slightly reducing the time limit and adding the provision that a scarab icon must be maneuvered off the screen after it is cleared. I have gotten through 19 of the 100 levels and am beginning to have difficulties, but (in both games) the varying sets of jewels one receives on retrying a level greatly considerably lowers the frustration level.

The music has improved considerably from Cradle of Rome.

Both games are highly recommended for Tetris-family gamers.

This is one of my fav DS games, and has been in my console for at least the past month, I only changed it a couple days ago to try out my bejeweled Twist. Basically you have 100 'boards' or 'layouts' in which you have to match 3 or more jewels horizontally or vertically in order to remove them (in removing them you build your 'stores' of gold, building materials and food which you then use to 'buy' your palace, idols etc and thus 'build' ancient Egypt).
You have various challenges in that you have to clear all the blue squares and then the scarab to complete the layout. You have dark blue squares which only need to be used once ina jem match to clear, light blue need to be used twice, locked with single chain requires three matches and a double chain requires four, oh and did I mention that this is to time?? So yeah quite challenging, but you also have special 'tools' to assist - bomb (explodes single square), mega-bomb (explodes 9 squares), lightning (explodes 20 random squares), bottle (removes all of the items that you clicked on from the board) water (extra time) and a couple others.
I dont know how many times I have replayed this game over, I still find certain layouts require a couple attempts to complete.
I highly recommend this game, especially to puzzle lovers.

This game is very hard for me to put down. It fun and addicting and even my kids (6 and 10) want to play it.

In general I play puzzle and RPG games. I wouldn't classify myself as a whiz or anything with puzzle games but I generally do fine and can complete them with some careful thought. I loved Cradle of Rome and various other match 3 type games. I did find Cradle of Rome frustrating too but it took longer (much) to frustrate me. With that said, however, this game still keeps me playing so that's good.

The music is oddly creepy in some places which I didn't really enjoy. I liked the music in Cradle of Rome just fine. Outside of the creepy music everything else in here is good. I don't know why I was so put off by the horror show sounding music in some areas of this one but it grated on my nerves and I eventually had to turn off the volume--which is a problem because some of the things that happen have auditory tones that I would like to have heard.

In addition the sensitivity of the touch screen for these small boxes was not as good as it can be-- there were several occasions where it did not register what I wanted to do or moved an adjacent square. Based on the other reviews maybe this is just me (I did re calibrate my DS Lite and DSi just in case though and did not notice a difference). I couldn't pick up a pattern on this so I'm still a bit baffled.

The difficulty of this game has been kicked up not one notch but several over the earlier Cradle of Rome effort. I'm in the low 40's for level and a few of the level's in the 30's were an exercise not in thought but frustration. I do not enjoy replaying a level 50 or more times to pass it. If that is something you enjoy then I can recommend this game. I don't mind replaying a few times (less than 20) but once you start to inch towards 50 or so I lose patience, and frankly, interest. I also don't like when you replay that they change up the puzzle itself--I could find no rhyme or reason to it (if it is there then I am missing it) and its frustrating to me to lose and then have another puzzle but different type -- perhaps it is meant to do the opposite and it is just me.

However, I recognize that I may be spoiled by some excellent puzzle/RPG hybrids of late like Puzzle Chronicles and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes both of which are outstanding games that use the match 3/4 gameplay concept. To be clear I was not expecting an RPG here--but a fun and challenging match 3 game.

The addition of the scarab beetle was kind of clever--I liked it although it adds yet another layer of difficulty.

I truly adore match 3 games and originally I had this at 3 stars. After continued playing I would probably put it at about 3.5 stars. The thing that gets me the most is that fact the the levels vary wildly in difficulty. I prefer a gradual easing of difficulty and not easy, easy, nightmare, extremely difficult, easy, nightmare -- well you get the picture. I can say that casual gamers will like this but likely give up if they are not obstinately persistent as I tend to be. Be aware that you have to be willing to spend weeks on a level if you get stuck. I can say there have been occasions that I wanted to throw the DS at the wall. Best to take a break during these times.

If you can deal with immense frustration at times and the uneven difficulty or are an expert at match 3/4 type games then give this one a try but don't say I didn't warn you!

Edited to Add: I completed it. It did not throw me back to the earlier level like another one of the reviewers mentioned but let me start over at Level 1 (just like Cradle of Rome did). Overall after completion I can say it was much harder than Cradle of Rome but just as addictive! LOL

I got this game because I have Cradle of Rome, and I really like the "match three" type of games. I think Jewel Master: Egypt is even better than Cradle of Rome. The graphics seem to be done better, and I like the addition of the scarab beetle that has to be removed from the screen before the level is complete.

Even though this is a sequel to Cradle of Rome, you don't have to have played that one to fully enjoy this game. If you play Jewel Master Egypt and like it, you could get Cradle of Rome afterward.

This is the best Ninetendo game I have played. It is Awesome! There are many challenging levels. It's colorful and exciting. I am a 73 old grandma, and I just can't seem to put it down until I master each level. Thank you.

C.M.Jimeno/Mililani

Very similar to 7 Wonders and Cradle of Rome. Basically its the same game, different theme.

Note: There is a bug. I had a few occurances during play where the screen froze and had to restart my system. I'm playing it a second time around and have not come across this bug, BUT it helped me figure out a strategy for success.

There are special icons that perform special functions (i.e. green vial removes all tiles of the same icon), to play a game more sucessfully, you can watch the screen load, decide if the special ability is something you want (green vial, lightning bolt) and if it is, continue to play the screen. If the special ability is something useless (i.e. rain drop / increase time) then pause the game and select restart level.

This strategy also works for more complicated screens. Play the screen till you get the special ability, pause, restart level and the special ability obtained previously will be on the restarted level. Play partial games with different special abilities to accrue them, then play a level using all of the special abilities you acrued. Great for difficult levels where many of the cells are locked.