A Tale of Christmas
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Christmas Fables - The Wishing Store is a Hidden Object Adventure game that is available in Collector's Edition format. As part of the Domini Games' extensive catalogue of titles, this offering provides the usual options for adjusting the game's playing environment. Volume levels for different audio aspects, viewing size and special effects can all be set to suit your preferences. You also have a choice of Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom difficulty level of game play.
The game casts you in the role of the heir to the family's range of toy shops. In order to learn more about the shops, trading under the name of Toylands, you need to travel to Christmashire and visit the local Toyland shop. On arriving at Christmashire, you discover it is a place that does not celebrate Christmas or any such holidays and it is under the control of a Mayor called Mr. Greedy. The Mayor has plans to take over the toy shop and convert it to selling clothes.
You will then be required to progress through a task-based process using the tools available to you that are arranged across the bottom of the screen. These tools will consist of a Journal, Map, Inventory, Strategy Guide and Hint features. While the Journal holds sections for Noted and Tasks, the Map can teleport you to different locations and pinpoint where actions and extras are located. When items in the Inventory are accompanied by a plus sign, some additional work will be required before the item can be used. Side-mounted fly-out icons will provide updates regarding Collectibles found and Decisions made at vital points during your progress.
Using these tools and other items found during searches, you will be able to contact Nicholas, a toy maker who had previously been employed by Toyland. Working together, this pairing plan to restore the Toyland store to a fully working establishment and, by decorating the city, restore the joy to Christmashire. Your range of activities will spread wider as toys are distributed to children and the reasons behind Mr. Greedy's attitude is investigated.
Guided by the mouse cursor's ability to change shape when in the vicinity of possible actions, you can explore scenes and move to different areas. Among the locations you will need to visit, often on multiple occasions, are the town's Main Square, Toyland Store, Stockroom, the town Centre Square, Nicholas's Home, Nicholas's Yard, Workshop, and Sweetheart Bakery. On your travels you will meet characters such as Delilah and Mrs Strudel who will provide assistance as you complete tasks that include getting the Toyland store fully operational, delivering toys to the children and discovering what caused Mr. Greedy to hate enjoyment plus prove you are worthy of running the Toy Empire.
As you progress through the three chapters of the main game, you will be faced by numerous mini game puzzles and Hidden Object challenges. The min game puzzles, which will include arranging shields, gears, snowflakes and music plus clearing snow and laying out railway tracks, give you the choice of Easy or Hard version with a Skip option should a puzzle prove too difficult. Indicated by an outbreak of sparkles, a Hidden Object challenge can be switched to Match 3 game play rather than find illustration that match words, find parts of an item and replace objects within the current scene if that suits better.
Once the main game has been completed, you gain access to a bonus chapter plus the chance to replay the mini game puzzles, Hidden Object challenges and cut-scenes. You can also use the gears collected during the game to purchase objects to fit a Boudoir section.
This game is available from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99 or from Big Fish Games priced at £16.12. The game requires a 2.0 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 1.01GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
Christmas Fables - The Wishing Store Collector's Edition | GameHouse
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