Heart of the Moon:  The Mask of Seasons     


Developer:         Unikgame

Other Games:    Brickquest 1 & 2  -  Mystika 1, 2 &3  -  MagikWord  -  Rockstory

Released:           BFG  -  11 July 2018

Blurb:

Clara and her adoptive father have discovered the location of an ancient artefact called the Mask of Seasons hidden in a temple on an island in the middle of the Pacific.  Legend tells that this Mask is responsible for the extreme weather conditions there.

Collect resources, find various artifacts and weapons, defeat your enemies in epic battles and find enough gold to restore the island.

But above all, get your hand on this incredibly powerful Artifact:  The Mask of Seasons!

    *    200 Innovative and dynamic levels
    *    Spot the difference and hidden object scenes
    *    Collect resources
    *    Help the inhabitants restore their island


Genre:    Mainly M3  -  with some digging M3s, HOS, STD, Battles 

Modes:    Timed and Untimed

Graphics:    Good  -  not HD quality (slightly blurry) but good and I liked them

Music:    Very good  -  not annoying at all

Map:    Shows the levels and which type of MG, the buildings you have to rebuild as you collect resources, etc.

Along the Top of the Screen:    On the Left  -  Level and Score  -  On the Right  -  Gold, Wood and Stone

Trophy Button:    Your score on the Leaderboard  -  and 10 Achievementst

Achievements:    10  -  each achievement has 7 stars (levels) as you accumulate/achieve whatever it is

    -    Your Score
    -    Destroy Chains
    -    Complete Quests
    -    Activate Traps
    -    Destroy Rocks
    -    Money  (collect Credits)
    -    Launch Darts
    -    Win Stars
    -    Collect Resources
    -    Defeat Monsters

Comments:   in no particular order, just as I jotted them down as I played

 1.    Knowing which levels are which minigame on the map, you can go back at anytime to play your favourites.

 2.    In the M3, you can change the shape of the board!  I've never seen that before.  It's the only powerup that you don't earn on the board by making matches - the powerup fills up as you make matches and as soon as it's filled you can use it.  And, as it fills really quickly, you can basically use it at will.  Each time you change the shape of the board (to help you when you get stuck but I often just changed it because it was fun!), it switches back and forth between 2 forms, and each board has a different shape and changes into another different shape.  And the changes are different for each board - sometimes whole sections will just move, sometimes single tiles, sometimes blocked tiles will also move - always on the outside of the board.  I found this really helpful when there were no immediate matches, especially when blocked tiles were in the corners, and it was fun!

 3.    Some board have brightly coloured tiles, which you use in matches at your peril!  Sometimes they help you by melting ice blocks, or using boulders to break other blocked tiles, getting rid of blocked tiles that surround one of these tiles.  Other times it's quite the opposite.  They may turn tiles around them into blocked tiles - encasing them in ice, etc.  You can either take the risk and use them in matches and see what happens, or explode them with powerups that you've created on the board and get rid of them.  I ran out of time before I discovered if those already surrounded by blocked tiles got rid of those blockages for you, and those with no blocked tiles around them created blockages all around them, but that's possible.  Then you'd know which to use and which to blow up.

 4.    You have to restore the island as and when you have enough resources.  You restore buildings, a boat, etc.

 5.    There's one of my fav M3s  -  when you have dirt at the bottom of the board and you have to make matches next to it to release resources that are buried in the ground.

 6.    Unfortunately, you can't swap 2 powerups to get a super blast like you can in other M3s.

 7.    You have the usual matches  -  M3, M4, M5 in an L or T shape, etc., each of which makes a different powerup.

 8.    As mentioned above, all bar one powerup are created on the board when you make matches, however, I ran out of time before I could work out which matches made which powerups.  However, some of them are bombs  -  the usual one that removes tiles around it, another that removes tiles in lines horizontally and vertically, another that removes tiles in lines diagonally to the left and right, another removes tiles in lines both horizontally/vertically and diagonally.

 9.    The blockages that I can across were  -  ice, chains, metal, with the usual coloured squares to remove.

10.    Score  -  Stars  -  you earn 1, 2 or 3 stars, depending on your time (I'm not sure about Untimed Mode).  If you don't get 3 stars and want to replay the level, you can either click on "Restart" before you finish the level in you've entered the 2-star zone in the time bar (which stretches across above the board), or you can choose to replay the level once you've finished and are back at the map, by simply clicking on that level and you will be asked if you want to replay that level.  When the timer runs down into the 2-star or 1-star zone, you'll hear a sound that alerts you, so you can continue or restart the level immediately.  However, you can replay any level at any time, so you can go back whenever you want to get 3 stars on any level.

11.    Score  -  Time  -  at the end of each level you not only get stars but also how long it took you to play the level.  I don't know if the actual time it takes you means anything or if you can just see how long it took you  -  ie. I don't know if you get more gold (credits) the shorter it took you, as it doesn't specify.  However, you can compete with the developers (or yourself if you play again) on the Leaderboard, found if you click on the Trophy Button, which shows your Score, or the gold (credits) you've collected.


Recommendation:    YES!

I loved this M3/HOS/STD/Battle game and can't wait until Monday when I can get it with a PCC.  The story is nothing new, the matches you can make are nothing new, the powerups are nothing new  -  but I loved being able to change the shape of the boards, which was really helpful and fun, switching back and forth at will, and I liked the different minigames.  It's mainly M3 but with some HOS, STD and Battles (no idea what these are as I never got that far) thrown in.  And you also get to restore the island, although you just click on a building when you have enough resources and it's restored, so nothing special, unfortunately.  And there are also 200 levels!  So, even though each level is pretty quick and, in the levels that I played, weren't super difficult, I'm expecting that they'll get harder and longer the more of the 200 levels you play.