The Animal Kingdom

Everyone loves going to the zoo. It doesn't matter how old you are, if you're male or female, or even if you're a robot. Everyone enjoys admiring all of the exotic animals, living in exhibits that are made to look like their natural habitat. Because of this, I was looking forward to playing Adventure Inlay - safari Edition. I already enjoy the Inlay games and Safari Edition? Sign me up!

Solid Gameplay

When I fired up the game, I was instantly reminded of why I love this franchise. It takes the traditional puzzle/stacker gameplay concept and turns it completely on it's head. Instead of a big, square playing are that you must fill with pieces, each round presents you with an oddly shaped gameboard, making it tricky to wedge all of the pieces into play. Pieces can be rotated with the spacebar and the right mouse button, and then a normal left click will place them.

Gameplay blocks with scroll in from the right on the bottom of the screen. If you don't use them fast enough, they'll build up and you'll lose the round. If you can't possibly find a spot to set a piece, you can discard it in the box to the left, but once you a discard it, the box will close temporarily, so you can't just throw away all of your blocks.

Every now and then, a powerup will come along. A wand, for example, will automatically fill in a group of spaces. The hammer will smash a piece, in case you've dug yourself in a hole and need to go at it differently.

Sometimes little spinning stars will appear in certain spaces on the board. If you manage to fill these in before the star fades away, you'll score bonus points!

If you find yourself on a roll, hit the feed button to get stones faster. Be careful though, as you can easily find yourself in trouble if you get them too fast!

Different Game Modes

Adventure Inlay - Safari Edition offers three distinct game modes. What I'v described above is basically what makes up traditional mode. You journey through an amazing world of animals and locales, completing puzzles to get to each new place.

Reveal mode plays the same, but the spaces aren't transparent like in traditional mode. Instead, they're solid, and each time you fill up a space it disappears, revealing a little more of the picture underneath. This is a good mode for people who like surprises. Hey, it's a bird!

Strategy mode is one of best Inlay modes in my opinion. Each time you place a stone, the whole board moves to the left. You need to plan accordingly so that you can take out the space before they disappear off screen. This may not be the best mdoe to start out on, but once you become accustomed to the game and how it works, it's where you'll be spending all of your time.

A Real Beauty

Adventure Inlay - Safari Edition is a well made, really fun game that will keep you busy for hours and hours. I highly recommend it, especially for the animal lover.