Luxor 2 Review

By Dave McCarthy Published 11 April, 2007

Inexorable balls.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. It's also one of those casual games available on the internet, that also mustered a release in the shops and on the PSP. Now it has a sequel that's available on Xbox Live. Having played through it though, it's difficult to see why somebody thought such a sequel would be necessary. It's even more difficult to see why someone thought such a sequel would be suited to Xbox Live (except for the fact that the associated fanfare when it went up would shift a few more micropayments). Luxor 2's natural habitat is the office, tucked away in a window that can be handily alt-tabbed away when a colleague strays too close. It might be perfect for soaking up the hours in the office, but devoting your free time to it just feels wrong.

It's basically the same game as the original Luxor, which was the same game as Zuma, which was the same game as Puzz Loop, which means it's a bit like Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble but different. You shoot coloured balls at a snaking line of other coloured balls in order to make those coloured balls disappear before they go too far. Firing off a coloured ball to make a cluster of three or more coloured balls will make those coloured balls disappear, and as they disappear they might create a chain effect of other clusters of disappearing coloured balls - a 'combo', if you will. Linking together combos produces various sorts of power-up, which variously freeze or slow the advance of the coloured balls, or randomly destroy some of them. And occasionally some treasure will fall down the screen to grant you more points or extra lives.

'Luxor 2' Screenshot 2

Luxor is served by Luxor International Airport.

The main difference between this and Zuma is that the shooting thingie (or 'mystical winged scarab' as the press release puts it) whizzes along the bottom of the screen instead of rotating in the middle. Annoyingly, this means that whenever your Xbox decides to tell you that one of your friends has just joined you online, you can't see what coloured ball it is your thingie is firing. Equally annoyingly, pressing the Left Stick for too long will make your mystical winged scarab whizz too fast. And it's not always easy to interpret the game's backgrounds. The game's balls snake inexorably around various different maps, looping over and under various obstacles, but it's not always easy to tell what they're going to go under and what they're going to go over. Consequently, it's not always easy to tell where your coloured balls are going to end up when you fire them off.

'Luxor 2' Screenshot 1

Luxor is a popular holiday destination, both in its own right and as a starting or finishing point for Nile cruises.

The main part of the game sees a seemingly-never-ending series of these maps tied together into an Adventure mode. What that means is that each map is prefaced by a little graphic showing your progress along the Nile, and every so often your progress is punctuated by an occasional bonus round in which you fire daggers instead of balls (which means it feels more like a rudimentary Galaga clone). And if you didn't know that the Nile is very long before you played Luxor 2, boy will you know it by the time you've finished it. As the Adventure mode progresses, the game's difficulty increases: the use of perspective in some maps makes the game's snaking balls appear smaller, and more complicated maps introduce more going over and under. At certain points newly coloured balls are introduced, and they start to move more quickly.

'Luxor 2' Screenshot 3

Luxor isn’t as good when you can’t alt-tab it out of sight.

But the chief difficulty is simply sustaining your interest. It's boring and easy, and it takes too long. It takes too long to play through individual levels because they can take up to ten minutes to play through with little variation over those ten minutes. It's just inexorably snaking balls. And it takes too long to play through the whole Adventure mode because the maps start to repeat themselves after a tiny fraction of the way, and it doesn't start to get remotely difficult until after abut six or seven hours in. Or you can choose a higher difficulty level and just get frustrated when, after ten minutes of staring at snaking balls, you have to start again.

There are other modes of play: Survival mode, which takes place over a single map, or Pharaoh's Challenge, which is basically the Galaga clone from the Adventure mode's bonus rounds. But ultimately Luxor 2 isn't a game that tests your skill, or your intellect; it's a game that tests how much time you've got on your hands. Taken out of its native habitat it loses its sense of purpose. It's a game which just takes up some of your life instead of adding anything to it.

4 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Dave McCarthy

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Comments (27) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tonka #1 5 years ago

    LOLLERSKATES

  • enzima #2 5 years ago

    wow, so harsh! i find this game fun, and the missus loves it! not so bad, imo

  • OllyJ #3 5 years ago

    yeah my missus got me to buy it, she's played it loads, prefers it to Zuma.

    she'd say it was an 8/10 and I believe that's who this game is aimed at.

  • rudedudejude #4 5 years ago

    4/10 it maybe, but this will keep my g/f hooked for a guaranteed minimum 10 hours a week, which gives me a break!!!

    You should of seen when she found Zuma, I had countless g/f free nights, it was great!

    10/10

  • The_Programmer #5 5 years ago

    Well I think that this type of game proves that you've got the wrong person reviewing it. Most of the women I know love the game so perhaps you whould get a woman to review these type of games.

  • DeveloperPump #6 5 years ago

    OllyJ

    I totally agree with you, sir. My missus and kids love this game, simply because it IS easy. They liked Zuma, but found the rotation more difficult than the linear movement of this one.

    Personally, I think it's great that MS are doing some decent casual-stylee games on XBLA as it's entertaining for non-hardcore gamers. If my missus plays the console for hours, then she CAN'T complain when I play my l33t manly games for hours.

