Temple of Zoom
I always approach advergames with healthy trepidation. The focus of development is usually on the "message", i.e. what they want you to buy, rather than on the gameplay. It's hard enough to develop a great game, much less a great game that also incorporates marketing elements.
Temple of Zoom by Inbox Digital is a great platformer that manages to use its product's features (the Panasonic Lumix TZ3 digital camera) as integral elements of the game rather than as tacked-on graphics and splash advertisements. The shutter is the exit to each level, the zoom lens is a rising platform, and the hot lava is... I guess the hot lava doesn't come from the camera.
Using the arrows to move and the [spacebar] to jump, you must first find the Wide Angle Lens, which opens up the playing field so that you can then find the Exit to the next level. There are of course bonus points and multipliers to tempt you to more hazardous areas of the stage, as well as tried and true features that you would come to expect from the genre, such as high-jump platforms.
There are 25 levels in all, and you actually get a 10% off voucher just for reaching level 10. If you're in the market for this or any other Lumix camera, that's like free money just for playing the game.
Analysis: This is of course a typical platformer with all of the expectations that label implies, but this game has a lot of nice features to set it apart from others.
The pixelated graphics are incredible, at the same time ridiculously simple yet with beautiful effects that really immerse you in the game. Imagine playing a game with graphics like Pitfall! on a modern computer, and you might start to get the idea. Temple of Zoom's swinging rope completes the analogy nicely.
The game takes too long to ramp the difficulty up to a very interesting level, but around level 9 or so you should be sufficiently hooked to want to finish the game. If you're looking for a nice diversion to fill 15 minutes between the endless march of meetings at work, you can't go wrong with this one.
Yes, this is indeed fun. Nice stylized graphics, but the best feature are the blue areas that make you bounce like a gummi bear if both the floor and the ceiling are blue.
Oh, and about those blue bouncy areas: I was having trouble timing the [spacebar] press with hitting the platform to achieve the high jump. Turns out that's not an issue. As long as you're holding down [spacebar] when you make contact, off you go!
Oh, and for those of you who don't what Pitfall! is... my apologies for not putting in the exclamation mark the first time!
That was a lot of fun; I love the new-retro feel which emanated from the glowing "pixels."
If I'm not mistaken, this is made by the same people as was Jelly Jumper, from a LDF not too long ago. That was also an advergame that gave you a discount for reaching a certain level, and the scoring lights at the top are nearly identical.
Gravity seems to act more strongly if you don't jump first. For instance, walking off a platform will practically throw you to the ground, whereas jumping down is a much calmer drop.
I knew it.
Try jumping straight into the lava - it's kind of fun. :)
Alright! Global rank number 3!
screenshot
That was fun, I definately enjoyed dying.
You get a 15% voucher if you beat all the levels. I got perfect on every one except 6, 13, and 16. I'll probably try a bit more for those, but for now I'm global rank 80. Those 3 levels are tards, though.
Just got perfect on every level right after I posted that, apparently I'm the 3rd person to do so. No extra voucher for doing that, though. :(
how the heck do you get a perfect on level 1? i can do all the rest but ive collected everything and i only get 850 and i dont hang around help?
Pretty fun.
Reminds me of N, with all the dodging and collecting with no attack option.
But I must admit I'm tired of hearing the Hallelujah Chorus.
Typical, though:
Can anyone guess what I recently bought before this virtual discount voucher came to our attention?
@Firebrand
You have to dodge all the 50 point dots until you collect the bonus multiplier.
This goes for every level. The very first thing you need to collect are all the bonus multipliers on the stage, if you want to get the perfect score, that is.
I got perfect on all levels also, with a score of 282250, and it listed me as global rank of 3 as well.
I wonder why it says global rank of 3 for all people who get perfect scores. Either they should all be placed at global rank of 1, or tehy should be in dcreasing rank based on when they achieved the perfect score.
God, getting the jump right for level 4 is proving to be obnoxious -_-
Hmm... there were some tough levels to get perfect on. I now have gotten them all except 6. How do you get that multiplier on the left without getting the points underneath it? Do you just have to time the jump that exactly right? (from the platform on the left or the moving pillar?)
