Installation:
This is a first time giveaway thanks to Rake in Grass. Who’ve given us some excellent games in the past. Today’s download is a 24Mb zipped file which installs to about 26.7Mb. There is no shortcut installed so make a note of where the game is installed to. By default it installs to
C:\Games\CrystalCaveClassic
But if your cache hasn’t been cleared you may find it installing into the last game you installed from the giveaway project. You can clear you internet cache easily by right clicking on your internet icon (Internet explorer) and selecting Internet Properties. For firefox users you need to go to the toolbar within your internet browser.
Introduction:
Crystal Cave Classic is a quest for long-lost treasures buried in pitch black caves, pyramids and temples of ancient civilizations. Huge gemstones were sheltered from the sunshine for eons of time waiting for explorers brave enough to unearth them. You - as an intrepid treasure hunter - will need all your ingenuity to pass the traps and dangers of the underground and collect the treasure in more than 170 levels.
Reference accessed 6th November 2009 HERE
The Game:
Crystal Cave Classic is a very good remake of the original Crystal Caves by Apogee (which is still available for sale for around $5. It’s basically a very good boulder dash clone. The first video I’ve linked to below shows you a multitude od levels from the 170 strong level game, though if you’ve got the time and patience you can create many more levels of your own design by using the levels editor that’s packaged with the game. The graphics are nicely rendered, with colourful levels that allow you to use boulders, teleports, lifts, dynamite and other types of rock to solve the puzzle from each level. If you don’t like the music , which was specially made for this game you can use your own favourite music files. I’ve added more details about this at the end of the review.
Main game features:
• Explore lost tombs and ancient dungeons
• Lots of logic riddles
• train your brain!
• Play in over 170 levels
• Use teleports, boulders and other types of rocks to solve levels
• Four graphic scenarios
• Listen to original music
• Create your own levels using our simple editor
The game is divided into seven chapters which include a tutorial chapter that contains 15 very useful levels, especially if you’ve never played a boulder dash style game before. The next six chapters include a first steps chapter then chapters dealing with specific regions of the world such as India, Egypt Japan and South America (the Aztecs). When you first boot up the game you are led through several cut scenes, which are basically layers images that are given the feeling of animation by selective zooming - a quick and easy way of giving the appearance of real animation. The intro sets the scene well IMO. You can select any of the chapters from the seven available, and any level from any of the chapters in any order you wish. you can also re-play any already played levels.
You can use either the keyboard cursor keys or the mouse to move your character. Boulders can only be pushed if there is nothing behind them. Arrows will sometimes point the way for you. You can zoom in or out of the playing arena if you wish. Access to the zoom controls is via the toolbar to the bottom left of the screen. To the bottom right is a quick load and quick save feature.
You can travel through sand but beware of boulders above you. If they are directly above you, you are safe as they will sit on your head, but if they drop from a greater height they can kill you. Breakable walls can be smashed by throwing something onto them for example a boulder or a beaker of acid. The aim of the game is to collect all the gemstones within a level; some gems may be found within walls, so will require smashing, others are found inside monsters, so you’ll need to use movable parts of the level to kill them before you can get the crystals. Monsters also explode and can be used to solve puzzles using this property. You can use dynamite when available to destroy pieces of breakable wall or to kill monsters. Dynamite will explode if you throw something onto it. You can also move dynamite.
To break iron walls you need to break the beakers containing acid. These are also moveable and can be broken by jumping on them. To overcome obstacles there are several tiles that you can use which include glass tiles which can be pushed into place then used to move other objects before smashing them by jumping on them. They will also break if you push them onto a wall. You can also use joker tiles which are movable in any direction and do not drop if you leave them suspended in air, but once they are placed against a wall you cannot move them away from it only up and down or left and right (depending upon whether it’s a side wall or a top or bottom wall) Joker tiles are especially useful for clogging up gaps in floors that would otherwise trap boulders. The elevator tiles are there to help you transport any movable object to a higher level in order to overcome obstacles. You just have to push the object onto the elevator. Other special tiles include the eight ball tile and the flip tile (which flips the whole level upside down), which is very useful for breaking walls that have boulders beneath them.
You can see all of the above tiles in action via the first ‘tutorial’ chapter which has 15 levels. If you’ve never played boulder dash before these tutorials will give you a good grounding in the mechanics of the game.
Controls:
Mouse or cursor keys to move your character
Video & Images:
Pictures and more so video are better than thousands of words. Here are some You Tube videos of the game plus images from in game:
You can see the introduction to the game plus a cameo of many levels HERE
plus four more videos that include an Egyptian level HERE , an Indian level HERE an Aztec level HERE and a Japanese level HERE.
There’s actually over 8 pages full of Crystal Cave Classic videos covering just about every level available, so if you get stuck you’ve got access to video walkthroughs of most of the levels HERE . You can also access all the video walkthroughs over at Rake in grass. They have created a page specially for the walkthroughs. There’s only one level missing a video which is level 27 in the second Japanese chapter. You can find them HERE.
You can see all the images of the game on one page HERE or as a slide show HERE. I have posted images in the game discussion forums, which give a better idea as to what the game looks like while you are reading the review.
Conclusion:
Overall this is a very enjoyable and good looking puzzle game. There’s lots of variety and to cap it off there’s a levels editor that will enable you to create your own levels. There’s no tutorial on how to use the editor, but I found it easy to use. If you’ve never played boulder dash games of which this is one (not sure which came first any more boulder dash or crystal caves) the first chapter gives you a very good tutorial. Definitely worth an 8 out of 10 for family fun and puzzle solving.
Other information:
Alternative Games for free:
You can download 28 different full version Boulder Dash games for free
HERE , and include such titles as Crypt Raider, Rockfall 2, Boulder Rush, Hamster Jam and Rocks ‘n’ Diamonds. We’ve posted several of these games in the free games for the weekend project over the last year. I don’t think any of them approach the quality of Rake in Grass’s game, but they are well worth downloading if you like this genre of game.
You’ll also find a few related games in the Maze section, for example, The Nameless, Ultimate Burger Hunt, The Dungeons of Grimlor 2 series, Ghost Boy and Push-Push Penguin.
HERE.
Changing In game Music:
You can change the in game music by replacing the ogg file . There are several music files that you can swap for music that you really like. By default it should be installed along the following path for both XP and vista (I’ve not purchased Win 7 yet – not going to until the first service pack has been released) :lol:
C:\Program files\ Crystal Cave Classic\data\music
You’ll find several audio converters in the giveaway freeware library HEREthese will enable you to convert any MP3's (or other formats) you would like to exchange for the present in game music. IMO, music that you like can enhance the gaming experience. :lol:
