pennmom36's Profile
 
 
 
Stat Summary
 
  • Average Rating:
    3.7
  • Helpful Votes:
    358,445
 
  • Reviews Submitted:
    4700
  • First Review:
    December 10, 2012
  • Most Recent Review:
    January 15, 2025
  • Featured reviews
    0
 
 
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pennmom36's Review History
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Help Ashley and Scott grow the restaurant of their dreams!
 
Overall rating 
Hated it.
1 / 5
92 of 106 found this review helpful
IT HAS ISSUES ACCEPTING THE CURSOR CLICK WHICH MAKES THE GAME WORTHLESS ON THE TIMED MODE
PostedNovember 7, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
Awful
1 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Awful
1 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Awful
1 / 5
Storyline 
Awful
1 / 5
I have now played both versions (CE & SE) and both games have issues at times accepting my click, especially when it involves the Fries. This is a disastrous feature in a Time Management game that requires multi-clicking and the Need For Speed! I can't tell you how many times I would click to give a plate of potatoes to the prep cook to prepare french fries only to move on to the next task and discover the potatoes were still attached to my hand as if they had been duct-taped. The same thing would happen when I would click the fryer, I'd see the checkmark but then they would be stuck to my hand as I moved on. The same thing would happen when I clicked on a customer, and more so when I clicked on the tips so I know it's not my issue when I had to click 3-4 times just to pick up tips!
This kind of issue should never happen, especially in a Time Management game, especially in a TM game where the goal is to wait on customers in a restaurant Diner-Dash scenario at a break-neck speed before they get so angry, they turn beet-red and bail on you without paying! If the bugs aren't worked out...don't release the game, I'm not the only one who complained about this clicking issue in the CE version!
If you don't care about the clicking issue, you can play in a Timed or Untimed mode, I tried both, and fair warning, the customers still get angry when they see you running around with raw french fries duct-taped to your hands and can't deliver them coffee...but it seems the old man doesn't care what happens at the table next to him, he's still going to do a stupid jig before he leaves every single time...I could use some duct tape for this guy, do we have any extra?
This is apparently, a really short game, there are 12 levels in each chapter which has a different style of food for each chapter. The Bar & Grill, Coffee & Pastries, Mexican Restaurant, Trattoria, and Festival. Surely, I will run out of Duct Tape by the time the Festival rolls into town?
After each level, you will use your Tips to purchase Upgrades, it sure would be nice to be able to Upgrade the Prep Cook! I'm running around with french fries duct-taped to my hands and making a little old lady turn beet red, meanwhile, the Prep Cook stands there barely breaking a sweat, chopping up food as he awkwardly stands sideways with a big ole evil grin on his "I don't have a care in the world cuz I have big knives" face whilst doing a tapdance and never looking at the food he's madly chopping up! For all I know, those potatoes are still duct-taped to my hand while he's obliviously slap-chopping away? The only good thing about these upgrades was the fact that they Pre-Warn you about the upgrade that will be the most useful in the preceding level by adding a ribbon next to it. Too bad none of the upgrades include a better cursor clicking option?
The CE version has 6 Wallpapers, 6 Music Soundtracks, Character FAQs, 10 Achievements, 5 Chapters with 12 Levels each, 1 Bonus Level, and a whole lotta angry customers who apparently don't appreciate duct tape!?
I don't recommend this game.
+78points
92of 106voted this as helpful.
 
