Orchidia

Orchidia

Review

Magic Kingdoms have it tough these days. Rampaging developers, rising house prices in leafy forest glades, elves becoming an endangered species (well, they will go off on dangerous quests) and more often than not, evil curses, putting the whole kingdom at the mercy of some evil dark lord or cackling psychotic witch.

Luckily most evil curses can normally be solved and the happy citizens released from their enslavement/peril, by matching blocks, bricks, tiles, jewels, gems, colours, cubes or balloons. Orchidia turns this convention on it's head however and cleverly has you matching and removing different types of flower (it's not just a clever game name, see?)

The flowers are floating on the river which flows through the heart of the Kingdom. It's been blocked in multiple places thanks to the curse we mentioned earlier. The player must destroy these blockages by matching and removing the flowers, orchids and occasional fauna from the river.

The premise of the game is simple, players must build up sequences of matching flowers. Anything over three flowers will cause all touching flowers of the same type to disappear. This allows the player to build up quite large patterns and chains of flowers, for larger scores and bonus points.

The flowers appear at the top of the screen singly, or in patterns of two or three. They float 'downstream' towards the player, where other flowers are trapped by floating ice (all part of the wicked enchantment).

Players have a choice of using the mouse or keyboard controls.

On the keyboard the controls are LEFT and RIGHT arrows, with Z and X rotating the flowers. The DOWN ARROW will accelerate the flowers downstream.

Using the mouse, moving left and right moves the flowers, while the LEFT MOUSE BUTTON and RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON rotate the flowers left and right. Moving the mouse BACK/DOWN will accelerate the flowers downwards.

Each level has a goal which must be met before it can be completed. These vary from simply matching and removing a certain number of flowers, through to incorporating a rare new orchid into a matching pattern, or releasing captured creatures like a penguin or a shark from the river.

Players are not alone in their quest to free Orchidia, they are aided along the way by a wise woman and - of course - a rubber duck. If you complete the level to free Ducky from the river, he becomes your travelling companion and birdy buddy. Along with the penguin in peril, mysterious appearances from cute birds is becoming a trademark of Joyboost games. We're not exactly sure why this is - and it's probably safer not to ask.

Players must clear all 60 levels - and all 60 blockages in the river - to defeat the enchantment and free Orchidia from the cruel spell it's under.

The game features two play modes. A story mode takes you through all 60 levels and introduces you to the characters and inhabitants of Orchidia who can help or hinder your progress (I mean seriously, he's a duck. How often does he get out?)

The second play mode - Orchidia Eternal - is exactly as it sounds. A never ending level in which the player has to complete as many patterns and remove as many flowers as possible without letting them reach the top of the screen and game over.

Orchidia also allows players to browse their own 'Orchipedia', which lists all of the unique orchids unlocked within the story mode. Each page shows a different Orchid, along with an explanation of it's special powers.

The game offers the usual options, allowing players to adjust the music, sound effects, video settings and mouse sensitivity.