Elixir of Immortality

Your mission as the detective in hidden object game Elixir of Immortality is to discover who at the castle has been bumping off the hired help. The only trouble is, your disguise as the newest hired hand not only means you'll have to suspend your investigations to do the bidding of the castle residents, but also that you've got a big fat target on your back.

You certainly don't want for suspects, though; the chemist, botanist, magician and physicist are all pretty fishy, to say nothing of the castle's enigmatic master who communicates with you solely by leaving notes around. No sooner have you arrived on the island then you're put to work, scurrying around, helping the castles residents with their odd and mysterious projects.

Fulfilling your role as hired hand – and maintaining your cover story – means you'll have to search areas for the bits and pieces you need to complete the tasks assigned to you by the suspects. The items searches are standard, follow-the-list fare, but the locations are beautifully drawn and marvelously detailed. The castle and its grounds are full of strange and wonderful things, so prowling around them tracking down lost levers and gears is a joy. You'll revisit locations to do object searches several times, and the lists definitely have a certain sameness about them – you'll find many, many ladles, candlesticks, and books – but even items of the same type look completely different, so it never feels too repetitious.

You'll usually come away from an object search with a useful item or two that can be used to solve one of Elixir of Immortality's many excellent puzzles. Some puzzles are of the classic type, such as moving a marble through a maze or assembling a tangram, but most are more practical, such as finding ingredients to make soup or tracking down the right book on botany. The difficulty on these challenges varies, but a keen observer should have no trouble.

Players who choose the Advanced game mode may find themselves stumped every so often as the game indicates hidden object areas, but nothing else. Running your cursor over a scene will highlight areas that are interactive, but if you feel like you've missed something, clicking the magnifying glass in the corner will show off everything of interest in the room. It's a great system that lets players who want more of a challenge only call for help when they genuinely need it. A similar "nudge" system for the puzzles, as opposed to the ability to just flat-out skip them, would've been appreciated, but the option to bag them altogether works just fine.

Elixir of Immortality hits all the right marks when it comes to aesthetics and ingenuity, but it does stumble in some basic ways. Your investigation will take you all over the island and you'll have to do a great deal of backtracking, but it's easy to forget where everything is, especially if you take time between play sessions. A few language issues crop up, too. For the most part, they just lead to awkward or incorrect phrasing in dialog or notes, but they can hinder searches, too. When all you're asked to find is a "melon," it's tough to know if you should be going for the honeydew or the watermelon (the former, as it turns out) and if there's a more vague clue than "ornament", I've yet to encounter it. (That was referring to what looked like a Mayan calendar, by the way.)

The story of Elixir of Immortality is immensely fun, with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. If only there were more to it. Even taking your time, you'll be done with the game in two or three hours at best. They'll be very enjoyable hours, though; consider Elixir of Immortality to be the beach reading of hidden object games.

Review by Vanessa Carter

Cake Mania - Lights, Camera, Action!

Mix and mingle with Hollywood hotshots in Cake Mania - Lights, Camera, Action!, the delectable new chapter from one of the most popular series of all time!

Main Street is finally bustling with new stores and Jill is preparing for motherhood. There's no time to go on maternity leave however, because Bakersfield has caught the eye of Hollywood producers as a location for their next big blockbuster! Now Jill, Jack and the rest of the shopkeepers must deal with all-new eccentric personalities determined to bring the glitz and glamour to the quaint tourist destination.

Help Jill and her friends cater to a new batch of off the wall customers in this delightful new escapade. Run the Evan's bakery, assist Risha with her fashionable boutique, and help Chef Gordo serve his Italian dishes in over 100 fantastic levels. These new quirky clients not only demand service, but have the ability to change their minds at a moment's notice. With updated shop mechanics, 30 unique equipment upgrades, 30 mouth-watering recipes, and an all-new Relaxed Mode, you’ll have Bakersfield on the Hollywood A-list in no time!

Critics give Cake Mania - Lights, Camera, Action! 4 ½ stars out of 5, calling it "stellar" with "an incredible value" that is "well worth the download".

