MSBAM100's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.7
- Helpful Votes:8,578
- Reviews Submitted:240
- First Review:January 11, 2013
- Most Recent Review:January 27, 2024
- Featured reviews0
Status:
To save your father from a hideous monster, you've decided to sacrifice your own freedom. Now you must journey through a strange and magical land before time runs out!
Overall rating
5
/
5
40 of 44 found this review helpful
Beauty and the Beast with a twist!
PostedOctober 31, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Another awesome game from ERS. This is a new series with lots of bells and whistles. While the story seems familiar, it isn't. Your father entered a deserted castle and took a nightingale to save it. Unfortunately, it belonged to the Beast, who now wants you in his castle or your father will die. The nightingale's song makes plants grow, blossom and bear fruit. Once you feed it, it becomes your companion. You eventually find the magic ring that is supposed to take you to the Beast's castle. So you put on the ring and.....
You don't exactly get to the castle. You are stopped by a sorceress and dumped into a magic forest with strange creatures, a pirate ship, evil flowers and trees, and a clock that keeps ticking down to midnight when your father will die.
What a great story! The cut scenes are interspersed throughout and are beautiful and sometimes even scary. The HOS are lists, or you can play a Match 3 game to win points instead. The graphics are bright and easy to see, even on a large monitor.
You eventually get an interactive map, with activities marked. But there are four modes of play, and with Custom you can pick and choose what you want to see, and how long the hint and skip refresh takes. You gather birds for your birdhouse - you can watch them dance and sing. Your achievements are items in a fairy tale scene - another nice touch. There is a bonus and a strategy guide, which I confess I needed a few times. There is so much to see and do in each scene.
This is a true CE and for me, a definite buy!
I recommend this game!
Unlock the mystery of the Sculptor’s tragic fate!
Overall rating
4
/
5
8 of 12 found this review helpful
I hope you like statues!
PostedOctober 26, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I did not play the first Dark Canvas but it doesn't seem to matter -- they don't appear to be connected. You are an investigative reporter, invited to Greece by Dr. Alexander to look into the mysterious death by plaster sculpture of Elias, the town sculptor and his wife Maria. Unfortunately, when you arrive you find the good doctor is now also encased in plaster and the assistant Christo running away from the scene. It turns out Christo is innocent, but you are several puzzles away from that! It also seems the mayor is planning to host a memorial to the sculptor and is using all the town funds for it.
You get the doctor's cat, after you feed it, to use as your helpful friend to reach the areas you cannot. There is an attractive map with actions marked - not necessarily immediate actions, however. I also had trouble jumping from place to place using the map, but perhaps I wasn't clicking in the correct place. There are 60 coins to collect that you can use to buy sculptures of different figures -- kind of a nice touch.
The HOS are either interactive lists or silhouetted objects that you use to find the next object. The mini-games are easy and not necessarily unique. The scenery is quite pretty and the music is nice and gentle. The story is interesting enough that you will probably want to buy, if you are tired of monsters and ghosts and battles. This is a simple game but a lot of fun.
I recommend this game!
You were just about to relax with a good book when a stranger leaves a baby on your doorstep.
Overall rating
5
/
5
5 of 7 found this review helpful
The beauty within this game!
PostedOctober 24, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Wow, what a great game! We needed one like this! This game exceeds Mad Head's previous level of excellence! You are a detective who receives a baby on your doorstep from a man who alternates between nice and evil. You head to the castle-like house where the baby supposedly lives, yet you are supposed to protect the baby but you are not sure from what!
The entire game is first class. The HOS are lists but you have to find multiple parts of your reward item and then use the item to get your final useful item. Whew! After you repair him, you receive "Gears", a mechanical owl who can reach things you cannot. Your "phone" is your journal, your map, your to-do items. Just to enter the mansion you have to solve 3 mini-puzzles -- not hard, but clever and they make you think.
Plus, you find rare books that are divided into multiple fragments that you must find before receiving the item the book contains. And there is your family heirloom locket with four missing hearts to find before you can open it. Plus there are 45 rose collectibles #one per room# that will then allow you to solve the rose puzzle and open two additional bonus scenarios in addition to the first bonus scenario. There are achievements and four levels including a "choose your own" where you can tailor everything to your taste #I always make the skip button shorter but I haven't even used it yet!#
What a great game with so many nice touches! BUY!
I recommend this game!
Defeat the giant to save the world from destruction!
Overall rating
4
/
5
20 of 24 found this review helpful
Jack, a Beanstalk, and the Giant!
PostedOctober 19, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Current Favorite:
The Torment of Mont Triste Collector's Edition
(51)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is a clever and cute adaptation of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale. You have the Brothers Grimm, the beans, and eventually the beanstalk which evidently unleashes the last of the Giants who have been banished by the Guardians to the cloud world. So you climb the beanstalk, meet some helpful Guardians and try to rescue Jack who was caught in the beanstalk when it grew.