Overall rating 
Loved it!
5 / 5
87 of 100 found this review helpful
RE-ENTER THE WORLD OF DRAWN: THE PAINTED TOWER *A 5-STAR GAME WITH A 3-STAR REMASTER*
PostedNovember 6, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
Excellent
5 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Excellent
5 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Excellent
5 / 5
Storyline 
Excellent
5 / 5
Completed Game approximately 5.0 hours
(including completion of all mini-games & CE Bonus Chapter)
24 Main Game Scene Locations +7 Bonus Chapter
Difficulty Range: Intermediate-Expert (but doable for beginners because of the Strategy Guide)
Review Based on Comparison of Drawn versus ReDrawn:
This is the first installment of the Drawn series that tells the heartbreaking tale of Iris who has been locked away in the painted tower. Iris and her family have a special gift, they can draw their way into magical doors and enchanted worlds, they are only limited by their imagination! Katherine had sent Iris to live with Franklin, to protect her from the King and his evil Chancellor, now Iris is a prisoner, Franklin has been turned to stone and Iris is the sole survivor of her family! You must rescue Iris one drawing at a time as you desperately try to reach the painted tower!
NOTE:
My 5-star review was submitted early Thursday morning but somehow it posted with only 4-stars (I screenshot all reviews before submitting and my screenshot clearly shows I clicked all 5-stars) I felt so strongly about this that I asked BF to withDRAW my original review so I could PAINT a better picture! To be clear, I gave this game 5-stars because the game itself is incredible, I played the entire original Drawn series and no other game has utilized this much creativity. Certainly, none of the games released over the last couple of years have had such an incredible story with such unique graphics! I was willing to rewrite my review because I didn't want anyone to pass on playing this amazing game because of the mistaken star rating... and the game itself deserves 5 stars! My issue is with the RE-Mastering features as explained below.
I have RE-entered the world of Drawn....hello old friend...it reminds me how amazing these games used to be! When I first played the Drawn series, I was blown away by the uniqueness of this game. Even though I considered myself an expert player, I found the original Drawn to be quite challenging but it also gave me a sense of accomplishment when I completed my adventure through Iris' imaginative drawings. Although the gameplay is still somewhat challenging, I felt that Friendly Fox did the game a disservice when they revamped some of the mini-games to make them really simplistic, and the fact that they felt the need to add HOP's. What really made my heart sink was when I discovered that they had ReVamped the original Hint feature! We aren't the cowardly Scarecrow, we already have a brain...so next time give us some credit because the "old" Hint system was really cool and made us think for ourselves with just a point in the right direction...besides if we had to, we could use the newly added Strategy Guide!
In the original Drawn, Franklin had still been turned to stone, but he was still able to assist, without the normal hand holding hint system that we see in today's remastered ReDrawn. Instead, you could choose which objective you needed help with from the list provided to the left of Franklin's portrait and he would give you a nudge with the first of three vague clues. If you couldn't figure out what to do next, you simply asked Franklin for another clue. Usually, you could figure it out by the third and final clue. This is the kind of gameplay that made older HOPA/Adventure games fun, nowadays they are so fool-proof that they are downright boring...REMASTER---don't REVAMP a masterpiece!
There were no Hidden Object Scenes in the original Drawn game, unfortunately, ReDrawn was ReVamped, not ReMastered, to include Hidden Object Scenes...there was a reason the original Drawn got 138 amazing 5-Star reviews, so why would you assume we wanted another lame HOPA game like they are today versus games of the past that received ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT FIVE STAR reviews? I haven't figured out if it's Big Fish that doesn't "get it" or if the developers are the ones who are clueless? Everyone LOVEs older HOPAs, we replay them daily because back then they had amazing storylines, and they made us use our brains to figure them out versus playing on auto-pilot! How many times do we have to complain about how lame HOPAs are nowadays before Big Fish and the developers finally see the light? When a game gets 138 Five Star reviews and it doesn't have a single Hidden Object scene, that should be your first clue that HO scenes aren't necessary...just look at the HOPAs today, you'll be hard-pressed to find one that received 4-stars much less 138 Five-star reviews...think about it!
Because this game still has some of the original aspects...it is still a Fantastic game and lightyears better than HOPAs lately. My only complaint here is that FF felt the need to "add" to an already amazing game versus simply remastering a 5-star Classic?? (the original cannot be played on today's newer 64-bit computers)
They have added 62 Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces and 62 Morphing Red Scarves as well as a pull-out tab that tells you how many collectibles remain in each scene. I don't have an issue with the collectibles because the SE version will not include them if someone wants a version without these added collectibles. If they truly wanted to remain true to game features of the past, the morphs would have been much smaller and slower.
This adventure is like no other, yes you will still collect a few inventory items here and there, these items are to help you find the clues that Iris has left you within her drawings. First, you have to find the missing fragment of the torn picture, then you enter the picture and solve the puzzles within, usually in the form of a Progressive-Interactive puzzle where you may need to find a knife first and then use the knife to expose an item within a pumpkin, and so forth until you have found the last item that will help you to progress to the next door in the Painted Tower.
If you are a puzzle fanatic like me, listen up, cause there are so many clever puzzles you're going to love. Some are simple such as swapping tiles to create a picture or rotating disks, some are a little more difficult. My favorite one was replacing window fragments by rotating and placing the glass geometrical shapes, the pieces have to go into specific slots and at first, it seemed as though there weren't enough pieces no matter what I tried. Then I realized that a space will be empty to create a specific shape! (I won't tell you what that shape is) HOWEVER, in ReDrawn, they dumbed it down and took away the Rotating feature so all you had to do was snap pieces into place...it doesn't get any easier than this folks, the question once again is WHY would you take a great challenge and make it so simple a 6-year old could complete it???
Bonus Chapter (CE Version only):
Follow Iris on the day before she is taken to the tower as she is quested with 3 tasks to prove her worthiness as Queen. There are 7 additional scene locations with 14 additional Puzzle Pieces and 14 Morphing Scarves. There are 7 Mini-games but just one Hidden Object Scene within the Bonus Chapter.
Collector's Edition Extra's:
7 Wallpapers, 11 Concept Art Pictures, 7 Screensavers, 5 Music Soundtracks, 14 Movie Videos, 9 Replayable Mini-Games, 4 RePlayable Hidden Object Scenes, 62 Morphing Scarves, 62 Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces (you can return to the scenes to pick up any missed collectibles) 25 Mini-Games, 4 Hidden Object Scenes, 4 Main Chapters, Bonus Chapter, Strategy Guide.
As I stated in my title, the original Drawn was as amazing as amazing games can get! I loved this series so much that I simply have to give it 5-stars for the uniqueness it presents...as far as the ReMastered ReVamped ReDrawn scenario, I would only give that 3-Stars. I had to turn off the Wide Screen option and play in a smaller screen because the edges were cut off and I couldn't see any of the features like the pull out tabs, the Hint, Diary (LOVE diary features of games from the past, don't you?) or the inventory bar. I hated that they added HOP's that didn't really fit in with the "painted" graphics and I hated that they dumbed-down the mini-games and took away the awesome Riddle/Question Hint Feature...still love the unique story...please keep remastered games the same, just remaster the graphics and make them work on new computers...especially when the original game is so fantastic that it earns 138 Five Star Reviews!!!!!
Come join the Woodsey's at my new forum at thewoodsforum.boards.net
I recommend this game!
+74points
87of 100voted this as helpful.
 
Help Robin Hood pursue and defeat the villainous Gisbourne!
 
