Latest Reviews

Amidst all the spooky mansions, archaeological dig sites and yard sales it's sometimes hard to distinguish one hidden object game from the next. There's no danger of that with Moxxie's Tabloid Adventures, the offbeat tale of a tabloid reporter's quest to land the "big scoop." Read more»

It seems like tarot cards are every hidden object game designer's favorite theme these days, but the newest game to be based off the deck, Age of Oracles: Tara's Journey, is really something special. Stunningly designed, it offers some intriguing twists on the familiar HOG formula, and throws in a few clever puzzles, too. Read more»

Divorce. Revenge. A mysterious death. A missing Will. Two teams of thieves in an empty casino. No, it's not the latest Hollywood drama-it's a new hidden object adventure game from Funkitron called Slingo Mystery. An ambitious attempt to combine a sophisticated mystery with a casual game where every object and mini-game is part of the plot, the end result falls short of instant classic status but still provides a lot of original entertainment. Read more»

Alex is an out-of-work musician struggling to come up with rent money until she learns about a Battle of the Bands contest at her local club. This could be the big break that her former band, the Iron Roses, need to take them to fame and fortune! The problem is that all of her bandmates have gone their separate ways. Can Alex reunite the Iron Roses in time for the concert? And will they sound any good after all this time? You'll find out in Iron Roses, a new point-and-click adventure game from Sandlot and Cateia Games, the folks who made The Legend of Crystal Valley. Read more»

Emily - a young artist who wants to make her dreams come true - returns to her abandoned childhood home in New York City to search for her missing uncle. Instead of finding him, she discovers many keys, clues and a rundown townhome in the hidden object game Keys to Manhattan. Read more»

After putting the wily Octopus behind bars, Steve the Sheriff is looking forward to taking it easy. He's been given the honor of cutting the ribbon on the Neptuneville Museum's newest exhibit, the Mona Meduza, but before he can so much as sharpen the scissors, the painting is stolen. A lawman lobster's work is never done. Read more»

With Little Shop: World Traveler GameHouse is now half a dozen games into its popular Little Shop series of hidden object games, and it's clear the developer is holding firmly to the old philosophy of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Despite a change in theme (rather than working local shops we now travel around the world to hunt down specialty items), returning players will immediately recognize the franchise's distinctive hint systems, bonus modes, and game design. Read more»

In mythology, Pandora's Box was a jar that unleashed numerous evils upon mankind. However, in Alawar Entertainment's latest hidden object adventure Vampire Saga: Pandora's Box, Pandora is actually a ship. Yet within the creaking wooden belly of this vessel, true to the name of Pandora, a dark secret and deadly danger lurks. You'll join Matthew Ward in this haunting tale as he finds himself alone on Pandora, a grim cloud over the ship abandoned out at sea. Read more»

Preserving the rainforest is one of the most important eco-missions mankind faces today. With thousands of unique native species and a rich history, including ancient human civilizations, the rainforest is a truly special place. Identifying various animals, restoring broken habitats, and cleaning up after the pollution affecting the world's rainforests are all elements of Big Fish's latest hidden object game EcoRescue: Project Rainforest. Read more»

Science fiction isn't particularly well represented in the adventure game genre, so Journey to the Center of the Moon is a welcome change of pace. But while it starts out very promising, and provides an enticing world to explore, it unfortunately gets bogged down in some truly frustrating puzzles that spoil the entire experience. Read more»

If you're getting a little burned out by the seemingly endless wave of hidden object games ("HOGs"), the third release in Anarchy Enterprises' Hide & Secret series won't do much to convince you otherwise. It's not a bad game, no, but certainly below the quality you've grown to expect from today's HOG offerings. Read more»

The ladies of the Women's Murder Club are back for what may be their most challenging case yet. In Twice in a Blue Moon, someone is carefully copying famous serial killers like Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler, leaving plenty of evidence but few clues to his identity. Lindsay, Claire, and Cindy frantically try to unravel his riddles before another victim falls prey to his madness. Read more»

At times both morose and beautiful, Drawn: The Painted Tower unfolds like a grim fairytale set in a land devoid of all happiness. When the last bastion of hope, a special young girl with magical drawing abilities, falls in imminent peril, you must brave the dangerous, puzzle-filled magical hallways of the tower she's imprisoned in to save her before time runs out. Very little is what it appears to be, and the further you ascend towards the dark spire the deeper you'll be drawn into this strange, imaginative world. Read more»

