Luxor: Amun Rising HD

Same like the others I have reviewed in this series. But it still good fun.

A mobile port so good, it still asks you to rate it in the app store, then links you to iTunes.

A satisfying match-3 game that's neither too easy nor too hard.

Man, so much nostalgia. I first played this when I was six or so years old, probably on RealArcade or something. Revisiting it has been an absolute blast. I will always recommend this, especially if you enjoyed games like Zuma or TumbleBugs back in the day.

Luxor 1 & 2 plays better than this. Definitely not worth $10; get it on sale or from a bundle.

Luxor is one of those sagas that I used to play as a kid when I had time and nothing better to do. For better or for worse I've played 2, 3, Quest for the Afterlife, even the Mahjong version or the hidden object one and remember them fondly. Was it the gameplay? Not really. The story? There is barely one. So the presentation? Now we're talking. Luxor is one of those cases where the studio oversells an aesthetic but it somehow works because of how well crafted it is. Not only are the slick effects on point but the music in particular makes use of many instruments such as the harp, the flute and of course, the drums. Each beat and intensity is immediately transferred into the gameplay and you get sucked in into what otherwise would be a variant of Zuma. Indeed, this is a match 3 on rails as in you control a pad from the bottom of the screen that goes left and right and tries to match balls of the same color in order to prevent them getting into your pyramid. That's the gist of it so it is a challenge of speed, of what colors come up, how accurate you are, how you use the powerups you can gain after a 3 combo and most importantly what path do the balls take. And that in particul…