Overall rating 
Loved it!
5 / 5
58 of 83 found this review helpful
OO-DE-LALLY, OO-DE-LALLY, GOLLY WHAT A GAME!
PostedNovember 6, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
Excellent
5 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Excellent
5 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Excellent
5 / 5
Storyline 
Excellent
5 / 5
I loved the first Robin Hood and the second one was good but it was crazy-difficult to earn all 3-stars. I had given up all hope by the time Hail to the King rolled around because it seemed the developers had nothing left to offer and were just rolling out new games without putting forth any effort, probably just to keep up with the demands (and contracts lol). Robin Hood: Spring of Life, on the other hand, is absolutely perfect and has me singing the Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally, Golly What A Day song once again!
You can play in an Easy (untimed) or Normal Mode and each level has 3 Hidden Objects that unfortunately aren't so hidden. Some of them are partially hidden but they are too large and too colorful to miss! I love collectibles but these are more like clickables, they are supposed to be an added challenge so it would be amazing if they were blended better into the scenery on the next game, it would be even more fantastic if they morphed! Each level has different objects but you can see which collectibles are available by looking at the level map. The clickable-collections include Crowns, Potions?, Crystal Balls, Banners, Torches, Chests, Maps, Swords, and Gems.
There are the usual Time Management tasks of Clearing Paths of weeds, Wooden Logs, Boulders, and stakes used to guard the Gold Taxes collected from the peasants. You will harvest Berry Bushes, Apple Trees, Walnut Trees, Food Caches, and go Fishing for food, Repair Rope Buildings, Sawmills, Farms, Bridges, and Ladders. Shearing the sheep will allow the posse to make even more rope which is used to repair bridges and concoct traps to capture the sheriff's guards!
Robin Hood and his merry men steal Gold from the Rich to Give to the Poor so you will be required to set up elaborate traps and snares, and of course, shoot arrows at the watchmen guards. These guards are either pretty resilient, or they have some kind of awesome superpower because Robin Hood's arrows only "stun" the guards temporarily in this game! This feature is puzzling, why do the arrows only stun the guards, are the arrows defective? Has Robin Hood lost his toxophilite, marksmen edge? Are the guards wearing some kind of arrow-proof or magical armor? Is Robin Hood having a "woke" change of heart? Did the developers get a lot of complaints about arrow violence in the Robin Hood TM series? Or, did the developers just have a hard time coming up with a better scenario than allowing the Merry Men to gather resources in guarded areas only after being "stunned" by an arrow? Oo-de-lally, golly what a stun!
All good deeds will help to fill the Bonus Bar. You will receive permanent bonuses for each hero when you fill the good deeds bar. Before starting the level you can choose which Hero's will be joining the quest and the order in which they will arrive to join the posse! The hero's abilities can be Upgraded to last longer, recharge faster, etc. These bonuses will make them run faster, add extra outlaws, produce more resources, and even add more good deed points.
Robin Hood and his outlaws can be equipped with new bandit outfits as you progress but this wasn't really a feature that interested me personally. I did, however, love the Heist Levels which allows you to rob the sheriff's people to earn more gold with a slightly different type of gameplay than the normal, resource-collecting levels.
This Collector's Edition has 6 Wallpapers, 4 Music Soundtracks, 3 Hidden Collectibles on each level, 38 Main Levels, 12 Bonus Levels, 10 Heist Levels, 17 Achievements, 8 Character Outfits, and a built-in Strategy Guide.
Come to The Woods and check out my new forum where you'll find game talk, series lists, what's on deck, general chit chat and so much more! thewoodsforum.boards.net :)
I recommend this game!
+33points
58of 83voted this as helpful.
 
A trio of hoax hunters get the shock of their lives!
 
Overall rating 
It was OK.
3 / 5
55 of 68 found this review helpful
NO ONE'S EVER GOING TO FEEL THE NEED TO RE-DRAW THIS GAME LOL
PostedNovember 5, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
OK
3 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Good
4 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Poor
2 / 5
Storyline 
OK
3 / 5
Completed Game approximately 4 hours
(including completion of all mini-games & CE Bonus Chapter)
18 Main Game Scene Locations +7 Bonus Chapter
Difficulty Range: Beginner

