Jokers Quest

Supplier:PDAmill
Product:Jokers Quest
Cost: $19.95 for pocketpc and $9.95 for Smartphone


"PDAmill", even saying their name brings to mind games such as Snails , Gamebox Solitaire and Flux Challenge to name just a couple. These are great games that have allowed PDAmill to earn their reputation for delivering great, high quality games.

I'd like to thank Tom Frigyes of PDAmill for the review opportunity.

Read on to see if this latest game- Jokers Quest allows them to retain this reputation.







Getting it.
At 3.73MB this download is reasonably bandwidth friendly, however the installed footprint is 5.04MB which is a rather large bite of available memory for those without expansion cards. That said, once you've seen and played this game you'll probably delete others to reclaim enough space to enjoy this to it's fullest! This game is available in Trial version which I highly recommend.

Starting and learning.
On the initial and each subsequent startup, a rather lengthy introduction animation explains the story and its characters. This can be skipped to put you at the main menu screen. From here you can access the new game, settings, game load, help, scenes, high scores and exit commands. I suggest you start with the tutorial game which gives a great insight into the game, it's controls, reward structure and characters. By now, you'll also have heard the sound track music, which in my opinion is pretty damn good! Steel Drums and a great melody add to the nautical ambient effect.

You are Joker, a clown fish (gettit?) normally the Court Jester from the elusive Kingdom of Luphia. You are the kingdoms second choice (due to illness!) to rescue the princess and recover the light pearls. Sounds easy? ...






Easy Peasy
Navigating around the game screen is via d-pad or stylus. I found stylus navigation to be too awkward to use effectively and accurately but d-pad works well for me. The object of the game is to collect the pearls, avoid the bullies, pick up the rewards and bonuses and make your way to the exit without losing your life! While the basic plot of the game is easy to understand, and it's also easy to play, it does get progressively harder and harder to complete the levels. This brings a challenge which I personally enjoy when playing Jokers Quest.

Playing.
The in-game surrounding graphics are nicely rendered and the characters are well animated throughout. The sounds during the game are very fitting and remind me a little of the sounds heard playing Snails and as I particularly liked those I find these are pretty good too. Even my baby daughter had a little dance along to the music!

Your progress through the game is measured in a number of ways, you firstly have a score that relates to the number of pearls you pick up, additionally you can collect the sea horses to unlock further puzzles and bosses. Lastly you lose strength as you encounter the nasties but after beating a level with more strength and a higher score that the previous time a little animated Joker will pop up and exclaim that you have a new level record. .:Cool:.







Puzzled!
Within each level you are free to roam around the screen as you wish, you do have a finite amount of time to complete the level and I've run out on a number of occasions which results in a large 'You Lose' animation and a subsequent dead-fish-with-wings picture, or an Angel Fish if you will! - This is really apt


From the in-game menu you can tap on the puzzles option which will reveal the required number of sea-horses needed to access the puzzle, the picture represents the boss that I must face next. As you'll see from my screen shots I've just made it this far.

Additionally there are various in-game objects that you can control like switches that open sea shells on one side of the sea bed while closing another. Or stones that can be pushed through the pearl plants to make enough Pearls to let you out of the level. There's also bombs that you arm then detonate remotely to clear the way of enemies, or stones, or other items blocking the way. There's even a missile that you launch to do some more serious damage! It's all highly entertaining really and more too, you must learn to control these objects and use them appropriately when required, too soon and you'll not clear the level, too late and you might remove the last needed Pearl or block yourself in.


Speed.
Absolutely required, you need to move quickly to avoid falling stones, bullies and enemies that might inflict harm on your or otherwise disrupt you in your quest to free the Princess Sephine from the evil clutches of the manical octopus!

Longevity
Tons and tons, with multiple worlds to roam through, a princess to free and bosses to defeat this game will keep you coming back, it's one of those where you just have to get to the next level, or if you are like me, I just have to go back and try to get that extra pearl or the hard to reach sea horse.

Variance
There's plenty of variance in the game, the in-game graphics are varied through each level with new enemies and objects appearing as the difficulty increases. The game screen remains the same graphically, but the actual play area increases and you scroll up/down left and right to see the entire sea bed. Within the levels there are various objects that can help you, one such object is the Telescope which when used allows you to pause the game and scroll around the entire playing area to see whats waiting for you. It's added touches like this that make the game varied and interesting to play without being overly repetitive. The additional worlds are unlocked as you progress and provide a different backdrop to the game play screen.





Conclusion
An easy game to pick up and learn, the tutorial is very helpful and fun to play while expanding the story a bit at a time. The slow release of new characters to help or hinder your quest adds to the enjoyment. The soundtrack and in-game sounds are really good. Game progress is measured in a number of different ways and over all this is a great game! At the moment it's entirely captured my attention much to the annoyance of my wife. It's not that she wants me to do anything, it's just that she wants to play too! PDAmill have a great hit on their hands with this game, simply put it's just a really fun game to play!

Thanks once again to PDAmill for the opportunity to review this game.

Here's a animated gif of the screens taken for this review that I've not already shown.

For
• Excellent Tutorial.
• Progress opens new characters and puzzles.
• Easy to understand and play.
• Good graphics and sound.
• Addictive!

Against
• Stylus Navigation is poor.
• I sometimes have to share with my wife!




4WM Rating 95%