I have to say thank you to @Flaming Monocle for his review and entertaining video, which is what convinced me to splash out the princely sum of $0.89 on this game!

If you like this sort of matching game I would even recommend it at full price... it's several hours of fun for only the cost of a fancy cup of coffee, and it's much more entertaining than a Caramel Macchiato... :)

Other reviewers have already covered the gameplay in detail, which consists of three different types of game, but I'll comment on those here too. 'Cause I'm just a rebel like that.

1. Find the key to unlock one of the books of magic, by playing a Hidden Object Game to construct several items and reactivate an elemental altar. This is not timed, and there doesn't appear to be a penalty for needing a hint or clicking in the wrong place. Some of the items you need to find are tiny and/or very well camouflaged - in some cases, even after the fairy helper pointed them out I had to admit I would probably never have found them!

2. Once the book is unlocked, collect four cards for each one. Each card is made up of four layers, which are collected by playing the main part of the game - the Match-3 levels. These start out very easy and progressively get more difficult, although I did find that even towards the end of the game some levels were much easier and quicker than others. The last two levels are quite tricky, and if you don't do the right thing at the start you might find yourself stuck and unable to progress. I failed level 63 twice before I realised the trick to getting past it.

These levels, while fun and addictive, are not completely relaxing because there is a timer and you can run out of time to reach the goal. Again, there doesn't seem to be any real penalty for failure except a few wasted minutes - even the fairy just shrugs and tells you to try again - and if you do fail you generally get an idea of what went wrong and how to do better on the retry. I wasn't able to figure out how long the timer is, and I think it might vary depending on the difficulty of the level, but my slowest levels were over 9 minutes so in most cases you have a bit of time to think!

3. Once you have the four parts of the card, you play a 'spot the difference' game to complete the card. Again, some of the differences require very careful scrutiny to see them as they are quite subtle. (I didn't feel that the resolution of the game was an issue with either this or the HOG sections; I believe it's just that the details are so small that you really have to look hard to find them.) Once this part is done, the card is completed and the text becomes unscrambled so that you can read it.


In all, there are 64 Match-3 levels to play through - four books with four cards each, and each card needing four levels to complete it. In addition there are the four Hidden Object scenes to unlock the book, and 16 spot the difference games to unscramble the cards. The game saves your progress when you exit, allowing you to continue from where you left off, and there doesn't appear to be any way to skip a section or choose where to go next. It looks as though more than one person could save a game in progress, as you choose a name at the start and there is an option on the main menu screen to switch this.

The background music was quite pleasant, although it occasionally began to feel a bit repetitive, and I didn't find it distracting.

The graphics, although perhaps a little dated in some ways, were really rather nice. There are a lot of little details in the background of the level screens that you don't really have much time to appreciate when you're focusing on finding the next group of 'gems' to match (I particularly liked the fish swimming past on the underwater levels), and the gems themselves have different designs on them depending on the element you're working on.

A few pros and cons, from my point of view.

Pros:

- fiendishly addictive! Like a good book, I found it really hard to put it down. I didn't want to stop playing at the end of one section and have to wait until the next day to continue, especially if I was almost done with one of the elements.

- attractive graphics... not top notch, but good enough to not detract from the game. (In my opinion anyway, other reviewers clearly disagree here. :) )

- pleasant music and sound effects, nothing too irritating.

- new power-up concepts are introduced one at a time to allow you to get used to them.

- the map is a handy feature to help you see where you should be heading, and there is also an arrow at the edge of the screen that points the way for you. (Actually reaching it is sometimes another matter entirely!)

- the maps sometimes make a picture, which is a nice touch.

Cons:

- some of the details in the hidden object and spot the difference screens are just TOO small and well-disguised, leading to some frustration with these sections (especially the HOGs).

- at the beginning of each level the camera sweeps back from the end goal to the start, showing you the route you need to take. This is so fast that I find it nauseating to watch, particularly when the route loops around as it does in many of the levels.

- there is no way to move the camera around the field (at least, not that I could find) to allow you to see what is just around the corner from your current location. A glance at the map or a look at your guiding arrow will give you an idea of which direction to go, but the map won't show you any of the special flaming arrows you might need to head for or piles of stones/tiles blocking your way.

- the camera follows the progress of the magical energy, which can lead to it swinging around unexpectedly when you're trying to click on something, or to your view being moved further away than you wanted and making it difficult to figure out where to go next. There are sometimes flaming arrows (necessary to break through some areas) in hard to spot locations because of where the camera has positioned itself.

- the playing tips at the end of each level got very irritating after a while, especially as they were repeating things you already knew towards the end, and I could not seem to turn them off.

- the ending was just a text epilogue which, after the voiced intro, was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for another word from the wizard after I heroically saved the kingdom!


