Babel Deluxe

Swan reporting in for today !

Today’s review covers the pinnacle of all word games. In fact, by buying this one word game, you’ll receive twenty-five different games in one – each with their own levels!

It’s so extensive, that I’ve had to play with it for days in order to test it out efficiently. Some business software doesn’t even take me that long!

Then again it’s a game, so it fits into the ‘poor me’ category, for having to spend so much time in reviewing the software.

Some games combine words with puzzles and some games involve the keyboard instead of the mouse – so skills (or budding skills) in in these areas, would be well employed.

Developer/Distributors: Zylom

System Requirements: 500MHz Pentium or equivalent

Operating Systems: Windows 98; Windows ME; Windows 2000; Windows XP

Tested on: Windows XP Pro
Processor: Athlon 64

As the game launches, you realize that you’re entering a desert with a couple of palm trees and a tall leaning tower in the background. Clouds gently float by as birds fly in the distance – the scene is inviting with its warm colors and serene animation.

 

If anyone remembers their Bible, they’ll recall that Babel was the place where G-d bestowed the human race with different languages, because they tried to build a tower up to the gods. After this, the builders could no longer speak to one another, so construction on the tower ended.

Well I promise you that you won’t end up speaking Swahili as a result of playing this game! In fact your word and puzzle skills are the most important part of the play.

In my brief preamble I mentioned that Babel is a collection of twenty-five games, all divided into five different categories. You’ll find all of the games reasonably easy during their first or even second rounds, but each game becomes more challenging as you progress further – even for the wordsmith!

Main Menu:

 

Settings:

 

There are slider controls for the [music] and [sound effects] (SFX;) toggles for [full screen] or [window;] [tips] on or off and a button to view the [credits]. I know that many people don’t bother with the credits, but I’d at least recommend graphic artists to take a look, as its presentation alone is eye-candy and well done.

Help:

If you’re not familiar with word games, you might want to consider playing with the [Tips] on for a short while – or you could just absorb the three pages contained in the short [Help] file.

The page also greets you with bright colors, and has a slider along the edge to scroll down to the end of each page.

Graphics:

The graphics are just lovely. They all have crisp clean edges with no anti-aliasing issues. They present and load very quickly on my machine and all render extremely well at any resolution.

It’s a pleasure for the gamer to play, with such a beautiful backdrop of professional graphics. My kudos goes to the graphic designer of Babel.

Music:

This music definitely wasn’t a favorite of mine. Imagine a belly dancer frantically trying to keep up with the music. I normally enjoy Middle Eastern music, but this selection was too fast and became repetitive very quickly. It wasn’t long before I was racing to the [Settings] screen to turn the music off.

 

It would have been nice to be able to choose from a selection of Middle Eastern music, with selections being more conducive to the thinking involved with word games. If Zylom had of made the music files in the .ogg format, the player would also have been able to substitute the music with their own. Personally I’d have replaced mine with Enya, (easier to think!) even if it didn’t match the desert theme.

As it is now, the music is distracting during play. As many new games today are actually providing several pieces of music for the player to use, this would definitely be my recommended option with Babel also.

 

Game Mode:

 

There are three game modes to choose from, [All Games;] [1 Category;] and [1 Game.] The significance of these becomes more apparent when you play, but basically you can choose between, playing a selection of all the word games in the software; playing only one category of games or; playing only one type of game in a category.

This is very handy depending on the amount of time you have available to you at any one session.

 

I would recommend playing all the games first, to get a feel for what will be expected of you to build your tower. Eg: choosing the one game option would be perfect if you only have a limited amount of time to play, such as during a lunch hour at work etc.

 

Clicking the [All Games] option brings you to a screen where you will see the highest scores.

This is created graphically, showing you one tower for each player. The higher you score, the higher your tower will be shown.

 

 

New Game Screen:

 

As you can see here, five category headings sit atop five columns. Each column holds options for five different games. There is a flashing box that travels very quickly around the screen, until you click [Start.] As you click, the flashing box will stop on a game in any category, and you will have selected which game to play.

Playing field and Game Play:

There are all kinds of games, including a couple of retro ones such as word search and letter memory, however the majority of the games are all original.

 

As you play and succeed, coins are collected and thrown into the glass jar to the right. These are to pay for each new level of the tower. The more coins collected, the larger the level you can build and the higher your tower becomes.

If you fail and don’t collect enough coins to continue building, along with the loss of all your stability stars (explained later,) your tower collapses (quite dramatically!) and the entire game ends (not just the level.)

You’ll also see at the top of the screen, your [Stability] rating, shown as 5 bright stars. When you don’t succeed in one game, you could lose either one or two stars, depending on how many coins you have collected. If you lose all five stars, your tower will collapse and that will be the end of the entire game.

 

However, you can earn your stars back, before you lose them all, by doing extremely well and filling your money jar to the top again in the next game. Filling it almost to the top, will gain back one stability star – all the way to the top, will give back two.

 

You will see golden keys to the left which will unlock other games, as only a few will be available to you when you first begin to play. If you want to try the other games, you will need to collect these. Oddly enough, there is no explanation in the [Help] file as to how these keys are collected. However, as I played, I found two magically released and two other game types became available to me.

 

To the right of the playing field is your money jar, keep an eye on it while you play to see how many coins you’ve earned.

 

You should also watch the hour glass shown on the left side of the screen. If all the sand runs out, your game has ended and you will have to make do with the amount of coins you’re left with in the money jar. You may also gain or lose stars, depending on the amount of coins you have left.

 

At the end of each game, you return to the flashing [New Game] screen to choose another game, which could be the same or a different one, in a different category, depending upon where the flashing box stops when you click [Start.]

 

In the long run, if you lose all your stability stars, you’re kaput!

My only suggestions to the developer would be:

• Provide several selections of music for the gamer to choose;

• Some of the word games involve typing, others involve clicking. During the keyboard games, the player should be able to stay on the keyboard instead of having to move to the mouse at various intervals.

 

 

Price:

 

The price varies depending upon which game website you go to. I searched and checked out several sites, with Real Arcade being by far the cheapest price at US$14.99

 

 

• Gamehead: (An Australian site:) AUD$26.99

• Windows Marketplace: $US 19.99

This game is a keeper. Babel Deluxe will provide literally many hours of mind probing, enjoyable game play and it will definitely stay in my games folder for future enjoyment.

 

I have tested this game for days and the game plays well with no crashes or other bugs experienced at all. With great programming; beautiful graphics; smooth animation and its addictive play, you’ll definitely want Babel Deluxe in your games folder.

Points:

• Design: 9/10

• Enjoyment: 10/10

• Graphics: 8/10

• Animation: 10/10

• Music: 3/10

• Originality: 8/10

 

Game Recommended.

Developer contacted about review and invited to make comments.

Whew! This was a lengthy review, but you will understand when you download a trial or when you buy the game yourself.

 

Have fun!

 

~ Swan

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