The game play here is rather interesting. Not hard, but different. There are very few actual HOS or mini-games. But in every scene, you must click on areas that open up FROGs you must piece together to actually use the item. For example, you have to find the 3 pieces of the knife before you can cut the flowers. Each item you collect is part of a FROG, and you can't collect it until you have found the FROG to which it belongs.
There are 3 modes of play, one being Custom that lets you set the Hint speed, the Skip speed and the Sparkles. There is an interactive map with action areas clearly marked. The graphics are gorgeous and the voice overs good. There are 40 collectible eggs that look like miniature Faberge eggs when you view them in their collection room. There is a strategy guide (which I needed) and a bonus scene as well.
I think this is a quality game with a unique mode of play. I will buy it!
Explore a world of magic to stop an ancient evil!
Overall rating
5
/
5
30 of 35 found this review helpful
It's now Fall in the Otherworld!
PostedOctober 17, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is the third in the series (Spring and Summer came first.) But there is a short summary of what happened previously to catch you up. We still have Fiona (except she's been turned to stone! # and you still have some magic powers that you lose then partially regain with Fiona's amulet. You are still fighting the Shade #and probably will in Winter, also.) You are looking for the Perpetual Prison, which is supposed to seal away the Shade permanently. You find it in an ancient moor, but it is broken, so you must look for Kobold Smith, a tinker, to fix it, while avoiding the Huntsman, who is trying to do you in.
There are 3 levels of play, 60 collectable dragons, 23 HOS, and 24 mini-games. The HOS are pretty neat -- sometimes there is a puzzle within it you need to solve to actually find an item. The lists are 6 of this item, 10 of this one -- not the same old stuff. The minigames are pretty easy, but unique. You have a friend, Storm Cat, who gives you hints and clues. The strategy guide opens up to where ever you are in the game -- another nice feature. I have used the strategy guide more in this game -- the hints are not as clear. The interactive map shows where tasks are available, but it is certainly not obvious what those tasks are.
This is a very good game. I have the SEs of the previous two, but will probably buy the CE of this one just to get the strategy guide and bonus scene.
I recommend this game!
Reveal the secret of an ancient prophecy! Fascinating tasks and exciting puzzles await you behind the breathtaking scenery of a mysterious island!
Overall rating
3
/
5
5 of 9 found this review helpful
Look out for the witch!
PostedOctober 14, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I can't decide if I like this game or not. The graphics are great, the opening scene with the balloon ride is excellent. But the premise of the game is not clear. You fall onto an island, run by a witch, the inhabitants of the island have been waiting for you for 100 years. You have a mirror from your grandmother, that is missing stones. Every time you find a stone, you get more of the back story -- something about a witch trying to claim the king's baby, which is whisked away in its cradle by a griffin, with only a mirror as its belonging. The stones in the mirror went to the stonekeepers. As you wander the island, you keep running into the witch, who seems to look like you. She's not really scary either.
One nice touch is, you always have a lighter and a knife available. The hint button is a talking raccoon who you freed from his cage who claims to have been waiting for you. So has the mermaid.
There is no map, but you do get to find 31 lightning bugs. Also, you have to find 10 flowers or 10 snails or whatever to complete some of the puzzles. The HOS are all lists, The mini-puzzles seem to be limited to about 6 different types that are accessible from the main menu once you complete them. They are not hard nor are they unique.
I really enjoyed the first 30 minutes or so of the demo. However, once the mini-games started repeating, and the witch kept randomly showing up to make threats, I kind of got bored. Have not decided to buy yet.
I recommend this game!
The Torment of Mont Triste Collector's Edition
No one dares fall asleep in the village of Mont Triste... for when sleep arrives, so does the mysterious Lord of Nightmares.
Overall rating
5
/
5
14 of 15 found this review helpful
Your Dreams Become Nightmares!
PostedOctober 12, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
The longer you play, the better it gets. The premise of entering a nightmare and defeating the demons of the dream has been done many times, but in this one the dreams are cool (in fact, the first one is cold!) and solving the nightmare is tricky.
You are a detective who has been summoned to the town of Mont Triste and before you can even enter the town, your coachman falls asleep and the world becomes snow-covered. You meet Blanc, a boy who gives you the Amulet of Dreams, so you can go inside the nightmare and resolve the problem and stop the snow. It seems the Lord of Nightmares has appeared and is taking over everyone's dreams. He kind of looks like the scientist Heny Benoit who was trying to bridge reality and dreams but his experiment went awry. Blanc is eventually captured by the Lord of Nightmares so you have to save him as well as the town.
