Price: $4.99

Publisher: G5 Entertainment

Dive headfirst into a Romanian castle shrouded in wonder and mystery with the inquisitive and determined protagonist, Nelly, in G5 Entertainment’s latest title, Treasure Seekers II: The Enchanted Canvases. An amped up version of traditional hidden puzzle games, G5 takes this to the next level with a constantly developing storyline, hordes of puzzles, and a number of unique minigames. Sounds pretty enticing, right?

The second installment of Treasure Seekers dumps gamers right back into action, as Nelly’s overzealous brother, Tom has taken off on an adventure to find the Philosophers’ Stone. Of course, silly old Tom is now lost somewhere amongst the puzzles and possibly in grave danger, so Nelly strikes out into the castle to retrieve her lost sibling. Each canvas lays out a new scenario where players meet unique characters such as ghost pirates or genies that require your assistance. Whether you’re relighting an old lighthouse or scuba diving to recover lost sea treasure, Treasure Seekers II keeps gamers guessing as they try to outsmart minigames and unravel a number of tricky quandaries.

Everything from top to bottom in this game seems to have an enchanted, rustic feel to it, from the menus right on through to the individual puzzles. There isn’t a ton of animation and movement, which allows Treasure Seekers II to focus on creating highly appealing interactive backdrops which serve as the basis for most of the gameplay. While tapping around and searching for the next clue, fish and birds flutter by as clouds drift through the sky and the flames from a fire shoot up the chimney. Each canvas is completely different, creating a new visual treat for players as they progress through the content while trying to rescue Tom.

Coupled with the already attractive visual landscape is a diverse soundtrack which ebbs and flows with each of the different levels. Far better than some of the more repetitious audio featured by many other mobile titles, G5 did their best to transport people right into one of the magical canvases with a lush soundscape. Smaller accent effects signal correctly discovering a clue or necessary tool, such as a chime or metallic ping. The characters don’t speak, but the dialogue is kept concise enough to prevent Treasure Seekers II from turning into a reading exercise.

Being a hidden puzzle title, you can bet no one will be giving themselves a migraine over figuring out the controls with this one. Most of the game is done by simply tapping or dragging objects on the correct location, and zooming in or out works the same way it does on your iPhone. The only minor inconvenience is during one or two of the minigames where some areas are just too small to press without touching the wrong item, creating some unnecessary repetition.

With boatloads of constantly evolving and changing content, as well as a pleasing auditory and visual experience, Treasure Seekers II is a solid pick, especially for fans of the genre. The $4.99 price tag might turn a few people off, but it’s pretty easy to tell the difference between this and a $0.99 app, especially with the length of the story. Don’t wait too long, Tom needs your help!

Overall Value for it’s $4.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $.99

Publisher: Clickgamer Technologies Ltd.

Enter the bleak, dismal world of The Shadow Blight with Professor Helsing and his loyal assistant Raffton, and prepare to face the demonic minions of Dracula. Armed with torches and explosive tonics, the team navigates their way deeper into the darkness, while the puzzles becoming increasingly quick and addictive. Combining unique level design and an interesting, yet somewhat corny storyline, Helsing’s Fire will have you battling rats, skeletons, and vampire bats for hours on end.

Set in a grim, gothic influenced setting, the undead smashing duo move from level to level while attempting to vanquish the evil Count Dracula. Armed with literal hordes (there’s 90 levels) of enemies which escalate in strength and difficulty over time, the vampire king is no slouch. Using the torch to illuminate the blast pattern, players have to cautiously, yet swiftly, solve puzzles while avoiding harming innocent damsels in distress. Walls are scattered about the playing area, which consistently alters itself during each level, to make each challenge unique and interesting. The play is quick though, as many levels will take less than 30 seconds to complete, permitting Helsing’s Fire to become as addictive as possible.

The interface is blocky and somewhat rigid, requiring you to click on each square to enter the next puzzle. Assorted red, blue, green, and gray colors make up each level, which changes as you advance deeper into Dracula’s maze of twisted challenges. Your torch is the most important piece, and it illuminates the potential blasting path with liquid smoothness, allowing you to slowly, yet effectively solve each quandary. When detonating, a wave of color washes towards the enemies like a tidal wave, smashing them into pieces if successful.

Creepy organ music envelops the game, ranging from brooding interludes on menu screens, to slightly more upbeat tones during actual gameplay. When detonating tonics, popping explosive sounds resonate, as skeleton’s bones crunch and rats splatter into nonexistence. Everything seems to fit the title’s overall theme well, and while it isn’t particularly overwhelming, Clickgamer executes it seamlessly.

Helsing’s Fire rests upon an incredibly simplistic control system, only requiring players to click and drag the torch into place and let go. When you’re ready to crush some enemies, click on the corresponding tonic color, and Raffton pulls the trigger on the next explosive assault. Click, drag, click, and kill. Got it?

