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The Season of Joy
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Built around the Christmas Festival, Mixo Games has released The Season of Joy product. Available in Collector's Edition format, this product comes with a number of bonus items to supplement the main mixture of puzzle type games. With options to adjust volume levels for background music and sound effects plus viewing the action in full screen mode with a cursor depicting a gloved hand, there is a choice of Casual, Normal or Extreme difficulty levels. The program refers to these levels as Cosy, Chill or Frosty.
The main game divides its content into nine categories. Befitting the Christmas theme, these categories are entitled Winter Fauna, Holiday Décor, Festive Cheer, Christmas Splendour, Fantasy Vistas, Floral Bliss, Jolly Moments, Antique Beauty and Abstract Wonders. Each of these categories will grant access to six different puzzle types. Generally these puzzles have been entitled Torn Pieces, Hidden Object Puzzle, Locked Box, Jigsaw Puzzle, Stamp Match or Switch Puzzle. Occasionally one of the types will appear twice in the list. You will have freedom of choice in the order in which you select the category and its puzzle type.
While the individual puzzles with be laid out against an appropriate backdrop scene, the puzzle will present different challenges to the player. With hint and zoom tools, the Hidden Object puzzle combines a scene with a list, made up of brief descriptions or single words, that need to be located within the scene. As items are found, their entry in the list will be replaced by another item.
The Jigsaw puzzle gives you a choice of three sizes of images depending upon the number of pieces forming the puzzle plus zoom, preview, shuffle and hint tools. You need to drag pieces into an approximate position on the work area. The software will apply any necessary adjustment to actual fit the pieces together correctly.
As with the Jigsaw puzzle, the Switch puzzle gives you a choice of three sizes for the completed image. You will need to select two sections and these will be switched. Gradually the image will be completed with a restored image.
Starting with a partially completed image, the Torn puzzle provides you with sections that you can drag onto the image. When placed in the correct vicinity, the section will be merged into the image which will be gradually filled in and completed. Hint and zoom tools are provided.
The Stamp puzzle, as its title indicates, presents you with a clutter of stamps. You need to match pairs which are then removed from the clutter. Once all the stamps are removed, you are rewarded with an appropriate image.
The Locked Box puzzle provides you with a box filled with smaller boxes. Each box features an arrow pointer indicating in which direction, (up / down / left / right) the box can be moved. By moving each box in its designated direction, you need to empty the main box.
In addition to the selection of a category and a chosen puzzle type, you could take the Surprise Me option. With this route you are presented with a random choice of category and puzzle type. Each successful completion will bring a reward of stars. These stars can then be used to unlock bonus puzzles based on Tile Matching, Dice Merge or Solitaire Fun. The bonus play also contains a view of room decoration and checking out the various images throughout the game.
You can download this title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99. The game requires a 1.6 GHz processor with 2048MB of RAM and 1.27GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
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