All in all, though, I found this to be a very enjoyable game. It does have faults, but they were mostly minor in my opinion and I was able to either ignore or put up with them and still have a lot of fun. I certainly can't complain for the price I paid for it, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it - get it on sale if you're still not sure. :)

I have to say thank you to @Flaming Monocle for his review and entertaining video, which is what convinced me to splash out the princely sum of $0.89 on this game! If you like this sort of matching game I would even recommend it at full price... it's several hours of fun for only the cost of a fancy cup of coffee, and it's much more entertaining than a Caramel Macchiato... :) Other reviewers have already covered the gameplay in detail, which consists of three different types of game, but I'll comment on those here too. 'Cause I'm just a rebel like that. [b]1.[/b] Find the key to unlock one of the books of magic, by playing a Hidden Object Game to construct several items and reactivate an elemental altar. This is not timed, and there doesn't appear to be a penalty for needing a hint or clicking in the wrong place. Some of the items you need to find are tiny and/or [i]very[/i] well camouflaged - in some cases, even after the fairy helper pointed them out I had to admit I would probably never have found them! [b]2.[/b] Once the book is unlocked, collect four cards for each one. Each card is made up of four layers, which are collected by playing the main part of the game - the Match-3 levels. These start out very easy and progressively get more difficult, although I did find that even towards the end of the game some levels were much easier and quicker than others. The last two levels are quite tricky, and if you don't do the right thing at the start you might find yourself stuck and unable to progress. I failed level 63 twice before I realised the trick to getting past it. These levels, while fun and addictive, are not completely relaxing because there is a timer and you can run out of time to reach the goal. Again, there doesn't seem to be any real penalty for failure except a few wasted minutes - even the fairy just shrugs and tells you to try again - and if you do fail you generally get an idea of what went wrong and how to do better on the retry. I wasn't able to figure out how long the timer is, and I think it might vary depending on the difficulty of the level, but my slowest levels were over 9 minutes so in most cases you have a bit of time to think! [b]3.[/b] Once you have the four parts of the card, you play a 'spot the difference' game to complete the card. Again, some of the differences require very careful scrutiny to see them as they are quite subtle. (I didn't feel that the resolution of the game was an issue with either this or the HOG sections; I believe it's just that the details are so small that you really have to look hard to find them.) Once this part is done, the card is completed and the text becomes unscrambled so that you can read it. In all, there are 64 Match-3 levels to play through - four books with four cards each, and each card needing four levels to complete it. In addition there are the four Hidden Object scenes to unlock the book, and 16 spot the difference games to unscramble the cards. The game saves your progress when you exit, allowing you to continue from where you left off, and there doesn't appear to be any way to skip a section or choose where to go next. It looks as though more than one person could save a game in progress, as you choose a name at the start and there is an option on the main menu screen to switch this. The background music was quite pleasant, although it occasionally began to feel a bit repetitive, and I didn't find it distracting. The graphics, although perhaps a little dated in some ways, were really rather nice. There are a lot of little details in the background of the level screens that you don't really have much time to appreciate when you're focusing on finding the next group of 'gems' to match (I particularly liked the fish swimming past on the underwater levels), and the gems themselves have different designs on them depending on the element you're working on. A few pros and cons, from my point of view. [b]Pros:[/b] - fiendishly addictive! Like a good book, I found it really hard to put it down. I didn't want to stop playing at the end of one section and have to wait until the next day to continue, especially if I was almost done with one of the elements. - attractive graphics... not top notch, but good enough to not detract from the game. (In my opinion anyway, other reviewers clearly disagree here. :) ) - pleasant music and sound effects, nothing too irritating. - new power-up concepts are introduced one at a time to allow you to get used to them. - the map is a handy feature to help you see where you should be heading, and there is also an arrow at the edge of the screen that points the way for you. (Actually reaching it is sometimes another matter entirely!) - the maps sometimes make a picture, which is a nice touch. [b]Cons:[/b] - some of the details in the hidden object and spot the difference screens are just TOO small and well-disguised, leading to some frustration with these sections (especially the HOGs). - at the beginning of each level the camera sweeps back from the end goal to the start, showing you the route you need to take. This is so fast that I find it nauseating to watch, particularly when the route loops around as it does in many of the levels. - there is no way to move the camera around the field (at least, not that I could find) to allow you to see what is just around the corner from your current location. A glance at the map or a look at your guiding arrow will give you an idea of which direction to go, but the map won't show you any of the special flaming arrows you might need to head for or piles of stones/tiles blocking your way. - the camera follows the progress of the magical energy, which can lead to it swinging around unexpectedly when you're trying to click on something, or to your view being moved further away than you wanted and making it difficult to figure out where to go next. There are sometimes flaming arrows (necessary to break through some areas) in hard to spot locations because of where the camera has positioned itself. - the playing tips at the end of each level got very irritating after a while, especially as they were repeating things you already knew towards the end, and I could not seem to turn them off. - the ending was just a text epilogue which, after the voiced intro, was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for another word from the wizard after I heroically saved the kingdom! All in all, though, I found this to be a very enjoyable game. It does have faults, but they were mostly minor in my opinion and I was able to either ignore or put up with them and still have a lot of fun. I certainly can't complain for the price I paid for it, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it - get it on sale if you're still not sure. :)