TriJinx Review

Written by: Dustin Arient Published: November 30, 2005 When I was young, some of my favorite books contained illustrated depictions of ancient civilizations. The Egyptian volume was filled with beautifully detailed and colorful isometric drawings of classical buildings, complete with little Egyptians baking bread, making mummies and constructing monuments. Somehow, I missed the chapter where they built all the fiendishly clever puzzles. Whether it's historically accurate or not, the land of the Pyramids has been a favorite setting for countless puzzle games. TriJinx: A Kristine Kross Mystery continues the tradition with its unique take on color-matching and tile-clicking. TriJinx follows the story of Kristine Kross, an international adventurer on the trail of her archaeologist father, who has recently gone missing in an Egyptian tomb. The charmingly fez-topped Professor and an orange cat named Bast accompany her. (Bast - also known as Bastet - was an Egyptian goddess who was often depicted in the form of a cat or lioness.) Comic-style drawings advance the story between levels. In order to make her way into the tomb and break the curse that has befallen her father, Kristine must unlock a series of doors by solving puzzles. These consist of matching three or more triangular tiles of the same color as they fall from the top of the game board (which serves as a door to the next stage). You can rearrange the tiles by rotating the board, making them shuffle from corner to corner. Clicking on a group of three or more tiles clears it from the area. As you remove tiles, they fill urns at the top of the screen -- provided they're the same color as the urn that's active. Stuff all the containers, and you're done with the level. Run out of time or let the triangles fill the game board, and you lose. Progress farther into the pyramid of brainteasers, and you'll find things get more difficult. Pieces fall faster, more colors are added, and some tiles turn to stone or shift colors. After you're done with the Adventure mode, there are several quick game modes to play. The Arcade mode is similar to the Adventure mode, but with no urns to fill and an apparently infinite number of stages. The Strategy variant tasks you with removing all of the blocks from the board, with no new ones being added. The Shape Match mini-game involves finding specific patterns on a pre-filled canvas of triangles. Graphics: The visuals in TriJinx do their job. You can easily distinguish all of the tiles one from another, and no overly showy effects get in the way of the action. Aesthetically, the Egyptian theme is carried to the hilt. For starters, all of the menus and interface elements look like painted and carved stone. What’s more, painted backgrounds and statues, which start out as sandstone but gradually gain vibrant color and come to life as you complete each stage, surround the game boards. When you break into a new area of the tomb, the board swings open like a gate. Like the other animated parts in this title, it moves with a smoothness that belies its simplicity. The comic book sections that advance the story won't win any awards, but they're clean, colorful and charming. In short, all the graphical elements of this title work together to propel the story and setting. Ease of use: The foremost requirement of any casual puzzle game is that it be easy to use. If you're to use all of your brain power to solve puzzles, you should never have to think about the interface or the controls. Fortunately, Playfirst did everything right in this area. When you see a match of three or more colored blocks, you just click on them. If you need to rotate the board, you have the choice of using the left and right arrow keys, the A and D keys, or the mouse wheel. All of these functions are always available without having to remap any keys. All other functions are accessed by clicking on a button. The lone problem that mars this title's ease of use was debilitating enough to prevent it from getting a perfect score in this category. When I Alt-Tabbed from TriJinx to a full-screen application, then back to the game, it froze my system for several minutes. Through trial and error, I found I could prevent this by minimizing the game before going back to my full-screen app. Gameplay: TriJinx is easy to pick up, with intuitive controls, clear goals and a gentle learning curve, but it ripens into a challenging and gripping experience as you play through it. I enjoyed all of the gameplay modes, but found the Adventure campaign to be the most engaging. The Puzzle and Arcade varieties are good for a quick break, but they're slightly simplified, having you forgoe the filling of colored urns in favor of finding any available match. Upon replaying the Adventure mode, I found the colored urns added to the strategic challenge. All of the modes are infinitely replayable, though, making TriJinx a great coffee break puzzler. Difficulty: TriJinx hits a fairly effective balance where difficulty is concerned. Moderately experienced players should be able to get through the first half of the story mode without any problem. As the levels progress, more and more elements are added to the mix, such as a fourth color, tiles that periodically change color, pieces which turn to immovable stone if not cleared within a short time, an increase in the rate of falling triangles, more static obstacles in the playing field, and times when you have to match a minimum of four tiles instead of three. This gradual ramping up of difficulty allows players to learn the system without getting frustrated. Also, if you fail at any stage, you can try it again with no penalties; no with lives are taken away and no points are deducted. I had to redo some of the latter levels several times before I got the hang of them, but because I could try them as many times as I needed to, I didn't mind the challenge. Sound effects: Although there isn't anything spectacular about the quality of the sound, it does its job. The noise associated with clearing tiles is distinct from the one accompanying board rotation. There are also different effects for clearing three, four or more tiles. Also helpful are the aural cues when you are in danger of losing. When there's no more space at the top of the board, for example, an insistent chime plays until you free up some space or lose the round. Additionally, an audio alert in the form of a heartbeat plays when 15 or so seconds remain on the timer. The Adventure campaign also includes voice acting. It's not the best in the history of gaming, but it's not bad, either. It adds a sense of decent production values to the static cut scenes, and helps to tie together the fate of the endearing characters. Music: The music in TriJinx falls somewhere between the realms of archetypal and stereotypical, consisting of all-instrumental MIDI tracks that drive home the Egyptian theme. The score doesn't detract from the experience nor does it grate on the ears; it's just canned atmosphere. Final analysis: TriJinx is a solid offering in a genre littered with "good enough" titles. It has a good difficulty curve, in that it’s easy to learn, but gradually becomes more challenging as elements are added to the mix. The presentation of the gameplay within the story of Kristine and her missing father could have fallen into a trap of inanity, but the narrative doesn't take itself too seriously, and it adds charm to a game that might otherwise have seemed slightly generic. Graphically, it's bright enough to be interesting, but not a gaudy click-fest. Good controls and a variety of play modes bring TriJinx full circle as a brainteaser with true appeal.