January 21st, 2008 by PCG

Game Review: Azada

Sick of all those 3-in-a-row clones? Restaurant management sims? Seek-and-find mystery games?

You're not alone.

Thankfully, there are fresh new games like Azada to keep the casual game genre from imploding.

In this adventure game, you awaken in a locked room to find a trapped spirit, Titus, who was magically imprisoned by his great uncle. By solving series of mind-bending puzzles you can break this spell and uncover the secret written in the missing pages of an enchanted book. The start of this game feels a bit like the classic point-and-click adventure, Myst, but in Azada the puzzles are all contained within the same room you find them (rather than walking around a larger world -- and time traveling, too).

Like a dangling carrot, more of the story is revealed as you work your way through five increasingly challenging stages (Chapters), each with eight levels (Pages) or so.

The puzzles vary greatly from location to location, but here are some examples:

You'll be asked to find four items in an environment -- such as tape, flashlight, batteries and a hammer - so you must begin to open drawers and cupboards to find the items, or use the ones you already found to locate the rest. For example, you could use the flashlight to hunt in the dark for the hammer, and then use the hammer to break open a vase, which has a key inside to open a locked drawer, which has the batteries in it. The batteries can then be used inside the TV remote but until you open up the floorboard and use the tape to fix the wires, the television can't be turned on. Turn on the TV and you'll be rewarded with a page towards the book. These types of puzzles are the most common in this game...

Azada is a brand new puzzle game in the style of Jumangi, where you need to solve many riddles to eventually make it to the end.

In Azada, a spell has been cast by a weird great uncle against poor Titus, trapping him in a magical room. It is up to you to crack the puzzles to free Titus from his prison.

You find yourself in a mysterious place with no idea how you got there.

First, you find a letter on the floor, saying that your help is desperately needed to release Titus from his spell finding all the pages of the secret book.

From this moment on your adventure begins.

The series of numerous puzzles of all kinds are waiting for you.

In each level there are sheets of paper with puzzles for you to choose. The puzzles are quite different. To solve The Colors puzzle, for example, you need to remember the sequence of color blocks that has been pressed and to repeat the sequence on your own.

The Pyramid puzzle is represented by mixed parts of a picture of an ancient pyramid that you are to collect in a way it is done in "Fifteen" game. Your task is to put them together by swapping only the adjacent parts.

Azada Game Review and Download from our partner GameMile Azada - Great Adventure Game With Tons Of Puzzles Big Fish Games Studio is working really hard to supply with oh-so-cool games once in a while. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the next puzzle epic by Big Fish Games Studios - Azada, a super cool puzle adventure game with tons of puzzles to solve. Solve all the puzzles of the game to help Titus. You find yourself in a mysterious place with no idea how you got there. First, you find a letter on the floor, saying that your help is desperately needed to release Titus from his spell finding all the pages of the secret book. From this moment on your adventure begins. The series of numerous puzzles of all kinds are waiting for you. Each level is represented by a number of different puzzles. In each level there are sheets of paper with puzzles for you to choose. The puzzles are quite different. To solve The Colors puzzle, for example, you need to remember the sequence of color blocks that has been pressed and to repeat the sequence on your own. The Pyramid puzzle is represented by mixed parts of a picture of an ancient pyramid that you are to collect in a way it is done in "Fifteen" game...

Azada, from Big Fish Games, is what you might get if a giant walking magic puzzle strolled into your living room and exploded! And then you scooped up all the puzzle minigame bits, pressed them like wildflowers onto ninety pages, and finally crammed all the pages, puzzles, and your big-eared best friend Titus into a book. In short, it's a collection of puzzles. (And Titus.) If you're familiar with the popular "escape the room" or "point and click" Flash puzzles that fill the internet, you'll know what to expect.

You awake in a strange room after being magically summoned by Titus. Trapped in the enchanted book, he needs your help to escape. The only way you can free him is to return all the missing pages to the binding and solve the puzzles inscribed on each sheet. There are ten chapters, and the puzzles get more and more difficult as you progress. As you finish each chapter, you learn more about how Titus got trapped in these puzzling pages. However, let's be honest, the whole scenario is really just a framework built to contain a boatload of ciphers, posers, and enigmas. So if you're a big puzzle fan, here's the game you've been waiting for. What kind of puzzles will you face in Azada? All kinds, and all are timed. Each involves finding/unlocking a glowing green magic page somewhere within the puzzle before time runs out. The page might be inside a simple wooden box and all you have to do is slide around some panels to access it. Or maybe you're challenged to click on the only pair of matching butterflies in someone's dried up insect collection. (As an expert butterfly matcher, and champion of matching games like the addicting Jurassic Realm, my favorite casual game, I finished the butterfly puzzle in twenty-eight seconds. I bet you can't do better!) A few chapters even have match three games...

If I have to help one more scientist/explorer/professor—relative or not—free himself from the confines of a mystical book, I swear I'm going to punch someone in the face. Seriously, people, I work for a living. I have a family to take care of. I can't spend all of my time finding the red pages or gathering the magical runes or turning x number of matchstick triangles into y number of matchstick triangles by moving at least two matchsticks.

But, here we are again, solving the puzzles of Azada in an attempt to release some Titus fellow from the spell that has trapped him within the confines of the book. Pages from the book are missing, you see, and they can only be replaced by solving a series of brain teasers.

That's your premise, anyway. All you really need to concern yourself with from everything I've said above is "solving a series of brain teasers," as that's what Azada is; over 40 puzzles for you to work your way through. Some will be very familiar (perhaps too familiar), and those that aren't certainly will be by game's end. For although there may be over 40 puzzles in total, there are only around 10 to 15 in style...