Around the World in 80 Days (Nintendo DS) Review

With City Interactive's core team changing, it likely means there will never be as impressive an entry in the Match-3 genre as found previously on Nintendo DS. After all, Jewels of the Ages was almost untouchable in the eyes of those that adore the style. This has left the door open for eager competitors, and the results have been mixed, to say the least. This is actually a port from a PC game, as has been the case with numerous games of this ilk, and the problems lie with how poorly the graphics have been compressed in the majority of cases. With Around the World in 80 Days, thankfully the transition has come with not too much of a loss.

Being an adaptation of Jules Verne's popular adventure novel of the same name, the whole puzzle spectacle is tied together with the tale of an Englishman, Phileas Fogg, and his French aide, Passepourtout, attempting to traverse the globe in a mere 80 days, facing adversaries along the way in the form of those hoping to thwart their journey and make the venture an unsuccessful one, thus meaning them losing the £20,000 wager that has been made.

Nothing bears any real relevance to the game at hand, but it works very well as the background setting to an impressive Match-3 engine that makes great use of the stylus controls for switching adjacent tiles on each board encountered in order to match three or more of the same colour. Objectives include guiding specific items down to the bottom of the screen and changing the colour of every panel on a board by clearing tiles in the appropriate places. It is standard fare, but those that enjoy the genre will be right at home and get sucked back into the addictive nature of the gameplay. Mix in the usual elements, such as frozen blocks that can only be unfrozen by clearing tiles around them, plus Co-operative, Head-to-Head and Time modes, and the ability to turn the DS on its side during play, rotating as required for left-handed players, and this is quite the solid package.