Allura: Curse of the Mermaid

The Good
This is a simple tile matching game. There are many games like it and this doesn't really break any new ground.

The game is mouse controlled and it is pretty standard as games of this type go. The player is very quickly introduced to tiles that have to be cleared by matching shapes, locked tiles that need to be used in two matched sets to be cleared, shapes that morph into a different picture and so on. It is all very colourful and it plays flawlessly.

Being a mermaid related game the shapes have a sea theme, shells, starfish, coral and other things I could not identify. They are all bright and easy to identify even when locked - covered by one or more strands of seaweed.

I have played many games like this and some have many easy levels before the game becomes challenging. This game seemed to become challenging quite quickly which, for a puzzle game, is a good thing. There is a timer on each level but, thankfully, taking a while to clear a stage did not seem to incur any penalty points.

The game is accompanied by some very pretty piano music which I really enjoyed. If I were playing the full game I'd probably disable the sound effects to enjoy it properly. There is voice acting which accompanies the storyboards and that's pretty good too.

The Bad
This is a minor point but as you play the story unfolds which is fine but I missed an in-game map to see how far I'd come and how much of the game was left.

The Bottom Line
I played the Big Fish Games demo version which allows one hour of playing the full game for free and the time just flew by - so it had me hooked right from the start. This is a simple fun game that is pretty standard. I wasn't expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised by it.