I SPY: Fun House, the latest interactive spinoff of Scholastic's popular hidden object picture books, proves that a good hidden object game can appeal to virtually all demographics. My kindergarten-aged daughter loves the paper versions of these puzzles, and she had just as much fun working through their digital counterparts. I - a man 30 years her senior - played with her, and I'm pretty sure we were both equally engaged. Read more»

Angela Young 2: Escape the Dreamscape follows a pattern of story-telling that can only be described as heavily influenced by Alice in Wonderland. Angela finds herself lost in the Dreamscape. Having lost her cat, Felix, along the way, Angela must find her way back out and recover Felix before the Lord of Nightmares complicates matters even further. Read more»

Don't let it's deceptively generic title fool, Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual is actually a great example of how to do an adventure game right. The story is rich and interesting, the puzzles are challenging without being frustrating, and the world is beautiful and just begging to be explored. It's not without it's faults, and it doesn't tread any new ground, but The Scorpio Ritual is a solid game that shouldn't be missed by fans of the genre. Read more»

Now here's an idea for a hidden object game that you don't see every day: A young woman named Janet is kidnapped by a mad scientist (named Frankenstein), who carves her body into pieces with the intention of using them to create a bride for himself. It's up to Janet's fiancé Brad, with help from Janet's disembodied brain, to find all her body parts and repair Frankenstein's machine so that Janet's body can be put back together. Read more»

Normally, I frown at people who click through a game's story as fast as possible. The story is there to give you a reason for solving the puzzles/finding the items/doing whatever it is you're supposed to be doing as you play, so  paying at least some attention to it seems only fair. But the story of Mystery Age: The Imperial Staff will only reduce your enjoyment of the game, so click away as fast as you can. Read more»

Mary Morehouse has a fear of boats, which makes sense as she's the ancestor of the person who found the Mary Celeste, a ship found abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean, undamaged, but with its entire crew missing. As soon as the Mary Celeste II leaves dock on its maiden voyage, strange things start occurring, which only feeds into Mary's fear and desire to get off the ill-fated ship. While the mystery grips, the gameplay and ending of Merscom's latest hidden object game The Mystery of the Mary Celeste don't round out the story as much as they could have. Read more»

The first Nancy Drew Dossier game, Lights, Camera, Curses! was a great success. It managed to combine fun, accessible hidden object gameplay with logic puzzles, some arcade mini-games and the usual high-quality Nancy Drew production values and story into one great product. After many months of waiting, the second title of the series, Resorting to Danger! manages to repeat the same great formula while improving upon the few nagging issues with the first. Read more»

Episodic releases are a pretty new thing for games. We've had a few successful releases (such as Tales of Monkey Island, or the Wallace and Gromit games, both by Telltale Games, and Amaranth Games' Aveyond series). Taking Uri Fink's successful Pizza Morgana comic and turning it into a game should be a piece of cake - or a slice of pizza. The problem is that the game ends just as it starts to cook. Read more»

It's hard to know just how to describe Princess Isabella: A Witch's Curse, because it has so much going on. It's a huge, involved, beautiful mess of a game with a little bit of everything: hidden object portions, puzzle solving, skill games, even a quiz. Read more»

Glad to have you on staff here at City Sights Magazine, kid, you do us proud! You're a great reporter, you know why? Because you've a keen eye for detail. You walk into a room and right away see everything there is to see - nothing gets past you. Your next assignment: Seattle! Now, get out there and show us the sights! Read more»

History. Banshees. The Loch Ness monster. With all of these elements it's hard to see how a game could go wrong. Yet, in spite of its interesting premise, The Cameron Files - Secret of Loch Ness certainly leaves a lot to be desired. It's a confusing tale that gives players an compelling world to explore, but unfortunately it's all over way too quickly. Read more»

The term "old-school" often refers to a throwback to an earlier time, an earlier culture. The Adventures of Fatman, a game made in 2003 by Socko! Entertainment and re-distributed by Wadjet Eye Games doesn't just feel old-school, it's practically ancient! But don't let the chunky graphics fool you; this is a hearty adventure, with a big, "fat" challenge. Read more»

