Luxor Review

Luxor is a somewhat notorious arcade game from the mid-2000s. The setting is Ancient Egypt, where hieroglyphs mark the walls, mummies are interred in pyramids, and no one's face is turned forwards.

The game?

The game is this: these little scarab beetles push balls along a rut. They come in four colours - red, green, blue, and yellow. Your objective is to destroy the lines of balls. To do this, you shoot more balls in. Three or more balls of the same colour in a row, and they disappear. Vapourise all of the balls, and you win the round. But if even one scarab and its balls make it to the end of the rut, a "foul" is called and you lose the round. Lose twice (not considering extra lives) and the game's over.

In any case, it's pretty easy to play this game. Just shift your mouse around to where you want to shoot the ball, and shoot it!

What makes this game challening and thus interesting, though, is the ruts the balls run through, though. Usually, they're a pattern that can make shooting balls where you want them to go difficult (if not impossible). Tunnels and other obstacles sometimes prevent balls from joining the lines, too.

If you make combos by breaking up multiple groups of balls, you can try to get bonuses, like certain balls that break up lines, or even getting the scarabs to move backwards or stop.

The backgrounds are psuedo-Egyptian with fake hieroglyphs and Egyptian-like pictures. The rolling balls and beetles are smoothly animated. One endearing touch they have is typing your name in psuedo-hieroglyphs alongside your English name.

The music is somewhat psuedo-Egyptian, and thus fitting. But it's not annoying or distracting, just background. The sound effects for the bonuses and the game itself are great. Nothing like a pounding heart to get the blood running - or to tell you you've got to act quickly!! A choir is used for some of the bonus effects - and to good use. (It's almost spiritual.)

It's been around since 2005, and for good reason. It's easy to learn, fun to play, without being taxxing on one's computer - though I personally think $17.95's a bit much. Fortunately, there are other places (such as Shockwave.com) who sell it for $6.99.