Yesterday's masterpiece, Drawn: The Painted Tower was ReDrawn because it no longer worked on the newer 64bit computers. I had to laugh because I thought, 10 to 15 years from today, no one would care if they could no longer play this game on their computer so no one would ever bother to remaster The Neglected Dead. In fact, I can't think of a single newer HOPA that would be worthy enough of a remaster because none of them are as good as they were back in the 2013-2018 timeframe! I'm not saying all HOPAs are garbage nowadays, but when compared to the quality, the gameplay, the amazing storylines, and challenge of the older games, none of the newer ones roll off anyone's tongues when asked what their favorite HOPA game is...what is your all-time favorite HOPA? I'm bettin' it's a game that was developed between 2013 and 2018!
I wouldn't mind the fact that all HOPA games have become so blatantly foolproof if Big Fish would just offer more Adventure games, but they rarely do! (even tho there are far more adventure games available than HOPAs) There are only a handful of beginner players, the majority are at least Intermediate players, most of us have been playing this genre for over a decade! In a sense, we are the ones who put this genre on the map thus, the reason HOPA developers exist today so why not throw us a bone every now and then with a game befitting our skillset?
HELPER/GADGETS:
There are NO gadgets or Helpers in Halloween Stories: The Neglected Dead, however, you'll play a different character in each Chapter. The first Chapter is played as George O'Leary, then you can choose to play as Shen Lee or Catherine Garcia-Gonzales in any order.
AUDIO/VIDEO/GAMEPLAY:
I fell in love with the graphics when I first discovered Mystery Trackers: The Void. No other developer has mastered the creepy, abandoned town scenario like Elephant Games has, the characters are lifelike and move fluently. Although they have had issues with the audio soundtracks in the past, lately I haven't noticed any freeze-ups or awkward silence moments.
The game mechanics seem to be flawless but the story itself seems to have a few hiccups. In the first scene, Cathrine writes a note to tech guru, George O'Leary, that if he can get her safe open he can have anything inside, his prize is Catherine's camera. George even makes the comment that he hopes the safe isn't empty, yet a few scenes later he uses the camera for the first time, and due to unforeseen circumstances, the camera gets broken...of course! Then he complains that Dullaham broke HIS favorite camera? How can it be HIS favorite camera if prior to this single use it belonged to Catherine? Moving on to the next scene, an old, half-blind man is kidnapped by the evil-doer and George makes the comment that he has to save this victim because it's the only way to find out what he did to deserve being kidnapped...say what???
MORPHING OBJECTS/COLLECTIBLES: (CE version only)
Less is More, right? I mentioned falling in love with Mystery Trackers: The Void because of the graphics, but the reason I started to play the series in the first place was that it had Morphing Objects. Originally, Elephant Games had amazing Morphing Objects that were challenging to spot because the morphs were slow and the objects that morphed were things that weren't obvious, such as paintings, windows, or sections of a building that morphed into a similar object. Then they started making the Morphs huge and they were so obvious when a mushroom started flashing at a break-neck speed into a giant, out-of-proportion, and out-of-place white baseball which took away all of the challenge and all of the fun. Now they have just abandoned ship, instead of putting forth more effort, they decided Less is More. I sure do miss the old Elephant Games tradition :( There are 12 Collectible Cards with descriptions of various Halloween evil-doers, and 24 Zoom Zone Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces to assemble a Single Screensaver.
HIDDEN OBJECT SCENES:
There are only 8 Hidden Object Scenes +5 in the CE Bonus Chapter, and a handful of smaller zoom zone HO's that usually precede the main HO scenes. What I am noticing from this developer in the last few games, is a marked improvement in the Hidden Object Scenes. The objects are smaller and less obvious they are clearly making an attempt to blend the objects into the scenery and choosing objects that will blend into the scene rather than stick out like a sore thumb, why can't they apply this method to the Morphing Object scenario? There are Interactive List Finds, Silhouetted Shape Finds, Matching Pairs, Find & Replace Scenes, Keywords in Sentence Finds, and Multiples of the same Item Finds. There are no alternate games available in lieu of the HOs.
MINI-GAMES/PUZZLES:
There are 18 Mini-Games +4 in the CE Bonus Chapter. They did a good job putting twists on standard games to make them Halloween-themed or at least character-related. There seems to be an excessive amount of puzzles that involve moving tiles along a track, such as moving tiles along tracks to complete an image, choosing letters in the correct order so that when the letters slide along a loopy track it spells a specific word, etc. If it wasn't a sliding track puzzle, it was a swap tile scenario which is disappointing because usually, Elephant Games offers a lot of Mechanical type puzzles which are my favorite.
BONUS CHAPTER: (Collector's Edition version only)
Turn back the hand of the clock to debunk the infamous Mothman. Because I am from Ohio, the Mothman legend is very familiar so I kind of enjoyed the Bonus Chapter! There are only 7 Scene Locations so it's on the shorter side but I'm okay with short, I'd just prefer to have quality over quantity. There are 4 additional Mini-Games and 5 Hidden Object Scenes, and you will continue your search for the remaining 3 Halloween Cards and 6 Zoom Zone Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces which allow you to complete your Screensaver. After completing the Bonus Chapter the Mystery Room (replay 12 Mini-Games & 13 Hidden Object Scenes) and Expedition Room (return to scenes to search for missed Collectibles & Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces) are unlocked.
MOTHMAN FUN FACTS:
The Mothman is a cryptid that lives in the area around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, some believe he is a Harbinger of doom, that his presence signifies or warns of an impending disaster, others say the Mothman causes the horrific disaster.
The Mothman is also known as Indrid Cold, or “The Grinning Man” which is a supernatural entity/alien that grins at people who see him. The first known sighting of the Mothman was in November 1966 in Point Pleasant, W.Va., a town of 4,300 people at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, just southeast of and across the river from Gallipolis, Ohio.
The sightings continued for the next 13 months from over 100 credible witnesses, such as couples, firefighters, and larger groups of people culminating in the collapse of the Silver Bridge, a disaster that killed 46 people. Afterward, The Mothman vanished as quickly as he arrived!
Since 2002 the town of Point Pleasant has celebrated the “Mothman Festival” on the third weekend of every September, they even have a 12-foot tall statue of the Mothman in Point Pleasant! To this day people claim to have seen the Mothman before disasters like 9/11 and the collapse of the 35 west bridge in Minneapolis.
COLLECTOR'S EDITION EXTRA'S:
5 Wallpapers, 1 Jigsaw Puzzle Screensaver, 4 Music Soundtracks, 21 Achievements, 12 Collectible Halloween Cards (with descriptions) 24 Zoom Zone Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces, Mystery Room (replay 12 Mini-Games & 13 Hidden Object Scenes), Expedition Room (return to scenes to search for missed Collectibles & Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces) 3 Main Chapters +Bonus Chapter, and a Built-In Strategy Guide.
I'd love to see you at my new forum, thewoodsforum.boards.net
I don't recommend this game.
+42points
55of 68voted this as helpful.
 
