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The development team at Point 8 Games certainly enjoys producing titles based on puzzle solving.  This next title from the company is no exception.  Sea Life Explorer takes the player on an adventure based on an underwater theme as, level after level, the player is faced by a series of puzzles of varying types to test their puzzle solving skills.

Following the usual options of creating profiles plus adjusting volume levels for background music and sound effects, the level of difficulty can be set to a choice of Easy, Medium or Hard.  These settings can feature elements such as specific recharging times for the Hint feature and a penalty for misclicking.  You also have the ability to place a time restriction on certain tasks. 

The game then presents you with a mixture of Hidden Object levels and a random choice from a selection of mini game puzzles.  The Hidden Object levels are arranged in a sequence which you need to follow in order to make progress.  You can, if you so wish return to a previous level and replay it for whatever reason.

Each Hidden Object level is accessible via a porthole style opening that will reveal an appropriate scene and a list of the required items that need to be located within the scene.  The list can be presented in the format of a list of single words, a required group of a particular type of object, possible pairs and a specific task that will need to be performed on or using a particular item.  From time-to-time, one or two areas of sparkles will appear within a scene.  These areas allow you to dive in for a closer look in order to find required items.

Along with the required list of items and the sparkled areas, each scene will be populated by a miscellaneous collection of distraction including three dolphins and three pearls.  The dolphins and pearls will need to be found and their discovery will eventually grant you access to various bonus levels and an option to find all the Hidden Object seeded throughout the game.

As mentioned, each Hidden Object level will be followed by a mini game puzzle.  This will be randomly selected from a choice of various types.  In some cases the mini game puzzle will be provided with a Hint option or you could be granted an option to skip it.

The puzzle might involve overlaying a ghost image by selecting from a tidy arrangement of jigsaw pieces or spot the difference between two similar scenes.  Other puzzle types could include rotation or swapping sections of an appropriate scene or find vegetables in an underwater scene.  You might need to match pairs of face down cards, complete a numbered Sudoko puzzle or play a Match 3 game to remove a set number of specific tools.

Although lacking in addictive quality, this title can past a few pleasant hours.  I downloaded my copy of the title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99.  It is also available from Big Fish Games priced at £16.00.  The game requires a 2.5 GHz processor with 2048MB of RAM and 1.68GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later. 

Sea Life Explorer Collector's Edition > iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC Game | Big Fish

Sea Life Explorer Collector's Edition | GameHouse