Intriguing puzzles, themed music, and an easy to use, yet reliable control system; what more could you really ask for? While the dialogue between Helsing, Raffton, and Dracula is almost laughably rigid and silly, the actual game content is slick and addictive. Even better, with survival mode and tons of levels, this far outlasts other $0.99 titles. This is another score from the makers of Angry Birds for sure.

Overall Value for it’s $.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Price: $1.99

Publisher: Broken Column Games

Malum Umbra is one spooky, unusual ride.  The name alone should tell you something about this game, it’s unique and its developers don’t care how hard it is to market on the App Store.  Just kidding guys.  But in all seriousness, this is an indie developed 3d first person shoot…well not exactly shooter that looks great and has nice controls.  The music, though overused, is absolutely stunning.

The beginning of the game tells the story of a wicked sorcerer stealing all of the light within the world.  Your mission is to go into a maze-filled dungeon and using only a candle, recover shards of crystal to bring light back to the world.  So basically, you have a pretty standard setup for a role playing game.  However, this game is much more of an adventure game than role playing and certainly cannot be considered purely an action game despite its first person view.  The lack of a gun and the addition of a candle should be a dead giveaway of that.

Within the game you will find 8 mazes, each of them leading to one of the shards of light.  Several of them will be very easy to navigate but as you get further into the game, they become progressively more complex and difficult.  Luckily, the game gives you chalk that allows you to mark the floor where you have come from.  Throughout the hallways you will find scorpions and other deadly creatures along with traps.  Using only your candle you will fight off the creatures and guide you way to safety.  That is, if you can do it in time.  You see, the light of your candle only will burn for so long.  When it goes out, the shadows and the creatures hiding within quickly destroy you.

Though the game doesn’t last terribly long, the high quality of the graphics along with amazing background music and controls leave you wanting more.  While the storyline is nothing special, it’s serviceable and the actual mechanics within the game work pretty well.  At $1.99, this title is a good fit for most anybody looking for something a little scary and a lot different.

Overall Value for it’s $1.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $1.99

Publisher: Chillingo

Buy now on

Having just finished the conclusion for Dracula: Path of the Dragon, I am a bit dismayed.  Reviews for Part 1 and Part 2 have been up for a while and Part 3 was the last portion of the adventure game, an ending which I have been looking forward to for a while.  Fortunately, Part 3 brings an exciting finish to the game and picks up exactly where part 2 left off.  Why am I disappointed?  Well – because it’s over.

Path of the Dragon, Part 3 adds an enormous number of puzzles to an already strong story.  If you were disappointed in the number of puzzles in the second chapter (which admittedly were sparse), you will be happy to see that this chapter has tripled the amount of puzzles of the first two chapters put together.  That’s not to say they are all good, but it’s nice to be challenged.

The third chapter also is longer than the second.  The download clocks in at an enormous 500+ megabytes (so make sure to clear some space on your device before trying to install).  You’ll see familiar faces from the first two chapters and also several new faces.  Up until now, the game has lead your character, Arno – the Priest, from initially looking into a person from the Romanian town of Vladoviste becoming a saint, to now looking into the Path of the Dragon (the path of becoming a vampire).  Through twists and turns in the story, a shocking revelation is revealed in part 3 that are equal parts stunning, yet believable.

One of the issues I have with the final chapter in the game is that the puzzles can be a little tough to discern.  Some things that may have made sense on the PC version of the game have gotten lost in translation because of the small screen and lower resolution graphics.  In some cases, you’ll find yourself trying to use every single object in your inventory to figure out the next portion of the puzzle and failing dozens of times in a row.  It can be a bit frustrating especially when you find out that the reason you couldn’t figure out the puzzle was due to not being able to see something.  In one instance, you need to do something with a string, but the string is too small to see so it feels more like guess and test instead of actual detective work.

The third chapter also adds the possibility of your death into the mix.  While you “die”, you simply wait until the dying animation is over and it reloads you directly back where you were before.  It’s a bit of a copout since there really is no penalty for the death other than having to watch the same animation over and over again as your try to figure out the puzzle.

All in all, the ending of the game will leave some of you fairly satisfied while others will have wanted a bit more.  There are still questions left in the end of the game but by and large, most things are answered.  The bottom line is if you have come this far (through the first two chapters), the third chapter is a must buy.  If you have yet to make the journey, read the first two reviews first and see if it is something you would be interested in.  One way or the other, I look forward to playing more adventure games like this in the future.  The rich setting, great voice acting and sharp graphics give you 6 to 7 hours of gameplay (total time from all 3 chapters) for about 5 dollars.  That’s alright in my book.

Overall Value for it’s $1.99 price point

Overall Value: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 5 out of 5 stars