Join Hercules and Iolaus to complete the 12 tasks demanded by Hera in this fun Match-3 game!
 
Overall rating 
Disliked it.
2 / 5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A NEW GAME TO ME?
PostedNovember 3, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
Poor
2 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Poor
2 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Poor
2 / 5
Storyline 
Poor
2 / 5
I haven't been bothering to download the games that are by this developer lately because nothing ever changes, they spew to one game after another, several every single month, yet all they do is change the story and the graphics while the Match 3 game remains EXACTLY the same!
Today, I decided to give the New Chronicles of Noah's Ark a try and rather enjoyed it so I decided to give this one a try as well. Hopefully, The New Noah is an indication that they are trying to make them better than games in the past...past games like this one!
These Match 3 games may have an interesting story, amazing graphics, challenging obstacles, smooth Match 3 mechanics, interesting bonus power-up tools, clever builder aspects required to progress, and obtainable goals, but who cares about all that if it's the SAME game as the previous releases? If you have only played one or possibly two games by this developer this will probably be a 5-Star game and certainly worthy of a purchase, but for those of us who have purchased or played several e-FunSoft Match 3 games, we see an obvious pattern, a pattern where the story changes, but the Match 3 levels and gameplay do not!
This is a swap type, Match 3 game that requires you to swap two adjacent elements to create a group of at least three tiles. The goal of each level is to make matches over all of the Brown filled-in Cells as well as matching a specified number of specified Tiles as shown. Some levels also require you to collect Artifacts by dropping them to the bottom of the board.
Large Matches prompt a Morphing Tile Bubble which allows you to pop the bubble when the desired tile appears. Large Matches will fill the Energy Orb, the larger the match, the faster it charges. The good thing about this feature is that any of the power-ups can be used on any level, but the Bonus Tools must be purchased first.
TOOLS:
Hephaestus's Hammer-destroys a single tile or chain.
Sword of Ares-destroys a 2 x 2 group of tiles or chains.
Hera's Dagger-destroys 5 Horizontal Tiles or obstacles.
Demeter's Sickle-destroys 5 Vertical Tiles or Obstacles.
Poseidon's Trident-destroys an entire Horizontal Row & obstacles.
Zeus's Thunderbolt-destroys an entire Vertical Row & obstacles.
Bow of Artemis-destroys an entire Horizontal & Vertical Row,
Athena's Shield-destroys all tiles on one type.
Aphrodite's Girdle-shuffles the board.
Appolo's Winged Arrows-destroys 20 Random Tiles.
Caduceus of Hermes-destroys a 9 x 9 Square.
Hestia's Fire-destroys a Massive number of Tiles.
There are the normal obstructions as found in most Match 3 games of Chained tiles, Double Chained tiles, Spiderwebs, Wooden Crates, etc. As usual, you must purchase 4 uninteresting Upgrades to Hercules' World to unlock the next chapter and you can purchase equally uninteresting Clothing with the Elements collected while playing the Match 3 levels.
This is a decent Match 3 game IF you are new to this developer's Match 3 games, but for those of us who have already purchased more than one game by e-FunSoft Games, it feels like they are trying to take advantage of the consumer who may not realize that nothing has changed except for the story.
I'd love to chat with everyone, join us on my new forum at thewoodsforum.boards.net
I don't recommend this game.
+1point
1of 1voted this as helpful.
 
Join Hercules on his quest to defeat Kronos and Gaia in the latest match-3 adventure!
 
Overall rating 
Disliked it.
2 / 5
3 of 10 found this review helpful
UNINTERESTING GEMS AND BASICALLY THE SAME AS ALL THE OTHERS!
PostedNovember 3, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
Poor
2 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Poor
2 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Poor
2 / 5
Storyline 
Poor
2 / 5
I haven't been bothering to download the games that are by this developer lately because nothing ever changes, they spew to one game after another, several every single month, yet all they do is change the story and the graphics while the Match 3 game remains EXACTLY the same! Today, I decided to give the New Chronicles of Noah's Ark a try and rather enjoyed it so I decided to give this one a try as well. Hopefully, The New Noah is an indication that they are trying to make them better than games in the past...like this one!
These Match 3 games may have an interesting story, amazing graphics, challenging obstacles, smooth Match 3 mechanics, interesting bonus power-up tools, clever builder aspects required to progress, and obtainable goals, but who cares about all that if it's the SAME game as the previous releases? If you have only played one or possibly two games by this developer this will probably be a 5-Star game and certainly worthy of a purchase, but for those of us who have purchased or played several e-FunSoft Match 3 games, we see an obvious pattern, a pattern where the story changes, but the Match 3 levels and gameplay do not!
This is a swap type, Match 3 game that requires you to swap two adjacent elements to create a group of at least three tiles. The goal of each level is to make matches over all of the Brown filled-in Cells as well as matching a specified number of specified Tiles as shown. Some levels also require you to collect Artifacts by dropping them to the bottom of the board. Large Matches prompt a Morphing Tile Bubble which allows you to pop the bubble when the desired tile appears.
Large Matches will fill the Energy Orb, the larger the match, the faster it charges. The good thing about this feature is that any of the power-ups can be used on any level, but the Bonus Tools must be purchased first.
TOOLS:
Hammer-destroys a single tile or chain.
Sword of Ares-destroys a 2 x 2 group of tiles or chains.
Hera's Dagger-destroys 5 Horizontal Tiles or obstacles.
Demeter's Sickle-destroys 5 Vertical Tiles or Obstacles.
Poseidon's Trident-destroys an entire Horizontal Row & obstacles.
Zeus's Thunderbolt-destroys an entire Vertical Row & obstacles.
Bow of Artemis-destroys an entire Horizontal & Vertical Row,
Athena's Shield-destroys all tiles on one type.
Aphrodite's Girdle-shuffles the board.
Appolo's Winged Arrows-destroys 20 Random Tiles.
Caduceus of Hermes-destroys a 9 x 9 Square.
Hestia's Fire-destroys a Massive number of Tiles.

