Viacheslav Klimov’s fun Uno-style card game Secret of Lost Pyramid generated a rave review from our team when we reviewed it back in February. Now as an exciting iPad title, Secret of Lost Pyramid HD has hit the shelves and it’s a show stopper.
Secret of Lost Pyramid Pros:
- Lots of style and interesting backgrounds
- Survivor-like soundtrack
- Pick-up-and-play game style
- OpenFeint global leader boards and 28 achievements
Secret of Lost Pyramid Cons:
- We would love to see multiplayer implementation
If you’re not familiar with the original game for iPhone and iPod touch, the premise is fairly simple: Each player starts with 5-6 tiles, each with a distinct color and symbol. If you hold a tile that matches the altar tile in either color or symbol, you may play it. Otherwise, you must pick a new tile. Play continues like this until one player wins. Secret of Lost Pyramid HD retains the exact same quick game play against an ancient Mayan back-story. As the journey to gain access to the pyramid unfolds, power-ups are revealed in the form of new tiles. “Skip” tiles, “wild” tiles, “draw one” and “draw two” tiles, and the “abyss” tile are some examples. The all-new abyss tile has a color but no symbol. Playing this tile requires you to play another card of the same color before your turn ends. If you must pick several cards before being able to “close” the abyss and end your turn, so be it. Each corner of the altar contains one of the four tile colors. When a wild is played, tap a corner to choose a new color.
Klimov has truly grabbed the iPad’s visual capabilities by the reigns in this HD version. We were impressed with the iPhone rendition of Secret of Lost Pyramid due to the harmonious Mayan settings and detailed, vibrant renderings of the tiles, gems, and surroundings. All of these elements have been reworked to talk to the iPad environment and we’ve been blown away again. The appropriate jungley (if we can say that) soundtrack that we fell in love with is carried over as well.
While we were able to finish the original game in around an hour’s time, the random tile generation and reworked graphics of Secret of Lost Pyramid HD have us excitedly playing through the brief matches once again. The 28 OpenFeint achievements are worth attempting and player’s scores can be posted to the online global leaderboards. We would love to see a multiplayer mode added to both versions of Secret of Lost Pyramid. The game style calls for friend-to-friend matches whether it is over wifi or through the pass-and-play method. Hopefully, we’ll see something along these lines implemented in a forthcoming update.
At its price tag of $0.99, we called Secret of Lost Pyramid for iPhone a no-brainer Uno alternative. Secret of Lost Pyramid HD comes at an even more iPad competitive price of $1.99. The fast pick-up-and-play gaming, tantalizing visuals, low cost, and addictive replay element make this iPad tile game one not to be missed. We happily award Secret of Lost Pyramid HD another 5-Dimple rating.
