Luxor: Pharaoh's Challenge Review
The crux of any good puzzle game is being able to enter that zen-like state where you can play the game like a veritable robot. Any gamer who has put any appreciable amount of time into Tetris has likely experienced this while waiting for that accursed straight piece. Any puzzle game that fails to allow gamers to reach this mindset likely has failed in some regard unless it isn't a straight up puzzle game, a la Puzzle Quest. Luxor: Pharoah's Challenge definitely succeeds in attaining this.
The simplest way to describe Luxor is to think of it as the mutant love child of Bejeweled and Arkanoid, with some interesting twists added on. Then again perhaps that isn't going to help anyone so I'll explain it a bit better. The basic gameplay of Luxor consists of a series of balls connected together that slowly move across the screen in a set pattern. As they slowly move across the screen towards a pyramid at the other side of the screen you will be controlling a paddle along the bottom. Differently colored balls will appear on your paddle and you can "fire" them upwards at the balls moving along the screen.
Now the key to success is to try and pair up three of the same colored balls together by firing a single ball at two other colored balls. By doing this repeatedly you will eventually clear off a single chain of balls. You must do this a number of times to fill the progress bar just underneath your paddle. Once this bar is full you will have completed the stage and be given rewards based upon how well you did.
That is the basic way to play but like any good puzzle game there are small complexities that really make the game interesting. Firstly are the chains and combos. By destroying balls in rapid succession you will achieve combos which net you more points and a variety of other small rewards. Forming chains are more rewarding but difficut since you must fire your ball in such a way that once it destroys the balls you fired it at other balls will fall together and be destroyed. By carefully placing your balls you can attain some rather huge combos.