There are the normal obstructions as found in most Match 3 games of Chained tiles, Double Chained tiles, Spiderwebs, Wooden Crates, etc. As usual, you must purchase 4 uninteresting Upgrades to Hercules' World to unlock the next chapter and you can purchase equally uninteresting Clothing with the Elements collected while playing the Match 3 levels.
This is a decent Match 3 game IF you are new to this developer's Match 3 games, but for those of us who have already purchased more than one game by e-FunSoft Games, it feels like they are trying to take advantage of the consumer who may not realize that nothing has changed except for the story.
I'd love to chat with everyone, join us on my new forum at thewoodsforum.boards.net
I don't recommend this game.
-4points
3of 10voted this as helpful.
 
Join Noah and his family to complete God’s task and save the world from evil in this epic match-3 adventure!
 
Overall rating 
It was OK.
3 / 5
24 of 36 found this review helpful
THIS IS ACTUALLY BETTER THAN THE LAST 20 OR SO GAMES BY THIS DEVELOPER!
PostedNovember 3, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
OK
3 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
OK
3 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Good
4 / 5
Storyline 
OK
3 / 5
If we could give partial Stars on our ratings, I would give the "New" Noah's Ark a 3.7 for several reasons, but mostly because it has a Timed Option. After 4 or 5 levels, I started to notice a bit more challenge, far more than the last several Match 3 games by this developer. The Timed Option only gives you about 5 minutes to complete each level so as I progressed, I was having to replay some of the levels...even more amazingly, I found myself engrossed in the game. It was frustrating to lose a level yet I was fascinated every time I had to replay a level because "challenging" is not a word I have ever used to describe the gameplay in Match 3 game by this particular developer!
If you don't like the challenge of a Timed Match 3 game, Relax...they still have the easy-breezy Relaxed Mode available. You can earn up to 3-Stars per level, and the stars are used to Upgrade Noah's World, as usual, 4 Upgrades are required to unlock the next chapter. In my opinion, they made a huge mistake by not allowing you to Upgrade Noah's Ark! Who cares about seeing a tiny section of barren land being filled with uninteresting things? It would have been much more appealing to "build" sections of Noah's Ark, or purchase animals 2 by 2 which would give the player that "I'll just play one more level" feeling because you would be anticipating the completion of the Ark, or looking forward to adding more animals on board the Ark, don't you think? (obviously, the developers don't think)
Usually, this series requires you to purchase Tools (powerup bonuses) but this time the Bonuses are introduced on various levels. You receive 2 of each Bonus so I'm assuming you can purchase refills if you run out? It appears they only offer the use of two Bonuses (Two By Two lol) at a time, although they do vary from level to level. The Hammer removes a single Tile or obstacle. Noah's Staff clears 5 Horizontal Tiles. The Axe clears 5 Vertical Tiles. The Crystal clears an entire Row of Tiles, eventually, you'll earn bonuses to clear an entire Vertical Row, and a Shuffle feature, etc. They have added small, medium, and large Bombs as well when you make matches of 5 Tiles or more, however, you cannot swap a bomb with an adjacent tile like most Match 3 games, you can only click to detonate the bomb where it stands (this needs tweaked but is a great addition!)
There are interesting Obstacles, such as Vines, and Spiderwebs which require you to make matches with whichever tile is obstructed within the obstacles. There are Wooden Crates that may or may not have Parchment Paper Cells hidden behind them. The Paper Parchment is equivalent to a Gold Cell which requires a match made on them to remove the Parchment. I'm not sure who is in charge of Quality Control for e-FunSoft Games but there were several instances where I made matches of at least 5 Tiles but never received a Bomb of any size and several instances when I made a match on top of a Parchment Paper Cell yet the Parchment was not removed (whether it had an obstacle on top or not which requires a second match) This is one of the reasons I did NOT give this game a higher rating!
Always happy to help out, wink, wink, ;) ;) I'm easy to find lol...Everyone is welcome to join us on my new Forum at thewoodsforum.boartds.net
I recommend this game!
+12points
24of 36voted this as helpful.
 
Painting has never been easier! No stress of picking up colors. Just relax and enjoy! Choose from a variety of super fun images and follow the numbers to bring them to life.
 
Overall rating 
Hated it.
1 / 5
70 of 163 found this review helpful
TITLE
PostedNovember 2, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
Awful
1 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Awful
1 / 5
Level of Challenge 
Awful
1 / 5
Storyline 
Awful
1 / 5
On Pixel Art 18 I complained about the image selection and my review was literally bashed by another reviewer who doesn't believe that anyone has a right to submit a review unless they love a game. Does that make sense to anyone? If everyone just talks about a product they love and no one ever writes a review pointing out flaws or warns others what to expect when they come across products (or games) with things that are bad, or a waste of time and money, it seems to me there would be a whole lot of people disappointed with a whole lot of products.
Since they also stated I shouldn't write an essay, I may as well not explain what the game has or doesn't have that prompted my one-star review, right?
Come visit me at my new forum thewoodsforum.boards.net
I don't recommend this game.
-23points
70of 163voted this as helpful.
 
