Mundus: Impossible Universe 2 (Match-3)
There are a lot of things I love about this game, and some that I don't, so read on!
Options include separate sliders for Music and Sound, Full-screen, 11 languages, and a Graphics quality slider. Choice of four difficulties: Normal, Easy, Zen and Hard, which cannot be changed after starting. I went with Normal for this play-through.
There are five profile slots, each with its own cute avatar.
The goal is simple: Make matches, collect money and stars and buy improvements for four separate planets.
Gameplay:
The basic game mechanic is your standard swap-to-match 3+ of the same tile, but there's a whole lot more going on than that. In addition to both square and hexagonal swapping areas, we also have the following that can be level goals:
- Dropping masks to the bottom of the playing area
- Finding gold in earthen tiles
- Matching butterflies before they can escape
- Removing statues (make matches next to them three times to reveal the statues, but statues can only be removed in groups)
... There could be more, but I've only just started the fourth planet!
We also have a wide variety of obstacles. Besides the statues mentioned above, we also have:
- Colored tiles (three colors, each needing a different amount of matches in order to be cleared)
- Crates
- Stones
- Lava (only explosions can remove these)
- Earth
- Treadmill (moves pieces around)
- Frozen pieces
- Portals (drop in one portal and out another)
- Rugs(?) Not sure what else to call these - Match a set amount of a tile type to remove these
- Sacks (make a match with like-colored tiles to reveal the contents)
- Bamboo walls (can't move pieces past them, but can match through them. Remove with explosions)
In Normal Mode (the only one I've checked so far),
your moves are limited. You will have a new goal for each level, and only a certain number of moves to reach that goal.
If you don't accomplish what's needed, then it will ask you to spend gold to continue. The first time you fail, your purchase will get you an additional 5 moves, and each time you fail after that, you'll pay more but also get power-ups.
Power-ups:
You can earn power-ups on the board by matching 4 or more tiles. The bigger the match, the more powerful the power-up will be.
Additional power-ups have to be purchased, and this plus the cost of continuing a round can add up very quickly!
There is a failsafe in place so that you don't get stuck: When you've had to restart the level multiple times, the game will give you a free power-up... Provided that you don't already have one.
Money & Upgrades:
You will earn a minimum of
50 gold for passing a level. Any power-ups left on the board when you reach the level's goal will blow up, giving you more money. Once those all stop exploding, new bombs will be added to the board for each move that you had left when you finished the level's goal, giving you even more money.
Money-saving TIP: DON'T pay to continue unless you know that you can finish within the 5 allowed moves. Click on the x to close the box and start the level over from scratch. Yes you have to start over, but at least it's free!
For each level that you pass, you will earn
one star. Stars are used to upgrade the planet that you're currently visiting. Each upgrade costs a certain number of stars, and will make your planet that much more beautiful/fun/interesting. Some also include a power-up, which can definitely have an impact on your choice of what to upgrade next!
There's a hefty gold bonus when you completely upgrade a planet, as well.
Sights & Sounds:
I adore both the music and the graphics for this game. They are perfectly-suited to each other, and they just make me smile. Our guide is such an interesting character, and he has an inventive description for each and every upgrade.
Verdict:This is definitely a "just one more level" type of game. It's cute, it's fun, it's addictive... but some of the levels are way too hard to finish in the number of moves that you have, forcing you to pay for more turns and/or for power-ups. Despite this, as long as you are careful with your spending, you should have no trouble completing the game. I'd say that except for the occasional unbalanced challenge, this is really a fun game!
