Luxor Amun Rising: on the Edge of Game and Movie

At first sight, Luxor: Amun Rising presents a colorful ball-popping arcade and in terms of game play it resembles the rest of ball-shooting arcades. So, while playing what you see is an  ancient labyrinth with a great number of multicolored spheres moving along it.

The point of the game is to clear the playfield and not to let any of the spheres slip to the end of the playfield which would equal to a foul.

Shoot all the balls in a chain and prevent them from entering the pyramid

However, the game has a heroiñ appeal underneath this ball-shooting fun. A player is called to save the Ancient Egypt by defeating enemy at numerous locations. Thus, as you move through the game, you travel along the map of Ancient Egypt shooting balls in different places.

The second version of Luxor: Amun Rising doesn't differ much from its prequel when it comes to the general idea. However, Mumbo Jumbo, the developer of Luxor game series, have added new 88 levels featuring improved graphics, which was very warmly accepted by the gamer audience, who has already tried the first version of Luxor. On the whole...

As you start the game with the sound on, look through the map and proceed to ball shooting - you feel as if you were watching a movie.

A colorful interface, solid combination of game video and sound, unpredictable ball motion - it all are Luxor: Amun Rising's pros.

Game rules are very simple. A player has to shoot at the balls running along the labyrinth with the balls of the same color released from his scarab. As three balls of the same color appear together, they are removed from the playing field. The point is to shoot all the balls in a chain and prevent them from entering the pyramid. Use a left mouse click to shoot, and right-click to swap between the missile balls.

It all sounds quite simple and is pretty easy to do on the first levels of the game. However, if you read through player reviews on the I-net on Luxor: Amun Rising, you will find that the main drawback of the game is that some of the levels are made too complicated and one has to play them for several times before they're able to continue to the next level. Some players who tried Luxor: Amun Rising and got stuck at a level say they quickly lose their interest in this game. However, if you are determined to stand up to the end, no in-game challenges would scare you.

Sometimes you get a feeling: it's not a PC screen you are shooting the balls on, but a wall of some Ancient Egyptian temple.

Game graphics in Luxor: Amun Rising deserves a fair praise. Multicolor balls, the way they move at unpredictably varying speed attract a player. Moreover, background paintings on every level are state-of-art pictures made in the manner of the paintings on the walls of ancient pyramids. They look so genuine and seem to be carved out of stone. Sometimes you get a feeling, it's not a PC screen you are shooting the balls on, but a wall of some Ancient Egyptian temple.

One more exciting feature of the game graphics is its amazing video-effects such as explosions, flashes, shots etc. All of these are new features of Luxor: Amun Rising along with the new power-ups, which brighten the game play and motivate a player by extra score.

Luxor: Amun Rising is a truly interesting sequel of Luxor. Though no major changes have been made about the game, a developer has managed to create a multilevel challenge that is of a great interest to all arcade game fans.