Lost Fortunes Review

Waking up at the carnival is never the sign of a good nights sleep, but waking up at the carnival with no recollection of who you are or how you got there?  That’s just trouble.  Lucky for you there’s a fortune teller ready to help you unravel this mystery in Lost Fortunes.  Play a variety of brain teasing mini-games to get the fortune teller’s tarot cards back and she’ll help you recover those lost memories…  or will she?

Trapped inside her crystal ball alongside the missing tarots are the spirits of seven unfortunate souls that have had the displeasure of falling for her trickery in the past.  Freeing these spirits, as well as the tarot cards, will help you in a final showdown against the disguised witch in a battle for your very own soul.

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Waking up at the carnival is never the sign of a good nights sleep, but waking up at the carnival with no recollection of who you are or how you got there?  That’s just trouble.  Lucky for you there’s a fortune teller ready to help you unravel this mystery in Lost Fortunes.  Play a variety of brain teasing mini-games to get the fortune teller’s tarot cards back and she’ll help you recover those lost memories…  or will she?

Trapped inside her crystal ball alongside the missing tarots are the spirits of seven unfortunate souls that have had the displeasure of falling for her trickery in the past.  Freeing these spirits, as well as the tarot cards, will help you in a final showdown against the disguised witch in a battle for your very own soul.

Each spirit and tarot is freed from her evil clutches by completing card-matching mini-games that range from Memory-inspired matching games to riddles and word association.  One puzzle, for example, may have you picking cards that correspond to clues like "in the United Kingdom, they call these crisps."  Another may have you matching picture cards depicting animals with word cards naming their young.  A picture of a kangaroo would match with the word Joey, that sort of thing. 

There are half a dozen or so types of mini-games that you’ll run through during the course of the game.  While this means you’ll be playing memory match-ups or what’s-different-in-this-picture type games over and over, each round of these is different enough from the last to never let the game feel repetitive.

Each of the seven spirit worlds offers up seven mini-games, with each worlds puzzles more challenging than the last.  As you work your way through the levels the game suggests that it’s not essential for you complete to complete every single mini-game.  After completing a handful of games the card for that spirit world is freed. 

Freeing the spirit however, requires you to complete all seven mini-games and get a perfect score on each.  The catch?  You play can play everything right up to the end of the game without unlocking all seven spirits, but to finish things off you’ll need to go back and do just that.  That means scoring perfect on every single mini-game that Lost Fortunes has to offer.  Mind you, getting that perfect score isn’t all that difficult.  More often than not you’ll be doing it on the first try.

That brings us to the only real downside with Lost Fortunes; the game is alarmingly unfailable.  It’s rare that you’ll ever have difficulty obtaining a perfect score on a game, and while that doesn’t take away from the fun it certainly takes away from any real challenge.  The difficulty does ramp up with each spirit world you open, but even on the final world you’ll find it relatively easy to get that perfect score by a second or third attempt. 

If by any chance you do somehow fail a round, there’s no penalty starting the round over again.  What’s more, you’ll be able to unlock hints and clock extensions through a set of mini-games that exist outside of the overall story.  If you choose to do that and still have trouble, the game will start giving you hint pieces out of the kindness of its heart.  Lost Fortunes is a game that’s virtually impossible to lose.

There’s not a great deal of depth to what’s offered here, but the variety and fast-pace of the mini-games make sure things stay fresh and fun throughout.  If a decent level of challenge and a good deal of longevity aren’t too important to you, Lost Fortunes is definitely a great way to eat up an afternoon.

The good

    The bad

      60 out of 100
      Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.