Autumn's Treasure: The Jade Coin has everything a great hidden object game needs. It has a plucky heroine, a lost treasure, a trail of clues that leads all over the world, and a nefarious syndicate up to no good. It's even put a nice twist on the item-finding mechanic and thrown in a few puzzles for good measure. So why is it such a tedious, boring chore to play? Read more»

Attempting to make a scary adventure game is a tricky proposition: the genre tends to be devoid of action, which makes it hard to create much in the way of tension. Delaware St. John: The Curse of Midnight Manor attempts to combat this with spooky visuals and sound, but a short play time and underwhelming story keep it from being entirely successful. Read more»

Time Gentlemen, Please! is a sequel to the indie comedy adventure Ben There, Dan That!, and picks up right where the previous adventure left off.  Playing the previous game isn't really required as everything is summed up nicely, but that doesn't mean we don't encourage it.  Ben There, Dan That! is still available free of charge and is easily one of the better adventure games available today.  Veterans of the previous game will be delighted to know that Time Gentlemen, Please! improves on the previous release in every way imaginable. Read more»

On the whole, point-and-click adventure games tend to get a bad rap for often being excruciatingly long, a little on the dry side, and gruelingly tough. The Blackwell Convergence is none of those things. Instead, it offers up a highly stylish supernatural tale filled with unusual characters and punchy plot twists. It's also just peculiar enough to keep you transfixed to the very end. Best of all, you needn't have to have played through its two predecessors to be able to jump right in and enjoy the adventure. Read more»

As FBI agent Claire Ellery, you've been called to a remote town to find three kidnapped girls. The local police don't seem very happy to have your help, but someone begins leaving you a series of tarot cards leading you to the missing trio. In no time at all, you've found the girls, the police are calling it case closed and sending you home. So begins the hidden object game Strange Cases: The Tarot Card Mystery. Read more»

What if I told you that someone had lovingly crafted a brash, funny, and original tribute to the adventure games of 20 years ago?  Now what if I told you it was free?  Despite being a no-holds-barred homage to classic LucasArts adventures, Ben There, Dan That! offers up a unique sense of humor and story-telling that should appeal to every grown up gamer.  Despite inspiration, this is a game that stands on its own two feet. Read more»

We normally like to start off our reviews with an introduction to the game's story and a quick summary of the game's overall quality. That said, we've run into a roadblock with Mysterious City: Vegas. First, there's no story. Second, you only feel like you're in Vegas a small part of the game. Mysterious City: Vegas should ooze Vegas and it doesn't. Read more»

Sierra's King's Quest holds a special place in the hearts of many veteran PC gamers (this writer included). The recent release on Steam of the King's Quest Collection - a package that bundles the first seven games together as a single download - allows fans to enjoy the series all over again in a new format. King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown is the game that started it all. Read more»

She is a Shadow has a slightly interesting premise where a master thief is forced out of retirement to get her kidnapped son back. Other than that there's nothing you haven't seen before in dozens - if not hundreds! - of other hidden object games. Read more»

You awaken on an island with no memory of who you are or why you're there. What is this place? There were clearly scientists working here at one time - where have they all gone? What was the purpose of their experiments? Most importantly, how are you going to get home? These are just some of the questions you'll confront as you struggle to regain your memory in the hidden object game, Marooned. Read more»

In this sequel to Diamon Jones and the Amulet of the World, treasure hunter Diamon Jones rather reluctantly embarks on a new adventure that takes him from Shanghai to Chicago with a few stops in between. Read more»

Paradise is a point-and-click adventure game for serious fans of the genre. Though the game features a delightfully mysterious story and a very atmospheric presentation, the difficulty of the puzzles could make it a little too frustrating for most. But for those who can get past Paradise's faults, there is a lot to like about this adventure. Read more»

You might not be old enough to remember the fun - and funny - pirate-themed Monkey Island computer games that debuted in the early '90s from LucasArts, but if you enjoy challenging puzzles, memorable characters and a treasure chest full of humor, be sure to download the first all-new adventure in many years.

Telltale Games, in partnership with LucasArts, has just launched Tales of Monkey Island, distributed digitally in playable monthly "episodes" for Windows PCs (reviewed here) and via WiiWare for the Nintendo Wii console. The first in the 5-part series, Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is now available for download.