    Oh yes...

  • Xerx3s #7 5 years ago

    I quite like these type of games. :(

  • keenest #8 5 years ago

    Loved the game. Spend way too many hours playing to over the long Easter Weekend.

  • DeveloperPump #9 5 years ago

    "which means it's a bit like Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble but different."

    Idiot...

  • hzx #10 5 years ago

    My girl played through all the 123 levels in the PSP version and loved it.

  • SBfistfun #11 5 years ago

    "More Like SUXOR OMG! LOL! "

    superroflmao adventure

    wow, so harsh! i find this game fun, and the missus loves it!

    Bet she does...
    Edited by 1 at 11/04/07 @ 15:22

  • BremXJones #12 5 years ago

    I quite liked the earlier Luxors actually.

    KG

  • enzima #13 5 years ago

    @ SBfistfun

    superroflmao adventure

    Wha are you, like 12?

  • SeesThroughAll #14 5 years ago

    4/10 simply sounds harsh.

  • OllyJ #15 5 years ago

    the thing my missus appreciates is that you can quit and resume from where you left off the following day!

    So any issues about adventure mode being too long is invalid, you just play it over a whole week, then try again with a new game next week trying to get higher on that weeks leaderboard.

    Plus she's ace at it so I predict a top 500 place easily....

  • NewYork #16 5 years ago

    LUXX0R

  • aine #17 5 years ago

    "which means it's a bit like Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble but different."

    Idiot...

    Well, he's right. When I first saw Puzzloop in an arcade in the 90s, I thought "Bust-a-Move in a circle". And that's pretty much what it is. You fire balls at other balls to match up three of the same colour. The balls just happen to be on a track going around the ball-shooting mechanism, rather than descending from above it.
    Edited by 1 at 11/04/07 @ 18:08

  • JediMasterMalik #18 5 years ago

    I'd say that reviews are simply opinions, but it's been said so many times it wouldn't matter.

  • pancho #19 5 years ago

    Yes, but the point is that not all opinions are equal.

  • DrunKao #20 5 years ago

    I am disappointed by this review. I really enjoyed Luxor 2 when I played it. I also purchased Zuma and actually thought Luxor was better. It's more fun to actually be able to scroll across the screen rather than just rotate the frog mouth. The powerups and bonuses and also the trigger dash/boost makes Luxor 2 more enjoyable than Zuma for me. How can this game be scored so low in relation to Zuma?

  • Bongo #21 5 years ago

    If one more person suggests that Eurogamer "look at their review process" again, I'm going to kill them.
    It's a review. It's a guide. It's not the law. If you disagree, well done, that's fine. Don't post on here saying the review is "wrong". IT CAN'T BE WRONG, IT'S AN OPINION.

  • MtSaintMichel #22 5 years ago

    I'm new to the series would I be missing something if I played this one first???

  • tubeoftoothpaste #23 5 years ago

    I love this game - its a very enjoyable puzzler and the levels are not confusing nor does the thing whizz too fast at all. Its paces well and is much more exciting than Zuma. 8/10

  • casmaksen #24 5 years ago

    had to jump in and show my support for this game. I'm a fan of ZUMA so's my girl and Luxor ads more to it in my opinion (thought im not a fan of the music i use my own).
    I don't think the review score needs to be changed as it is the reviewers own opinion but i guess and as long as a review covers everything it should and gives intelligent reasons it's all good.

    I guess the ideal situation is to have atleast 2 opinions on each review like EGM as games like these ("casual";) and wrestling games for example have their audiences and a lot of the times the games may have bad reviews especially wrestling games but the fans of the genre are ready to lap it up cause they like them for what they are.

    That said this is an online review and i guess the audience is expected to browse multiple sources for reviews.

  • theidiotsarewinning #25 5 years ago

    "Well perhaps Eurogamer should have a look at its reviewing process... Right now it is an "Art" (what ever that means). How about something a little more quantifiable and creditable?"

    whatever THAT means.

    tit.
    Edited by 1 at 12/04/07 @ 10:37

  • Bongo #26 5 years ago

    They should do away with review scores altogether, and just have icons for different positions from the Kama Sutra at the bottom instead. That'd convey what you need to know about the game.
    Too easy? Use the Missionary icon.

    I'd like to see the one they'd use for Gears Of War.

  • Dave_Taurus #27 5 years ago

    @insane_cobra

    Perhaps I should clarify what I meant by the bit about not suitable for Marketplace. What I meant was that the game has very little merit. You might be able to get away with that on a PC, for free, because people will be playing it simply to pass the time they should be working. But on Xbox Live, when there are so many other games competing for your time, it seems like a waste of that time to spend it on Luxor 2.

    As for 'doesn't like games of this type', I guess if you mean games of the type that have little merit, you're right. If you're talking about puzzle games, you're wrong: my favourite games include Slitherlink, Picross DS, Lumines, Gunpey, Puzzle Bobble, all of which bear some degree of comparison in terms of genre. Just not in terms of quality.