The game has clever mini-puzzles to solve -- some easy, some I had to skip. The HOS are all lists, with a few twists -- one has items floating in air. There are 21 stone goblins to find, 3 modes of play, locking inventory, widescreen support, and a fast recharging hint button.
The more I played, the more involved I became. A definite buy!
I recommend this game!
Should anyone ever check in to a place called the Final Journey Hotel?
Overall rating
5
/
5
45 of 55 found this review helpful
Werewolves, vampires, and monsters, oh my!
PostedOctober 10, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is the fifth in the Haunted Hotel series but they were not all done by Elephant, so they are all different. This one is quite enjoyable, with a monster battle ongoing within the Journey's End Hotel. You join your detective friend, James, to investigate the murders -- of a vampire, a werewolf, and a baron who morphs into some creature. You seem to do all the work, however!
This has all the nice touches you would expect from Elephant -- locking inventory, full screen on large monitors, a diary describing various weapons, and a flutterfire butterfly friend who helps you light candles, melt ice, and fetch items too hot to handle. The map is interactive and marks current tasks available, and the hint button gives you actual clues, not just an arrow.
You get to collect 15 portraits that morph into some type of creature -- the three found in the demo match the three dead bodies in the demo as well. There are achievements and the "secret room" which is always fun to play after you play the bonus game.
The theme of the game is carried out by having a Vampire Room and a Werewolf Room in the hotel, plus colored elixirs and mysterious magic cards that need some type of magic to dispel them. The HOS are lists, and the mini-puzzles are fun but not hard. One of them tells the story of two brothers who grew to be enemies over the years -- probably the battling monsters in the hotel!
This is a great game, worthy of the CE title and a definite buy!
I recommend this game!
Guide little Emmy through her fears and back to the real world!
Overall rating
4
/
5
35 of 49 found this review helpful
Bring little Emmy back to reality!
PostedOctober 5, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Current Favorite:
Sable Maze: Norwich Caves Collector's Edition
(58)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This story has been done before -- get inside someone's head and cure their fears to "rescue" them. But this time it is a little girl, and she's scared of things like dogs with red eyes and spiders and mean classmates -- all keeping in character with the little girl. You are her Aunt Helen, working with a doctor, who goes inside her mind and one by one attacks each fear. When the fear is finally conquered, the scary scene switches to a pastoral one, and Emmy gets a little bit better. Emmy's mother Mary tried a similar treatment but is now in a coma because something went awry. The demo doesn't cast any light on the cause, but could it be the good doctor?
The interactive map is very nice, showing what actions can be performed where. The mini-puzzles are unique -- not too hard, but not too easy. The HOS are all lists, but the scenes are nice and bright all the way to the edges of a large screen monitor. And the hint button is your friend Barry, a teddy bear you find in Emmy's room, who gives you friendly tips along the way as well. There is a bonus scenario and a strategy guide, and the other normal bonus things.
However, it doesn't have any achievements or morphing objects or collections to find, like most current CE games. So while I like it, I am not sure if it is CE-worthy. It also only has two modes of play - casual and advanced. And there is also a "scary Emmy" with red eyes who seems to have taken over Emmy's dreams. She only appears once in the demo, so it is not clear how much she is involved in the story.
I recommend this game!
A shipwreck on a volcanic island unearths deadly secrets!
Overall rating
3
/
5
20 of 22 found this review helpful
Cursed Island a bit boring
PostedOctober 3, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Current Favorite:
Sable Maze: Norwich Caves Collector's Edition
(58)Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is the second in the Mayan series, but it doesn't live up to the first game. It is a continuation, but a summary of the first game plays at the beginning, so you know what is going on. You are Alexis, who with friend Gregory and Marco from the previous game capsize at sea and are shipwrecked on a Mayan island. You also lost the Mayan artifact you were carrying, and the Mayans are quite unhappy with you. Seems like they need the artifact to calm the Spirit of the Volcano before it wrecks their island.
There are four modes of play, including custom, widescreen support, a journal, the strategy guide, a bonus game, locking inventory, a hint button that refills quickly, and an interactive map. The map shows action areas, so the strategy guide is not needed nor the hint button.
The game is almost all HOS, which are all lists -- kind of boring after the mixtures that are in the new games out now. Ther are 40 Hummingbirds to collect, disguised as objects, plus another 40 morphing objects. You also collect pieces of another artifact which gives you the island's history piecemeal. You can play mahjong instead of the HOS.
The story seems straightforward -- the Mayans demand you find something, you do, then they want something else. The graphics are good and bright -- you can see all the items in a HOS without having to stand up to see the top of the large screen.
This game is OK, but not of the same caliber CE as some of the other series released lately. I will probably wait for the SE or some type of sale!
I recommend this game!