iphone

Luxor 2
Available for: iPhone, iPad
(Reviewed on iPad)
Game Developer & Publisher: MumboJumbo Games

Game Recommendation:

Recommended download!

Luxor 2 review

Luxor 2 is a sequel to MumboJumbo Games’ popular marble puzzle shooter on the App Store. It is actually the fourth Luxor game offering on the iOS platform, joining the original Luxor, Luxor HD and Luxor: Amun Rising HD. Luxor 2 does not stray from its addictive color matching and marble shooting formula, but boy does it polish it up. If you are inexperienced in the Luxor games, where have you been? Kidding. Now would be a great time to give it a try to be introduced to the game. The game is simple enough to learn for anyone to jump into and enjoy. A train of various colored rolling spheres moves along path, towards a pyramid exit. It is the player’s goal to move their Scarab along a horizontal path and shoot a colored sphere onto the sphere train for a match. Match three like-colored spheres or more, and the spheres clear away. Speed, interweaving sphere trains, getting successive chains and resisting needless temptation are some of the challenges players will face in Luxor 2.

If you have played Luxor before, the graphics of Luxor 2 will hit you from the onset as the best in the series yet. Even the Scarab and sphere bug have a bit more of a stylized, yet simplified, design. The spheres have a solid and reflective 3D effect, giving much more dimension than previous Luxor spheres. Luxor 2‘s shiny and textured 3D backgrounds, ambient lighting and environmental particles add to a very colorful and pleasurable game experience, making for a flashy trek through the Egyptian themed levels. Ok, so there is plenty of new eye candy to gawk at, but there are also a few new welcome power-ups in Luxor 2. The new power-ups are visual treats and effective aids in clearing spheres and catching bonus gems. The Lightning Storm power-up zaps spheres away with relentless fury. A Color Cloud power-up makes it easy to convert a series of spheres into like colors. A Net power-up makes it easy to catch bonus gems that drop from clearing sphere trains. The Scorpion power-up is one of the most rewarding, which sends a powerful sphere grinding scorpion from the pyramid.

Gameplay modes include Adventure, Survival, and Practice modes. The Adventure mode puts players through over 80 levels in Casual, Normal or Expert difficulty. In between a few of the levels are bonus rounds, where players must shoot spheres with the Dagger power-up while trying to create chained combinations. Some of the latter levels in the Adventure mode are a bit more difficult versions and repeat layouts/backgrounds of earlier ones. In Survival mode, any levels completed in the Adventure mode will be unlocked for a test of endless endurance. Practice mode also allows you to replay levels unlocked, but I’m not sure why players would want to jump into that mode when they can invest their time in the Survival mode. For controls, players can set an Aim assist on (or off) to Retical or Beam display. A variety of touch controls for movement, shooting and swapping colored spheres can be set.

For the stat fiends, Luxor 2 tallies tons of information on gameplay. Besides the player’s overall score, completion percentage and play time, details like total combos, spheres collapsed, and wins/losses on each level are also tracked. The stats are somewhat buried in the “Achievements” section. Game Center Leaderboards are also included as well as the achievements milestones.

All of this adds up to a low price for the value, making Luxor 2 totally worth the download. Go check it out now on the App Store and you will find yourself hooked on sphere busting to some of the slickest Luxor visuals yet. Luxor 2 is highly recommended and is another great iOS game offering from MumboJumbo Games!

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Thanks to MumboJumbo Games for making this review possible.

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