Christian

For reviewing purposes we played this game in two forms.  The first time my husband and I played it intact with my mom while she stayed with us for a couple of days.  We played a couple of rounds with her and she enjoyed it and looks forward to playing it again the next time she is in town.  The second form was with our kids after we removed objectionable cards from the deck.  The cards removed had bad/crude language, body parts, or sexual acts we'd prefer not explaining to our kids just yet.  

In order to play this game with our kids, we removed about 40% of the deck.  Despite wishing we removed a couple of more cards, we all had a good time playing this game. Not surprisingly, the kids tended to go for the silliest answers over Biblical accuracy.   Even with the suggestive and foul language cards removed, there were plenty of silly answers provided.  So given that this game can be fun without the  crude content, it begs the question as to who the target audience is.  Conservative Christians will be put off by the harsh language while non believers may be intrigued at how this game pokes fun at the Bible.

Would Jesus play this game?  I cannot answer that question.  Yes He has a sense of humor and is the author of it, but some of the cards are blatantly disrespectful.  In the game's current form, I would not invite my pastor over to play it.  In the altered form, I may play it some more.

Amazing Bible (PC)

Developed by: Digital Praise
Single Player
Available on PC/Mac, iPhone
Pros: Fun, Christian themed game play
Cons: Blurry graphics

System Requirements
Windows XP, Vista, 7, Mac OS X 10.3
1GHz or G4 CPU
512MB RAM
3D accelerated NVIDIA or ATI video card
200MB HDD disk space

Thanks DigitalPraise for sending us this game to review!

Amazing Bible is a fun Christian puzzle game that you can pick up and play for a few minutes or hours. Your goal is to move two red and blue jewels simultaneously through a maze to their goals. The distance between the two jewels varies with every level. There are over one hundred levels that increase in difficulty. Each level is themed after a story in the Bible and the game will walk you through Genesis to Revelation.

The main obstacles in the maze are tiles. Most of the tiles cannot be budged but some of them can shatter, move on their own, or move when you push them. There are even buttons to launch projectiles to smash tiles in your way. A new effect is revealed after clearing seven consecutive mazes so there is always something to look forward to.

The PC/Mac version of the game comes with a Maze Editor. The maze editor seemed a bit clunky but it gets the job done. I was hoping to be able to design a maze from scratch but you’re limited to just editing existing mazes. When you choose a maze, the background music comes bundled with it. To edit the maze you have to choose what you want the tile to do and then click on the destination.

The controls are pretty straight forward; you can use the mouse or the keyboard to move the jewels across the maze. I prefer using the keyboard.

The background music varies with the different maze themes. It was always pleasant to listen to and fits the game well. The sound effect for bumping into the tiles got annoying after a while.

Graphically speaking this game has its plusses and minuses. The game’s graphics are good for a puzzle/maze game. I like the variety and different themed tiles. The Bible story font was easy to read but the blurry game menu font I wasn’t too fond of. My biggest complaint is that this game does not allow you to change the screen resolution thus making the game look blurry on my big 24” LCD monitor. Another gripe is the installer did not let me choose a different drive to install the game onto.

When it came to stability the main game ran without any problems. In order for me to get the maze editor to work initially, I had to run the game in administrator mode. After I created a maze, administrator mode was no longer necessary. I’m not sure if this issue affects the Mac version or not, as my son already ruined my install disc, so I cannot verify it.

From an appropriateness standpoint this game is pretty safe and fun for people of all ages. The stories can be a little violent but they’re in the Bible. Some of the Stories mentioned are the plagues of Egypt, Joseph the dreamer, and Samson.

All in all this is a fun and unique puzzle game for the family. My kids are mesmerized by it. With a price tag of $9.95 I highly recommend checking it out. There is no multiplayer and no demo available so you’ll have to take my word for it. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t an option to adjust the screen resolution but you can edit the commonConfig.xml file.

