7 Wonders of the Ancient World – PSP – Review

The handheld gaming market is always
the hotbed of puzzle games. Regardless if you have the most advanced or low-key
hardware available, no one can stop the flood of puzzle games. A puzzle game
seems to tap into the inner most desire of most gamers since they all seem to
offer an easy pick up and play scheme. If you want a short game while waiting
for lunch or an extended game while on a trip the puzzle game usually fills
these voids. Unfortunately not every game is able to provide the same
replayability of the classic Tetris which is the case with 7 Wonders of the
Ancient World.

The premise behind 7 Wonders of the
Ancient World (7 Wonders) centers upon you traveling the globe building the 7
Wonders of the world. The building part of the game actually has your
servants/workers taking blocks and building pieces of the 7 Wonders. The blocks
start off at the top of the puzzle board and will fall to the workers below as
you match 3 colored runes together. In addition to moving the blocks to the
workers below you also have to remove all of the tiles of the game board, which
is essentially clearing all of the runes that started on the stage. Once all of
the tiles and blocks have been picked up by the workers below then you clear the
stage. There is a timer that counts down and if the timer gets to zero then you
lose a life which results in starting the stage over again.

There are three different game modes
available to play in 7 Wonders. The Story mode has you visiting all of the
locations to build the 7 Wonders. Free Play lets you play the selected locations
you have already unlocked in Story mode. The Rune Quest mode is focused on
removing a certain number of colored runes from the stage. Both the Story and
Free Play mode use the same countdown timer system, while Rune Quest shows you
the time to beat to get the best time for the stage.

Essentially that is the entire 7
Wonders game in just two paragraphs. We’ve seen this type of game before
countless times on other consoles, handhelds and web-based games. You simply
match three blocks of the same color in a row or column, that’s it. Once you’ve
matched the colors together the three blocks are removed and more blocks appear.
There are a few power-ups in the game but they add little to the excitement
factor. The Lightning Ball will remove a row of runes when used and appears when
you match four colored runes together. The Fire Ball will remove a row and
column of runes and appear after you’ve matched five colored runes together. The
Golden Flower appears after you’ve used four power-ups and will remove a random
assortment of runes, up to twenty.

The game lacks that certain
something to get you hooked on a puzzle game. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what
that “something” is but it just doesn’t feel fresh or exciting. The game plays
like any other puzzle game and doesn’t do enough to make it stand out from the
crowd. You’re matching colored blocks, which is probably the gameplay of 80% of
the puzzle games available today. The power-ups don’t offer enough to enhance
the core gameplay and the limited gameplay modes will have you yawning after a
couple boards. This is a puzzle game that will unfortunately not become a Wonder
of the gaming world.

Gameplay 4.0
We’ve seen this game before, it’s called let’s connect the colored blocks
together. The only true challenge comes from making sure you remove all of the
tiles on the board so you can advance to the next stage. The colored runes never
go away, they just keep coming.

Graphics 5.0
On several stages it can become difficult to determine if a tile is still on the
puzzle board due to the backgrounds blending in with the colors. The animations
and antics of your workers were a nice touch that should be enhanced if another
game is developed. They would keep signaling for more blocks as you played the
game.

Sound 5.0
The game had a decent soundtrack that played during the game but the same track
was repeated on all of the stages.

Difficulty Easy
No one should have a problem with this game.

Concept 3.0
The only difference between 7 Wonders and other puzzles games are the 7 Wonders
of the World. This feels and plays just like any other puzzle game you’ve played
for the past ten years.

Overall 4.6
I can only recommend 7 Wonders of the Ancient World for those hardcore and
dedicate PSP puzzle gamers looking for something new. Even then you will
probably be disappointed after a few minutes of playing the game.