 European Quest
European Quest
Visit incredible locations across Europe and solve a variety of challenging puzzles!
 
Overall rating 
It was OK.
3 / 5
24 of 32 found this review helpful
SAME GAME WITH A DIFFERENT TITLE?
PostedOctober 31, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
OK
3 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
OK
3 / 5
Level of Challenge 
OK
3 / 5
Storyline 
OK
3 / 5
I'm not really sure why this developer has chosen to change the title on the last few games offered when they are identical to Summer Adventure, Mediterranean Journey, Around the World With The Johnson Family, and Mary's Family Take A Vacation.
The characters have changed (slightly) and a Morphing Object and single Coin have been added to each scene, but the features, mini-games, and gameplay are so identical that you probably wouldn't know you were playing a new game title if you were playing the Summer Adventures series and European Quest was thrown into the same pile!
If the developer wanted to branch out from the Mediterranean region, surely Summer Adventures was broad enough to accommodate just about any vacation destination? My point is, it feels like we are getting somewhat deceived when a brand new game title is offered as "Tomorrow's Game Today" but in reality, it's not a new game, it's just a new title! I wouldn't feel this way if it was introduced as another game in the Summer Adventures series because I expect series games to be identical for the most part.
In spite of my "New Title~Same Game" conspiracy statement, I do respect this developer and appreciate that they read the reviews and make a conscious effort to improve the gameplay. They have reduced the size of the Listed Objects to a more reasonable and realistic size, as well as the proportion which wasn't always the case. In the earlier games, a spider was larger than a car, a calculator towered over skyscrapers, a loaf of French Bread was so massive it could have fed the Earth's population for three square meals! The graphics have come a long way (still room for improvement) and they have added new features occasionally, such as Morphs, Collectible Coins, and finding 3 Puppies per scene.
The Hidden Object Scenes can be played in an Easy Mode with no Timer or Misclick Penalties, a Normal Mode which is Timed but has no Misclick Penalties, or a Hard Mode which has a Timer and Misclick Penalties. You can earn up to 3 Stars per level, one Star for completing the scene, one for finding all of the collectibles Hearts, and the third for finding all 3 Dogs (Bella's Location) There is a Zoom +/- feature (click to zoom & drag the screen around) as well as a Hint Feature that must recharge after each use. In the Timed Mode, you are given approximately 15 minutes to find 15 Listed items. Each scene has a single Zoom Zone location that contains the final 3 objects, or the first 3 objects, or quite possibly the middle 3 objects, depending on how you look at it.
Each scene contains 1 Gold coin which is way too big to miss. I like this feature but it would be really cool if they added several smaller coins, similar to the Gardenscapes games where coins were scattered throughout the scenes, some were partially hidden and they were always nicely blended into the scenery. It was really fun trying to find all of the coins versus just a single giant coin. If the developer added a Treasure Hunt feature where you could find several coins in each scene, it would take this 3-star game to a 5-star game! Then they could add a NEW feature where you could use those coins to purchase downloadable wallpapers of the Scene Locations or unlock additional HO scenes, maybe even purchase coins from around the world...an even better feature would be to use the coins to unlock a series of HO Scavenger Hunt scenes where you find items according to Riddle Descriptions... let's talk!

They have also added a single Morphing Object to each scene for extra points/money. Most of the morphs don't morph into completely different objects (some do) most of the objects morph into a different color which can be harder to spot.
Each scene has 3 Hearts and Dogs to find. Finding all 3 Hearts will unlock 3 new animal pictures (180) in an album. Finding all 3 Dogs will open up Bella's Location which adds that scene to Bella's Album (60 scene locations total) You can also purchase 18 Gift Shop Souvenirs with the points/money earned and you replay any HO scene to improve your star rating or find missing hearts, dogs, coins, and/or morphs, but the objects to find are different each time you play. You can also enable/disable the HO modes which introduce Scrambled Words in levels 21-40, and Missing Letter Mode in levels 41-60.
After each Hidden Object Scene, you'll play a Short mini-game because Tall mini-games don't fit into the game very well. Mini-games include Solitaire, Memory Match, Spot the Differences, Mahjong, a Maze where you use directional arrows to guide a puppy icon to the exit, etc. The games are getting quite repetitive because they don't create new puzzles, they have the same solution from game to game...at least offer new levels of these puzzles, please!
It's Halloween time in The Woods! Come join us...if you dare bwahahaha thewoodsforum.boards.net
I recommend this game!
+16points
24of 32voted this as helpful.
 
The secret of the fairies lies deep in the English countryside.
 
