Christmas Spirit: Oz 9+

Lots of Emerald City fun!! The story has been done many times before, but the scenery and decorations make it feel different. Good puzzles, as always from Domini, with casual and hard available for each one. Hops are list, silhouette, and replace the items. No glitches or problems with game mechanics. You collect emeralds, found in close-ups, which you then spend to buy decorations for your tree. A novelty I especially liked was the collecting, and setting off, of fireworks! Also Oz story pages to collect. While there are emeralds in every scene, the fireworks and pages are scattered, thus not detracting from the story much. The music is a nice touch, and when you solve a puzzle you get a nice sound, similar to the Awakening series. I felt the puzzle in which you untangle and place a cord along a series of houses was frustrating, as there are many ways to get it right, but only one solution is acceptable. But otherwise a solid, fun, and highly enjoyable game!

As far as I know, I’ve read all of the Oz books, and I found it interesting that you used Mombi as a character in this game. Your Mombi was much nicer (and prettier) than the one in the books. The puzzles were sometimes very difficult and other times rather easy. Something I particularly like about your games is that the wicked character always seems to get the chance to turn over a new leaf and be forgiven. This is a wonderful message, especially to younger players.

I would have given this game 5 stars (or at the very least 4) for its entertainment value, somewhat decent graphics and just over all experience. That is, until I finished the first 4 tasks. When you complete the 4th task it all of a sudden ends and you have to “unlock” the game by paying a premium. (To be honest I didn’t see anything about this being a premium game when I first downloaded because I just wanted to play something Christmas-like. It wasn’t until I came back to the App Store to see what happened that I noticed it has premium under the picture.) Now I know certain games cost but the premium for this game is $6.99!! I don’t know about you, but if I am going to pay that much for a game on my phone, I expect it to have AMAZING graphics and so much more to it than what it is. As a free game it was absolutely fine but nowhere near worth it as a premium game.