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Everyone knows that the narratives attached to most hidden object games are usually superfluous, that they typically provide only the most basic framework necessary to create a shell of purpose for a player's exhaustive searching. Occasionally, though, the story actually works well within the context of the game, and Defenders of Law: The Rosendale File, a criminal investigation-themed HOG in which players select potential crime scenes to visit and spend their time searching for clues, is a prime example. Read more»

Mystery and motive: two elements that surround all the characters in Freeze Tag's latest title Mystery Masterpiece: The Moonstone. Based off the original novel first published in 1868 by Wilkie Collins (and considered to be a precursor to English mystery novels like the Sherlock Holmes series), the game tells the tale of the missing Moonstone, a diamond of immeasurable worth. With a missing diamond and rumors of a curse lurking about it, this classic story turned hidden object game is sure to capture your imagination. Read more»

Combining hidden object games with well-known literary works is a popular trend today - whether it's classic Agatha Christie yarns or more contemporary works, such as James Patterson novels - and now players get to click through Edgar Allan Poe's gothic 19th century tales. Read more»

I'm going to say something that writers aren't supposed to say: Stop reading this review right now and go play Pure Hidden. Nothing in this review can adequately explain how incredibly beautiful, serene, or inventive this game is, so please, just stop reading and go try it for yourself. Shoo. Go on, shoo. Read more»

The latest Nancy Drew adventure from Her Interactive, Ransom of the Seven Ships, is the twentieth game in the series. In spite of the quantity of games, the Nancy Drew titles manage to keep a high quality level, with fun writing and devilish puzzles. Ransom of the Seven Ships maintains this tradition, while trying to add some new twists to the formula, albeit with mixed results. Read more»

We last left Edwina Margrave as she searched through the family's haunted Mansion in search of the dark secrets of her family's history. Now in Margrave Manor 2: The Lost Ship, her quest continues as her grandfather's ship, the Aurora Dusk, re-surfaces after 10 years. Margrave Manor 2 offers more of the beautiful artwork and re-playability as the first game, however it has failed to iron out the issues of its predecessor, and has a few new issues of its own. Read more»

There's a million-dollar grant on the line for the best-run zoo in the country, and a plucky young animal lover named Zulu is determined to win it. With her tender loving care, and your help, she'll restore a run-down zoo to tip-top shape and snag the prize. That's the premise behind Zulu's Zoo, a hidden object game from Little Games Company. Read more»

If there's one thing a casual gamer can say about the summer of 2009, it's that there is no shortage of hidden object games ("HOGs"). Over the past couple of weeks I've reviewed Diner Town Detective Agency, iCarly: iDream in Toons, Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light  and Department 42 - The Mystery of the Nine.

But as television infomercial guru Ron Popeil says: "But wait, there's more!"

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A hidden object title with a twist of adventure, Sprill & Ritchie: Adventures in Time is the latest HOG from Alawar, sending you on a wild ride through past, present, and future. When Ritchie invents a time machine, all is well until a flux mixes items from different eras. But will setting things as they were fix the flow of time, or is there more to history than this simple mishap? Read more»

Let's get this out of the way -- shortly after booting up Department 42: The Mystery of the Nine, a new hidden-object game ("HOG") exclusive from Big Fish Games, I was prepared to give it a solid "A" for its challenging and polished game-play, interesting story, adventure game-like puzzles and outstanding production values. Read more»

There are plenty of hidden object games that ask you to help solve crimes, but Amazing Heists - Dillinger asks you to commit one. Several, actually. You'll tag along with the infamous Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger as he and his crew do what they do best, but you'd better keep your eyes peeled. The Feds are hot on Dillinger's trail, and if John and the boys get pinched, they won't be seeing daylight for a very, very long time. Read more»

Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand from HER Interactive is the sixth adventure from the classic series, now available as a download game. Once again Nancy sets off on an ordinary activity, an internship at a museum specializing in Mayan antiquities. And once again she finds herself elbow-deep in a mystery that only she can solve! The mystery itself is tame, but the puzzles are challenging and logical. It lacks the entertainment value of newer titles, but if you like exploring museums, you'll like the authentic detail here. Read more»