Review by: Neilie Johnson

The casual game market's exploding these days, and publisher/developer Alawar Entertainment is taking good advantage of it. Over the last nine years, the company's become know for its Magic Ball and Farm Frenzy series and of late, is gaining popularity with its absurdly addictive match-three series, Treasures of Montezuma. The first in the series offered both a fun narrative and dynamic gameplay, putting gamers in the role Emily Jones, an ambitious grad student on the verge of a major archeological find. After this quality adventure, hopes were high among match-three and adventure enthusiasts, that the sequel, Treasures of Montezuma 2, would offer an exciting expansion on the first game's winning formula. Instead, it offers an unexpectedly pared down experience that fails to reach the first game's level of fun.

You get the first hint that ToM 2 won't be as absorbing as it should be the minute you start the game. You're allowed to select what looks like an Aztec king or queen—a character that serves throughout the game as nothing more than window dressing—and then you're abruptly thrown into the match three game. There's no context, no narrative preamble, no transition whatsoever. A brief tutorial demonstrates how to play (core gameplay is exactly the same as the first Treasures; you match three colored symbols in order to collect a set number of gems, clearing the level within a set time frame) and once the level is cleared, you're shown a short animation of a beam of light activating a stone pedestal. After that, you're taken to the upgrade screen which is fashioned as a map of Montezuma's ancient city.

Upgrades function the same way here as they did in the first title. The only difference is this time you're earning and using gold as currency, instead of stars. Upgrades are the same as well; you purchase colored idols (in increasingly higher levels) that do things like detonating symbols of the same color or turning random symbols into the same color, thus increasing your matches. One significant difference between the first and second Treasures is that ToM 2 allows you to keep playing, even if you fail to clear the level within the given time limit. You're given a lower rating and the opportunity to replay for a higher score, but no longer are you forced to redo levels in order to proceed.

There's no question that ToM 2's match three is just as fun and challenging as the first game. The problem is, the game's missing some other essential elements. A big part of what was fun about the original title was the story. Represented by diary entries and news clippings shown between match three levels, these inter-level vignettes gave the game context and made you feel you were accomplishing something. Another missing element are the mini-games. Treasures of Montezuma broke up the match-three periodically, with ways to earn further upgrades by playing Aztec-themed versions of Memory or Three Card Monte. In ToM 2, you just march from one match-three session to another, only stopping long enough to buy another upgrade. It all gets a little monotonous despite the game's three difficulty modes: Easy, Normal and Hard and three gameplay modes: Adventure, Puzzle and Endless.

In spite of a diminished feature set, at $9.95, Treasures of Montezuma 2 is still a fair entertainment value, at least for die-hard match-three fans. If you're new to match-three games or the Treasures series though, do yourself a favor—just go buy the first game.

Treasures of Montezuma 2 is available from the Alawar website .