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jp's Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins (DS)

[May 15, 2022 09:34:18 PM]

It definitely gives you a different perspective to play a bunch of same-genre games pretty close to each other in terms of time. For some reason I thought this one was a match-3 game, but it's actually a hidden object+puzzle game.

Different titles seem to lean more into the hidden object aspects - with slightly larger scenes and a longer list of things to find, while others downplay the hidden object aspects with a greater balance, in terms of time spent, on different kinds of puzzles.

PopCap is (was, at the time) one of the bigger players in this space and I assume this DS title is simply a port from a PC version which probably also existed as a web-portal game (remember those?). That being said, it really is a head above some of the other games I've played in terms of the quality of the scenes/art but also in the addition polish - there's characters and art for them and writing that isn't terrible, and, for players who really cared about these things (not saying I don't) this would have represented a real bonus.

According to the back of the box the story is exclusive to the DS version! (implying the existence of other versions) Wow, that's interesting - and I wonder who they thought their audience on the DS was? I assumed younger kids possibly more girls than boys?

Each scene, in addition to a single page list of items, has two secret objects (a glyph and a mask) and I appreciated the hint system - it's on a time so you don't spam, but it's also a little bit more vague than I expected. When you tap on the hint button you see what I interpreted as a "rough" circle of stars that glitter - the map also slides over to the location. I assumed that meant the hidden object was in that part of the screen - but this wasn't always the case. It was close, but not necessarily right there.

Once you clear a hidden object scene you have to play/solve an additional puzzle/game - put together a jigsaw, spot the difference between two pictures, a memory game, a strange mah-jonhg type match the tiles, and a sliding puzzle game. Fortunately I never played the sliding puzzle one, I'm not a huge fan of those for me personal enjoyment.

I didn't finish the entire game, but a few hours were enough for me to feel like I'd seen enough. The game does have some secret surprises if you get high scores and stuff like that - but I can't be bothered to be honest.