For the tough multiplier on 6:
I got it by standing beside it and jumping. If you jump and move sideways, you seem to get a bit higher, and hit the multi before the dots.
I beat the game perfect too, and it gave me global rank 3. Seems like it is a bug in the high scores.
I don't think there's a bug with the highscores, I just think that 2 people have somehow managed to cheat and created a higher highscore than it's actually possible to achieve, thus everybody who achieves the perfect actual score, all share the 3rd place, much like the Olympics for instance.
Is anyone else getting a vague resemblance between the JIG guy on the top of the site and the screen shot of this game?
I actualy got perfect on every level ang got global rank 1
Here is my screenshot:
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/5883/rank1iz2.png
and i did not cheat...
ok, so I've managed perfect on all levels except 13, I'm 150 points short because I simply cant jump both those first two dots and the lava pit.
Can someone please confirm that I'm not missing something. Otherwise, how do you jump that far?
Interestingly, I'm global rank 20 which suggests less than 20 people have aced the whole game.
Level 13 Solution
To get past those first two dots you have to do a perfectly timed double jump. Jump up to the first edge and move all the way to the right of the edge. Now jump to the left, landing just before the two dots then jump again quickly. The added speed of the first jump will allow you to clear both dots and the lava pit. Good luck!
How do you get past level 22?
I finally got perfect on all the levels, for a total score of 282250, and my global rank is 25910... Did anybody ever figure out why this is? Did 25909 people really manage to cheat and create a higher score than should be possible???
I got a perfect score on every level except for level 22. How the heck do you beat that?
Jack: Levels 22 and 25 were the two that had me hung up for a long time. For 22, obviously you need all seven multiplier icons before getting the points on the right side of the screen. Getting the multiplier icon on the upper left of the screen was what gave me the most trouble. Here's how you get it:
After jumping through to the top of the screen and then jumping onto the rope on the left, position yourself about 1/3 of the way down the rope (from top to bottom). Then, when the rope swings right, jump up and slightly right, then hard to the left, and you can jump on top of the platform and get the multiplier icon. It's a tricky jump and takes a little practice. Luckily, if you miss you'll most likely land back on the rope to try again. After this, go to the bottom left to get the other icon, then jump past the jumping pad and go to the right to get the points, then back to the top as before, to the rope, to the bottom of the rope to explode the bomb (go to the top while waiting), and down to finish the level.
I just cannot figure out the twenty-fifth level of "The Temple of Zoom." How do you get past it?
how the hell can you all pass through the last level?
i simply cant figure it out :(
Samuel and kv: As you can no doubt see, level 25 is something of a puzzle. Getting to the right side of the screen, then back to the left is the most difficult part. Here's how I did it:
There are four rows. On row number 1 (top row), detonate the first bomb only, then run to the left while it explodes. Fall through the hole to row #2, quickly run to the left to get the multiplier icon, then run all the way to the right while the bombs explode. For row #3, jump to the third bomb from the right (fourth from the left). Be careful not to touch the bombs to either side of you. Then jump over the bomb to the left without touching it, and run through the two bombs farthest to the left. Next, fall down to row #4, onto the second bomb from the left. Wait for about one second, then quickly run to the left to detonate the first bomb, then back to the right. Run until you get to the fifth bomb from the left (second to last one). Once one of the bomb explodes, quickly run back to the left and jump down to the Wide Angle Lens. Bounce on the right side to get all the multiplier icons, then to the left to get all the points (without touching the left wall). Next, bounce up to what's left of row #3. Jump to the "island" in the middle of the screen, where you previously left a bomb. Now you have a tricky jump. You have to jump down to the right to row #4. Jump straight up, then angle to the right as you're falling so as to avoid landing on row #3. Run to the right and gather all the points there, then jump back onto row #3. You can now jump directly from the edge of row #3 back to the left and land on the camera where the Wide Angle Lens used to be. Then simply jump up to row #1, jump over the hole in row #1, and run through the bombs to the exit to end the level.
Hope this helps.
The site seems to have been taken down.
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