• Jill meets her greatest challenge in this wonderful Time Management sequel.
• Answer the call of motherhood, and Hollywood, in over 100 fantastic levels.
• Run the Evan's bakery, assist Risha with her boutique, and serve Italian dishes.
• Use new shop mechanics, upgrade with 30 unique items, and unlock 30 ingredients.
• Enjoy an all-new Relaxed mode for a more soothing experience.

Review from GameHouse

Nanny Mania 2

So, who's the worst celebrity Mom, at least according to the tabloids? If you're playing the time management game Nanny Mania 2, it's grown-up child star and academy award winner Sophia Ashford. She's 25, incredibly wealthy, and completely overwhelmed by raising a family. That's where Nanny Emma comes in to save the day.

After Emma successfully helped Mayor Whitby and his family in the first Nanny Mania, she decided to head off to California, thinking she'd have a chance to relax on the sandy beaches. But, after taking a job with Sophia in Hollywood, Emma finds she has her work cut out for her. In Nanny Mania 2, you must care of the children and pets, fend off the paparazzi, and keep the house spotless. You can expect a fast-paced game with lots of clicking and lots and lots of levels, along with a bunch of marked improvements over the first Nanny Mania game.

Your primary job is to keep the house clean. Dirty items are highlighted in red. Click them to send the Nanny over to clean them up. You can click on items in advance, and the Nanny will attend to each task in the order you have clicked. As in the first game, the parents and kids go around and mess things up as you play. In a new twist, you can stop them by intercepting before the dust cloud settles.

Some tasks require multiple steps to complete, such as doing the laundry, which involves gathering up the clothes and putting them in the washing machine, then into the drier, and then finally away in one of the dresser sets. Unlike in the previous Nanny Mania, an alarm goes off when you've gathered all the clothes, so you won't be surprised by any stray shirts laying around! Making dinner requires you to get items from the fridge and set them on the stove, serve the family once it's done, and then stack the dishes in the dishwasher.

Baby care involves making bottles and changing diapers. Dirty diapers get placed in the bin. Bottles must be warmed before they are served. You need to do all this before the baby's patience meter runs out, or else you'll suffer a five second penalty.

Some messes grow the longer you leave them. Leaking toilets and tubs can easily create puddles all over the floor.

You earn money as you play to buy upgrades, like a faster bottle warmer, better espresso machine, faster mop, etc. You can only access them on a tight schedule, however, so they aren't very helpful.

There are some special surprise features that keep the game interesting. For example, when the twins are born, you need to keep the windows closed before the paparazzi snap pictures.

Pets are a new twist in Nanny Mania 2. First, you start with goldfish. They don't do much but dirty the aquarium. Close to halfway through the game, you get to care for a dog named Max. Like the kids, sometimes he makes noise, and needs to be clicked on in order to quiet down. He can also make a mess, but thankfully he doesn't do this too often. When he whines at the door, you need to let him out. Otherwise, it's business as usual. The pets don't really make a big difference to the game play, and pretty much behave like extra children.

If you need a speed boost, you can click on the tea or coffee pot for a temporary boost. Because the playing areas can be wide and busy, there is an arrow which appears to tell you where messes can be found, and where the Nanny is at any given time.

For each level, you must clean up everything before the timer runs out. For experienced players, you can try to finish in expert "perfect" time, which is also shown at the top. You can replay levels again if you want a better time.

There have been several positive changes made in Nanny Mania 2, including a more consistent cartoon-like style then the first. The ability to chain tasks for a bonus (like vacuuming, mopping puddles, and throwing trash) is a nice touch, and the different houses have distinctly different layouts, making things more challenging. As always, the length is excellent, with lots of replay value.

Despite small improvements here and there, the game has the same feel as the previous Nanny Mania, so it's not drastically different if you already own the first one. Over many hours of game play, the tasks can get repetitive. It seems like the length has been extended by simply adding a lot of this repetition, and just increasing the speed a notch. The upgrades were also a bit useless, since they are all locked until certain levels, so it might as well be automatically given. It would be nice to be able to select what you want, when you want it.

Still, Nanny Mania 2 is fun to play, with plenty of tasks and lots of frantic clicking. It's a bit more polished than the first Nanny Mania, with a bit more room for strategy and a few new elements, even though the general gameplay remains much the same.

Review by Lisa Haasbroek