Treasure To Plunder!



The Mysterious Cities of Gold is an adventure/puzzle game that is based on a popular 1980's French and Japanese developed anime series where three kids search for important treasures from a lost kingdom that revered the sun! The anime may have been good, but does the game live up to the standards the anime series set? Well let's find out!



Gameplay And Controls:

In The Mysterious Cities of Gold you control three children each with their own abilities to collect treasure and complete each level all while trying to avoid guards who will try to capture your characters. While this might sound complicated and be similar to what was seen in The Trine 2, this game is far easier and doesn't provide much challenge in the earlier levels, but does get harder in the later ones making this game a better choice than The Trine 2 for young players or those who aren't good at puzzle solving. The puzzles themselves are rather easy and are unlikely to confuse most gamers, but sometimes just reaching the puzzles can actually be somewhat challenging! The game also features many lengthy animated cut-scenes from season 2 of the anime which aired in the early 2,000's and really adds to the overall experience of the game!



The controls in the game are intuitive and easy to learn with the Gamepad touch controls being used sparingly to navigate the menues. The game features over 30 levels of gameplay, but most are rather short so you'll likely beat the game in around 10 hours "not including the amount of time you'll be watching the lengthy cut-scenes".



Graphics And Sounds:

The graphics in this title are colorful and cheery and the cut-scenes are gorgeous, but the in-game graphics are a little bland with basic enemy models and in most cases dreary and boring looking levels "although some of the level layouts are pretty good despite the plain look of the level". The music on the other hand is amazing and recreates the feel of the anime series and the game also features the actual voice actors from season 2 of the anime series which is a nice touch!



Bottom-Line:

With easy to use controls and an amazing soundtrack The Mysterious Cities of Gold is a great fun to play title and the cut-scenes and voice acting really add to the experience, however some of the stages look drab and boring and most enemy models are too generic which doesn't detract much from the game in of itself, but the puzzles might be too easy for most veteran gamers. Young gamers and novices of the puzzle genre might really enjoy this title as well as fans of the anime series! This game gets a fairly solid recommendation from us!

Score: 7.5/10