Jewel Master: Cradle of Egypt 2 3D

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Jewel Master: Cradle of Egypt 2 is a Match-3 Puzzle game first released on Nintendo DS in 2012. A port of the game featuring stereoscopic 3D was released on the Nintendo 3DS the next year in 2013. This game features Bejeweled-style gameplay using the touchscreen, and has a theme based on ancient Egypt.

This game’s presentation makes use of 2D images for its gameplay, backed by a stereotypical “Ancient Egypt-y”-sounding soundtrack. It works well enough, but this attempt at drawing players into a theme is largely undone by the game’s sound effects, which seem like they were pulled straight from a mobile game.

As for the gameplay, this is… fine. It’s pretty much just Bejeweled, where you’re trying to clear matches in specific spots in each level before you run out of moves. It’s nothing extraordinary for the Match-3 Puzzle genre, but it works. The game does try to do a few things to match its Egypt theme, like having players using matches to get resources to meet goals in the game’s menus… but this is all secondary to the puzzles.

Sadly, there’s no multiplayer mode here, no significant difference in game modes, nothing beyond the core gameplay. The game does add some new mechanics as you progress through it, but there’s little here you haven’t seen in countless other games just like this.

There’s not really much else to say here. I can only say “it’s like Bejeweled”, “It has an Egypt theme”, and “there’s not much else here” so many times. If this sounds like what you want, it does this well enough, so enjoy. But most players may be better-served by getting a Puzzle game with a bit more originality.

tl;dr – Jewel Master: Cradle of Egypt is a Match-3 Puzzle game with Bejeweled-style gameplay and an ancient Egypt theme. Unfortunately, there’s no multiplayer, no real variety in gameplay, and zero originality. If you want a cookie-cutter Match-3 Puzzle game on Nintendo 3DS, this does that well enough, but doesn’t do much more beyond that.

Grade: C

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