At best, clunky and amateurish. No way to control volume. Music is either on or off. You have to click directly on the dialog box, not the person, to move on. I actually reinstalled the game after waiting 30 seconds for each of several interactions in order to to get a response after multiple clicks. Tried again. Had to start over because I hadn't got to the point when you learn you have to go to a different screen to save your game. I like puzzles and games, but the few I played didn't "grab" me. I trashed the game after 17 minutes. Not sure how I lasted that long.
Mosaic games are among my favorites, especially when I want some relaxing game play. If World Mosaics and similar games are ranked a 10, I would rank Asian Riddles as a 2 (not a 1, only because some obviously are willing to overlook its serious flaws).
It's inexcusable that you need to manually click on an "x" or "v" to change whether you want to choose a tile or show that it's not used. This slows you down, is distracting, and for some adds unnecessary difficulty to the game. Why can't a player right-click to change, as in other games of this type?
In addition, the English translation is the worst of any game I have played -- and that's saying something, given the obvious lack of editors on many games.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
1/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
1/ 5
Level of Challenge
1/ 5
Storyline
1/ 5
I have never given a game a "1" rating before, but everything about this game is simply awful, from the music to the unlovable characters and the incredibly annoying background noises they constantly make. Perhaps very young children would enjoy the game, but I doubt it. For me, it was not even worth the time spent trying it out -- and I played for 5 levels thinking it had to get better. It didn't.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
2/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
3/ 5
Level of Challenge
2/ 5
Storyline
1/ 5
This would be an OK game if it weren't for the incredibly anti-environmental aspects of what is supposedly a pro-environment game.
Barely into the game I was bothered by the need to destroy giant oak trees in order to meet a level's building goals. Then I got to the level where I was given the "speedy" option of shooting elephants that were in the path. What were the developers thinking? Elephants are endangered and they're advocating *shooting* them if you're willing to lose 5 eco points?
The developers have just lost me as a customer for any of their future games. I know "this is just a game," but I cannot support any company that advocates violence against nature. I do NOT recommend this game!
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
5/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
...so to my surprise, I really liked this game. As a Mac (Mavericks) player who doesn't have the range of game options that Windows players have, this game quickly became one of my favorites--and I have over 200 Big Fish games.
Overall, I think it's a definite improvement over the previous version, which I thought was OK but not terrific. I especially like the "build" aspect of the game, and there's a good range of difficulty in the mini games. I also (surprisingly, for me) liked the "timed" aspect of the HO scenes. The humor and overall play is enjoyable, relaxing, and fun. Must admit that as a lifelong gardener, I was amused at the thought of growing some of those vegetables in greenhouses.
There are, admittedly, a few irritating glitches: the market sometimes stops selling some of the vegetables temporarily even if you cut the price to $1, which maxes out your storage space; you can't get all trophies--e.g., for planting one of every vegetable (apparently the developer provided an upgrade but Big Fish didn't release it); and the game crashed a couple of times for me (without losing any game play) after I had been playing for several hours (I had completed the game but wanted to get all the trophies).
I really wanted to like this game, but on balance, I'm glad I used a free coupon rather than having to pay for it, and I'm sorry I spent the time to complete the game.
Others have commented on some of its positive qualities. I appreciated the option of using a bubble shooter in many of the HOS, as I'm more interested in strategy and mini games than hidden objects, which I find boring.
Some of the expected actions seemed rather farfetched. And it's a good thing the map is interactive, because it would be almost impossible without it, and it was frustrating to continuously search through multiple layers of the map. After a bit I found the composer character really irritating. The game ended rather abruptly, but here again, no surprises.
Some might enjoy Danse Macabre; I feel it was largely a waste of my time. So I'll recommend it, but with serious reservations.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
5/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
I have more than 200 Big Fish games, and this was the first that I enjoyed so much that I felt I had to submit a review. Great story and mini games as well as challenging fragmented objects (the more typical HOS bore me). I also enjoyed the morphing objects, game length and ending. Well worth the money!
Although I would have appreciated a map that included jumps (too much time spent clicking to get from one scene to another), I’ll be trying the earlier games in this series, and I’ll definitely be replaying this one.
This game helped ease my frustration re the number of excellent games that haven't migrated (at least not yet) from Windows to the Mac.