Calavera: Day of the Dead

Calavera: Day of the Dead
by Taba Games - June, 2013

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



She said yes! Alan was finally going to marry his sweetheart, Catalina. She only had one small request before the wedding, to ask for her father’s blessing. The young couple travels to the small town in Mexico where her father is from, arriving just in time for the annual Day of the Dead celebration. But when he doesn’t meet them at the train station, that’s only the beginning of their problems. Is it just the heat, or did that book talk to you? And that guy is definitely wearing a skeleton mask, right? Cross the border between life and death in this festive Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game.

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Festive collectables and achievements!
  
• Quirky atmosphere and funny characters!
  
• Travel to the Land of the Dead!
  
• Unlockable arcade mini-games
  

For the Standard Edition

• Strategy Guide
  
• Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Is this the same developers as the other ones offered in the bundle? I think it's Cats of Ulthar and Secrets of the Seas: Flying Dutchman?  For some reason I've always passed on those games. Not sure why. I'd welcome any input from those who have played them.  

This Day of the Dead one is tempting me just because of the theme.

Yes, it is the same developer, Taba Games.  I liked Ghost Towns: The Cats of Ulthar. I played (and finished!) the SE.  It still had the collectible cats to find, and I actually found them all!  I thought it was a very good game. I didn't like the demo of Calavera though, not even enough to wait and get the SE.  Just something about it I didn't like.

I liked Cats of Ulthar.  You can take a look at my review HERE, as a lot of people were worried about this game.

A Different Style In A Different Place  
   

BASED ON COMPLETED CE GAME

Nice to get into a totally DIFFERENT CULTURE with this game. Although I am sure many people in the southern US states are familiar with the Festival of the Dead, there is little the rest of us know about it, so it is unexplored territory for many. The general TONE of the game is REFRESHING too, it is HUMOROUS throughout, a dry wit not at all cartoonish, as the few funny games I’ve played seem to be.

The STYLE of GAMEPLAY was a little DIFFERENT too. The MINI-GAMES included ARCADE-STYLE games, which were REWORKED to make them easy enough for PLAYERS LIKE ME, who wouldn’t get past the first level of a genuine arcade game. They took the form of games where you needed to time your response to bring it in within a given range. Some were also timed, but not restrictively so.

The HOS were of the INTERACTIVE LIST type. The ADVENTURE gameplay was not difficult, and you had a INTERACTIVE JUMP MAP & “THE GUIDE to the LAND of the DEAD”. This CHARACTER functions as HINT, COMPANION & JOURNAL – also useful as COMIC RELIEF.

One of the things I really liked about this game is the GRAPHICS. They were not in themselves spectacular, but they were a bit different from the norm, well done, and BRIGHT & CHEERFUL. All objects, in and out of HOS were easily seen and clear. The various CHARACTERS throughout the game were very well conceived and their ANIMATIONS were EXCELLENT, and so were their VOICEOVERS. I just loved those guys, they really made the game.

The MUSIC was APPROPRIATE to the environment, but I found it annoying from time to time.

The CE game offers many EXTRAS, such as collectibles and achievements, but the BONUS CHAPTER is NOT NECESSARY to a satisfying conclusion to the game. I must admit I was happy to have the chance to collect all the decorated sugar skulls, which were an eye-opener!

For half the cost, I think this game is easily as good value as the CE.

I recommend this game!

Calavera: Day of the Dead CE (IHOG)

Options include separate sliders for sound effects and music, plus full screen, widescreen, low quality, and custom cursor.  The game automatically adjusted for my widescreen resolution.  There are three difficulties to choose from:  Casual, Advanced, and Hard, and the mode you choose will affect whether or not there is a misclick penalty, among other things.  As usual I went with middle-of-the-road with Advanced.  The tutorial is optional (and probably not available in Hard Mode.)

The inventory bar is retractable, but can be locked in an open position.

The very first mini-game we need to do is timed and requires reflexes.  On the plus side, with it being so early in the game, you'll know right away if you're able to do the game on Hard Mode (which has no skip available.)  If you can handle this one, you should be able to get past the other activity-based minis peppered through the game.

The HOS are very lightly interactive, and the final item you find will be the one that ends up in your inventory.

Using a HINT during the adventure portion of the game will give you both a directional arrow and a comment from our Guide.  For example, "Let's head to the tomb."

We have an interactive MAP with a jump-to option.  Your current location will have a slight glow around it, and any location that has possible actions will have an exclamation mark by it.

Our journal serves as both story-tracker and companion.  The Guide Book of the Dead is quite the character    and the notations in the book can be a lot of fun to read.  Everything we see will be marked in the book, but it's full of hints, and the black bar hints are pretty blatant, as well.   Hopefully they're not so in-your-face on Hard Mode!

I had a few irritating moments with the game.  First off is the fact that sometimes clicking on the background will close a pop-up scene, and sometimes it doesn't.  Second is the fact that some of the mini-games rely on your reflexes.  I'm not bad at this kind of thing, but I have friends who like to play on the hardest mode, but wouldn't be able to since they don't have the reflexes to do those minis, and they're not skippable in hardest mode!    Even I got impatient with the touchy controls on the final mini game and skipped it.  HINT:  There are four buttons there, and the bottom two don't always do what you want right away

I loved the original setting and art style the used for the game, and despite my small gripes, I thought the gameplay was very good.

CE Extras:

• Integrated Strategy Guide
  
• Bonus Chapter
  
• 26 Collectible Sugar Skulls  
  
• 16 Documents (surely this is part of the SE gameplay, but there's an achievement for finding them all)
  
• 20 Achievements
  
• 11 Wallpapers (Some in-game screens, but quite a few originals)
  
• 5 Music Tracks (does not have a save-to-computer option)
  
• 2 "Papercraft" - complete instructions to make 3D paper versions of the Guide Book and Train from the game
  

All extras are available at the beginning of gameplay, except for the bonus chapter.

The strategy guide will stay open to where you left it, and collectibles are shown in a separate section.  Very nice if you need a nudge on gameplay, but want to find all of the collectibles yourself.

I missed two of the sugar skulls, and I know exactly where one of them was (guess you had to click in exactly the right spot, 'cause I know I clicked there at least five times!) but no idea where the last one was.  You want to look for one on every single scene, and make SURE that you find them on the first two scenes you visit, for you won't be able to return to them later!

I came nowhere close to getting all of the achievements!

Bonus chapter:
You get the choice of difficulty level again for the bonus chapter, in case you've changed your mind  

The main game has a satisfactory ending, but the bonus picks up right where it left off, telling us of our final journey.  All of the locations are new, and though there aren't that many, when you include the zoom-ins and HOS, it feels like there are a lot.  I may have liked the bonus even more than the main game, though it wasn't all that long.

I definitely recommend giving it a try!  

Great review genki!!

I really liked the originality of this game, and didn't even mind the physical puzzles - even though I'm worse at them than regular puzzles, and they are often beyond me.

And I loved the sugar skulls! I never knew about that tradition - makes me wish I could go there on hols.