7 Wonders: Ancient Alien Makeover

7 Wonders: Ancient Alien Makeover
by MumboJumbo - October, 2012

Series: 7 Wonders (aka 7 Wonders of the Ancient World), 7 Wonders II, 7 Wonders: Treasures of Seven, 7 Wonders: Magical Mystery Tour, 7 Wonders: Ancient Alien Makeover

Available at:
Big Fish as Standard Edition
GameHouse as Premium Edition / Standard Edition
iWin as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
Steam as Standard Edition



First contact with aliens changes the world more than ever thought possible!  In exchange for gold and precious gems to repair their craft, the aliens share their technology to construct ancient megalithic sites and super-charge the earth.  Match runes to collect the materials needed to build the Temple of Solomon, GöbekliTepe, Puma Punku and Ancient Dwarka among others as you develop a breathtaking kingdom with palaces, gardens, and statues of gold!  With 56+ levels of addicting (and challenging!) levels, 7 mystical locations to create, and brain teasing mini-games, you're going to have a blast!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• 3 extra Wonders of Angkor Wat, Baalbek and Nineveh
  
• Draftsmen bios
  
• Before & after sketches
  
• Wallpapers
  
• Screensavers
  

Click images to enlarge

7 Wonders: Ancient Alien Makeover (Match-3)
Steam interface does not work with this title

Options include separate sliders for music and sound, full-screen/Windowed, wide-screen, tips on or off, and a handy ? button which will give you an easy-to-understand guide on how the game works.

At the beginning of each Wonder you will have a choice of difficulty:  Zen (untimed), Normal, Advanced, and Insane.

Most of us know how match-3 games work, so I'll skip to some specifics.  Each Wonder has 7+ levels of basic swap-to-match gameplay, but with the addition of gathering resources to help build your Wonder.  A cornerstone will appear when you've cleared all of the tiles on the board, and the level will end when that stone reaches the bottom of the game board.  Gameplay on each Wonder does not end until you've collected and placed all of the building materials, which means that you'll need to collect the specified amount of resources per level (tracked at the top of the screen) in order to finish with a four-star rating (higher rating = more coins to spend - back to that later).  Building the Wonder itself can be done by manually clicking where you want the resources to go, or you can click on the "place all" button.

In addition, there are "colored cells" to collect during each Wonder.  To collect, simply make a match of the matching color over the top of the cell.  Gathering all of the cells will send you into a minigame where you have to drag-to-match gems in order to clear a path for your workers.  Doing so will gain you BLUEPRINTS, which will unlock new buildings for your city.

Ahh, I haven't mentioned the city yet.  There are multiple items to unlock whilst playing, including new buildings (see above), trophies (special decorations), and decorations that can be purchased with coins.  You have the freedom to choose where items are placed - to a point.  When you select an item, circles will appear on the screen showing you when you can add them.

Some of the buildings you unlock by finding blueprints will give you new mini-games to play... and completing all of the mini-games in those buildings will earn you a special decoration or new power-ups to use whist you're playing the main build-a-wonder gameplay!

Buildings with mini-games:

• Research Lab - Slide a block around to collect all of the stones.  There are traps built in, but you can easily re-set the board and start over.  Prize: Special decoration
  
• Diamond Mine - Ever played RSVP The Dinner Party Game?  It's kind of like that, except that you're matching colors and/or shapes.  I really enjoyed these mini's, as they're challenging, but not impossible.  Prize:  Each level you complete gains you a new Power-up!
  

Power-ups:

• Vertical Beam - destroy a whole column
  
• Color Annihilator - destroy all blocks of the color you choose
  
• Space Eater - Will eat random blocks on the board
  
• Laser Cutter - Slash blocks of your choosing
  
• Singled Out - Will remove any one block and/or collect a colored cell for you without having to match over it
  
• Teleport - Exchange any two blocks
  
• X Tesla - X-shaped blast from your chosen point of origin
  
• Nova Bomb - blast a 3x3 area
  

There are 26 in-game / Steam achievements, and while two of them were grindy, they didn't take that long once I switched to Zen mode.  That's right... Perfect game #14 for genkicoll   There is also an in-game hi-score board for the competitive members of your household.

This is an entertaining title with various mechanics to break up the gameplay and keep you from losing interest... Not to mention nice the Wonders look when they're completed!  Definitely recommended to match-3 fans :D