Customer Reviews

Luxor

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are many "match three" games out there right now but this is absolutely the best, most addictive game I've every played (and believe me, I've played A LOT OF THEM).

The game play starts out slow enough to allow you to get the hang of it, then speeds up as you progress "down the Nile" (a nifty way to tracking progress, better than just high scores.

Normally, once I've managed to get through an entire game like this, I delete it and go on to another game. But I can't get enough of this one.

If you're interested, you can download a demo at gameblaster.com and try it for yourself. There are also plenty of tips among the "reviews" at that site to help you get past the hardest levels.

Barbara

I bought my son a new computer and it came with a variety of game demos, including Zuma Deluxe. Well, when I went to the store to inquire about it, I was told they didn't have it...but had something similar: Luxor.

I decided to take a risk and buy it. Let me just say that it's totally addicting!

The object of the game is to fire colored spheres out of the "mystical winged scarab" and destroy the approaching colored spheres by making matches of three or more. The approaching spheres wind through various mazes and the "winged scarab" moves from left to right on the bottom of the screen (unlike Zuma Deluxe, where the shooter rotates 360 degrees from the center).

There are 88 levels to the game (I'm halfway through it), and it would appear that about 13 mazes or so are repeated throughout the levels, but with differing backgrounds. Another thing that is different is the sphere coloring. In the beginning stages, the spheres are green, yellow, red and blue. Later mazes introduced the color purple. I'm at a stage now where white has been added and, judging from one of the intro screens, black will be added as well.

The oncoming spheres snake towards a pyramind (sometimes 2 pyramids simultaneously!), and if you don't eliminate the spheres by that time, the chain whizzes through the pyramid and you lose a life. You shoot the spheres by left-clicking, BUT you can change the color of the ball by right-clicking. At the bottom of the scarab, you're able to see what the next color is going to be which is very strategic if you're getting towards the pyramid and you're being fed a certain color that you don't (desperately!) need.

There are neat power-up talismans that fall from the eliminated spheres, and are accompanied by sound effects such as crashing glass, wolf howls, or choir-like singing. Some power-ups include stopping the oncoming chain, slowing it down, laser accuracy, a lightning power-up (where you can zap an entire vertical row of orbs), and sunburst power-up (where you can blast 5 balls of any color). You have to "catch" these power-ups before they fall to the ground for them to be activated.

My absolute favorite, though, is the color scarab power-ups. If you catch one of these, it will eliminate all the spheres on the board that are of that color. (This comes in really handy when it's coming down to the wire!)

Also, after getting certain combos (I think it's 4+ balls) a gold ankh coin falls; if you catch 30, you get another life.

While Luxor is an arcade action/puzzle game, it's definitely not mindless. With right-clicking to change the colors of the spheres, catching power-ups, and keeping your eye on the ball(s), it can really get your adrenaline going.

The only minus, for me, is that it takes 5-7 mazes to make it to the next section on the Egyptian map. If you lose all your lives at, let's say, maze 4--you're forced to go back to the first maze in that particular section. But this is also part of what makes it so addicting! I mean, who wants to be beaten by a game, right?

One of the features touted on the Luxor box is "original music score", but I only remember hearing the same droning, uinteresting Egyptian-sounding background music. Unlike Bejeweled 2, there's no variations of the music (that I can tell). But you know what? I didn't buy this game for the music.

If you enjoy games like Zuma Deluxe, Bounce Symphony, and the Blaster Ball series, you'll likely enjoy Luxor.

(To see 4 screen shots from Luxor, visit the Reviews--Computer Games section at JanetBoyer.com)

I'd like to give this game five stars. It's fun, fast, and and entertaining and I really enjoy playing it. Unfortunately they designed a couple of the levels too hard. Level 5-4, for example. It's nearly impossible to get through this level. If you do, they have an even harder version of it later in the game. Do a search for Luxor 5-4 or 8-4 and you'll see tons of comments about people stuck on these levels.

I feel like it wasted my money, because I can't play the whole game. And these troublesome levels do not show up in the one hour trial version.

I made it to the 9th stage and enjoyed it along the way BUT it is virtually impossible to get past the second segment of the 9th stage. If you enjoy stress and anxiety then you will love this game. Personally, I consider it to be worth maybe half of what I paid for it.

I've been playing both Luxor and Luxor Amun Rising for some time now and I enjoy both games. I think Luxor is more difficult than Amun Rising though. I really hate level 8-4 (anyone who has played this knows what I'm talking about!). I was only able to complete the entire game by using "cheats". I know that's a little drastic but there are websites where you can download cheats to have unlimited lives, change the coins to lightening or bombs, etc. I tried to play with the unlimited lives, that way I was at least able to play the really hard levels over and over until I finished them. Just search under google or something for "Luxor cheats" or "computer game cheats" and you'll find a way to download them. Also get Luxor Amun Rising because I think it's much better than this first Luxor.

The ad blurb stated the game came in a box that was 7x5x2-what I rc'vd was in a cheesy cd sleeve-not in a box.

This is, by far, the best of all the Luxor games. I have always turned the music off as I find it a distraction when playing. I cannot believe those who say the game is too hard. At 68 years old, I find it a lot of fun and have little trouble getting through to the end. The very last stage is a dilly though. In my opinion, Luxor 3 is too hard and not worth purchasing but the original Luxor is a BLAST and I highly recommend it.

Although I enjoyed this game, I did not like it nearly as much as Zuma as I found it much more difficult and found it hard to get past the higher levels. Another frustrating feature is that you can not return to the level you missed but have to return to an earlier level to play through to the challenged level. This prevents you from practising on a difficult level.

The true problem came when I installed Vista, in my case 64-bit Vista, and it stopped working completely. Notice that it shows in the description that it is only compatible with XP.

Recibi the product I wanted, in good condition and without deterioration. The communication with the shop was excellent. I recommend to the store

After ZUMA's success, a number of clones appeared - but the LUXOR series is the one that actually improved on some aspects of the concept.

A series of colored balls (with the number of different colors increasing every few levels) gets pushed and you have to match them in sets of three or more in order to remove them - and prevent them from reaching the end zone. Instead of having the "shooter" in the center, it is located at the bottom and it slides left and right. This makes for some quite difficult shots (especially when obstructed by the advancing row of balls) and raises the difficulty of the game. On the other hand, the power-ups are more powerful, at the end of every round a number of coins and gems drop and "catching" them add lives to your paddle. It seems pretty straight-forward yet it can become highly...addictive!

This is an example of what has come to be known as Casual Gaming: small, resource-light games that are fun for the whole family.
It would not be a bad idea to download the 60-min trial version from a casual games site, such as REFLEXIVE (you can Google it), and decide for yourself whether this is indeed your cup of tea.

RECOMMENDED!