The ancient gods of Mount Olympus need your help! Many years ago a horrible crime was committed and Zeus doesn’t know who to place the blameThe ancient gods of Mount Olympus need your help! Many years ago a horrible crime was committed and Zeus doesn’t know who to place the blame on. To make matters worse his sceptre is missing. It is of great importance that the culprit is found and punished for his despicable crimes. Hook up jewels to make them disappear, stop the molten rock from consuming the screen and then build your palace. The sceptre must be restored. Don’t worry you’re not alone; the power of the ancient Greek gods is at your disposal. Unite these heroes to victory!
Heroes of Hellas (2007) is another in what you would call the match-3 genre. Jaibo Games have spent a sizable chunk of their history making these games so this first game quite obviously rightly did well enough to spawn sequels. The reason for this game’s success is probably with how Jaibo Games approached the gameplay. At least three gems of the same colour must be matched in any direction by using your cursor to drag a gem. Match four or more and you can gain coins. Collect enough of those and that allows you to construct a Greek palace from various design choices while also unlocking a part of a missing sceptre. The ancient Greek theme certainly helps distinguish it from other games in the genre. This is a game where you work for Zeus! As you proceed across levels after each stage you unlock a different Greek god with historical context given as to who they are. It’s both an achievement in itself and educational at the same time but there’s more to it than that. The powers of the Mount Olympus’ gods are at your disposal! You see once unlocked you can use their power in a limited fashion to help you progress through the levels. The game goes some way to promoting them as superhero, each with their own special power. You replenish the power of a god you have access to per level by matching gems of a certain colour relating to them. Their powers come in especially useful when you need more time on the clock (time limits) or require molten rock to be destroyed. Once unlocked the game allows you to unlock each ‘hero’ as wallpaper by solving a jigsaw puzzle. Jaibo Games understand here that there needs to be some variety. It all works rather well. The only real negatives are understandably the limited screen resolution and dated graphics along with the achievement system. At times it feels random and my hat off to anyone who can get the higher tier achievements for not using any help from Zeus or the other gods. It’s pretty impossible.
Some will argue there are better or more famous match-3 games out there which is a shame as Heroes of Hellas while dated with its resolution is still a damn solid addition to the genre. It offers good gameplay with enough variety to make buying it worth the money you paid and that certainly can’t be said for most casual games. You get to learn about Greek mythology while playing a fun game of matching gems plus who doesn’t want to work for Zeus?…Full Review »