Overall rating 
It was OK.
3 / 5
134 of 156 found this review helpful
OH LOOK, A NEW TITLE...WAIT A MINUTE, WHY DOES THIS GAME GIVE ME DEJA VU?
PostedOctober 29, 2021
Customer avatar
pennmom36
fromRemembering You Is Easy, I Do It Every Day-Missing You Is A Heartache That Never Goes Away ~ Forever in my heart, Loki ❣
  • Top Reviewer
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor 
OK
3 / 5
Visual/Sound Quality 
Excellent
5 / 5
Level of Challenge 
OK
3 / 5
Storyline 
Good
4 / 5
Completed Game approximately 6.0 hours
(including completion of all Mini-games & CE Bonus Chapter)
23 Main Game Scene Locations +12 Bonus Chapter
Difficulty Range: Beginner-Possibly Intermediate
WHO DOESN'T LOVE FAIRIES?
I for one love Fairy-themed fantasy games and I was thrilled to see a new series in this genre. I won't lie, once I realized Domini was the developer, I was "fairy-ly" certain this would be a huge letdown. To my surprise, the graphics were amazing and more surprisingly, the storyline was pretty decent too! Unfortunately, it only took a couple of scenes before I started experiencing Deja Vu. I've played this exact game hundreds of times and if you've played any Domini game lately, you've already played this game too because the gameplay itself never changes!
I was really hoping that Domini had donned a shiny new set of Fairy Wings befitting of this new fantasy HOPA series but it appears someone has clipped this fairy's wings! Sometimes pretty isn't enough, if nothing ever changes from one game to the next, from one series to another, who cares about a new title and pretty graphics?
We only have 2-3 HOPA developers remaining yet the HOPA audience remains massive, so if developers & BF want to survive, it's critical to appease the fans who visit this site daily just to see if there is a new HOPA game offered...think about this statement...and consider my advice, please. Both the developers and Big Fish mistakenly believe that the HOPA-era is dying because they can't bother to ask the right people the right questions! We are still here, we are still diehard fans of the genre, we are still paying customers, we just don't like these newer games that practically play themselves! If they gave us an opportunity to explain, they would discover that the majority of HOPA fans are forced to replay older games developed from 2013 to 2017 because they don't like the drastic change in gameplay the developers have taken.
This says it all folks...we love this genre so much that we replay the older, decent ones, just to get our "HOPA-fixes" Everyone says "I'll go replay an older HOPA and patiently wait for a decent game to come along" and that should be an eye-opening wake-up call! Nowadays, you'll never hear a HOPA fan say "this new HOPA is better than the oldies-but-goodies games from yesteryear, wow, what a keeper!" In case the developers and BF are still wondering what made the old games so good and why the new ones don't thrill anyone past a 3.5 average rating...It's because the dumbed-down, repetitive gameplay NEVER changes in the games from 2018 to the present! I realize you have a hard time believing this, but we are actually intelligent people and we are more than capable of figuring out what to do in a HOPA game (and the whole point of playing them is to sleuth and solve! Did you guys forget what the point of a HOPA game is?)...the bigger question is, "are YOU capable of creating a game with logical tasks"?

COLLECTIBLES & MORPHING OBJECTS (CE Only):
It's hard to enjoy a repetitive Collectible offered game after game and even though this is a brand new series, the collectibles/morphs are exactly the same! Once again, there is a gazillion Missing Notes to discover, 15 Morphing Magic Items, and 15 Fairy Figurines to click on. I say click on versus collect because they are never challenging to find, they just require the player to click on them...clickables, NOT collectibles! Once again, there are 70 Zoom Zone Coin Leaves that are used to purchase 15 decorations for Queen Mab's Hut. The decorations are always spewn about the room with seemingly no rhyme or reason, and they certainly aren't an exciting addition to the game. There is an optional Collection Icon Tab that can be enabled or disabled in the settings menu which lights up when a clickable is available in the scene. You can also choose to show/hide the availability of collectibles on the Map.
HIDDEN OBJECT SCENES:
There are 13 Hidden Object Scenes +5 in the CE Bonus Chapter, the same amount offered in every game because as I said the game mechanics are the same in every game, they only change the graphics & story, everything else is a carbon copy. The Hidden Object Scenes vary with Keywords in Sentence Finds, Silhouetted Shape Finds, Matching Objects, Multiples of the Same Item Finds, Progressive-Interactive Finds, and good Old-fashioned Interactive Listed Item Finds.
MATCH 3 ALTERNATIVE:
There is an alternate Match 3 Game available, which still doesn't allow you to make consecutive matches quickly because you have to wait for all tiles to stop falling before you can make the next match which makes the game super boring. The M3 boards are always square and they never add obstacles or new features to make it progress in difficulty. FYI: one of the achievements requires you to play the alternate Match 3 game in place of the HOS. (just once)
MINI-GAMES-PUZZLES:
There are 16 Mini-Games +9 in the CE Bonus Chapter. You can choose to play them in an Easy or Hard difficulty mode and you can choose which mode to have them start out in the Custom Setting (you can still switch between modes for each individual game)
BONUS CHAPTER: (CE Version Only)
You play as a young Maryam, a character from the main game on a mission to save the fairies from the clutches of evildoers. There are 5 Hidden Object scenes and 9 Mini-games spread out over 12 additional scene locations filled with even more repetitive tasks. You will continue your search for the final 4 Fairy Figurines, 6 Morphing Magic Items, and 12 Zoom Zone Leaf Coins of varying amounts which allows you to purchase the final decorations for Queen Mab's Hut...same collectibles/morphs different names.
COLLECTOR'S EDITION EXTRA'S: (CE version only)
21 Wallpapers (I have to admit that the wallpapers are gorgeous, some of them are without characters slapped all over them!) 21 Concept Art Pictures, 5 Music Soundtracks, 25 Movie Video Cutscenes, 36 Achievements, 18 Replayable Mini-Games, 18 Replayable Hidden Object Scenes, 15 Morphing Magic Items, 15 Fairy Figurine Clickables,70 Zoom-Zone Coin Leaves, 15 Queen Mab's Hut decorations (purchase with leaves) 8 excessively long Main Chapters, +Bonus Chapter, and a Built-In Strategy Guide.
We haven't seen any Fairies yet but we do have plenty of forest critters at my new forum so swing by, feed the bears, reconnect with long-lost forum friends and become an official Woosdey...thewoodsforum.boards.net
+112points
134of 156voted this as helpful.
 
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