Game Play 16/20
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Stability: 4/5
Controls/interface: 4/5
Game Score: 35/50
Appropriateness: 50/50

BibleMinis is a puzzle game that is not only fun, but educational as well.  There are various levels inspired by Bible stories. As you complete all of the stages, you will have the story animated and narrated for you.  You can re-play the movies by going to the Movie Gallery; as you progress in the game, you will unlock more movies.

How do I play? 

Like many puzzle games, your goal is to eliminate tiles by matching up three, four, or five, like tiles; this is done by swapping about adjacent tiles. You can only line up adjacent tiles.  When you match up four or five items, you will get a special item in play that can help you by calling angels to clear a row or column for you.  The objects have a colored background to start; your goal is to replace them with transparent ones.  Some levels also require you to bring an object down to the last row.  There’s a handy counter on top to let you know how many moves you have available.  In the rare event that you run out of moves, the tiles will shuffle around so you can continue to play. If you get stuck, the game will help you by flashing a movable piece for you. 

There are two game modes: classic and timed.  In timed mode, you will lose a life if you haven’t completed the level before the time runs out.  If you lose all of your lives, the game is over.  (I prefer the classic mode, I don’t like the pressure.) 

What stories are represented within the game?

• Adam and Eve
• Noah’s ark
• Moses and the plagues
• David and Goliath
• Daniel and the Lions
• Jonah
• Samson

Graphics

The graphics are colorful, and the cartoon characters and animations are well done. The animated movie shorts look nice, too. The pieces are very distinguishable and are easy to work with. There is nothing too fancy in terms of graphics, though they are on par with most puzzle games out there.

Sound

When you match pieces together there is a jar breaking sound.  The background music is a bit repetitive and loops, but it is pleasant to listen to.  The voice acting for the movies is good. 

Controls/Interface

This is a mouse driven game, and it’s very easy to play and maneuver around. 

Stability

I did not run into any problems playing this game.

Multiplayer? 

This is a single player game only.  It’s highly re-playable with the two different game modes.  

Appropriateness

This game is Bible based and teaches good Bible stories.  There is animated violence but it’s very tame. 

Final Thoughts 

If you like puzzle games, BibleMini’s is worth checking out. There is a demo available that will allow you one hour of game play and up to ten uses.  The full game is a reasonable price of $9.95.  There is no standalone full version available to buy; you have to download the demo and unlock it to the full version.  You can see the game in action on GodTube.
 

Final Ratings

Game Play 16/20
Graphics 8/10
Sound 7/10
Stability 5/5
Controls 5/5
Appropriateness 48/50

 Final Score 89%

System Requirements

OS: Any with java (virtual machine needed for Windows) CPU: 486 or better RAM: 32MB VIDEO: No 3D acceleration needed SOUND: 16 bit Age: Everyone Bible: KJV

I am sure almost everyone has heard of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This game has many similarities to the show but adds so much more! For starters, you are not going for one million, but two million virtual dollars! That\'s not all, the questions are based on the bible. So you get to test your knowledge and learn along the way. The game is very fun and I would recommend it for all ages.

How do I play the game?

When you start the game you have to create your player. After that, get your bible out and be prepared for some tough questions. They have a database of 2,000 random questions so it\'ll never be the same game twice. If that\'s not enough, you can add your own! The dollar amount starts off at $250 and works up to 2 million. The questions get harder along the way to make you work for your winnings. You are timed on answering, so flipping through the Good Book is not always an option.

Do I get life lines?

YES! Just like the TV game show, you have life lines in case you get in a bind. You can ask a bible expert like Adam, Job, Amos, Joshua, Malachi, Peter, Mary, etc. Their expertise varies with how close the questions relate to where they contributed to within the bible. For example you may not want to rely on Adam for a question on Revelation. Fortunately they will say in their answer if they responded with confidence or hesitated. There\'s another option to Zap two answers, this is helpful at times. My favorite lifeline is to poll the audience, they rarely fail me.

Appropriate?

From a Christian perspective this is a biblical game and I see nothing wrong with it. It can be a great learning tool for memorizing scripture or learning it more! I like the look up verse feature after you answer a question and how it automatically shows the verse when you answer incorrectly. This game can be fun for the whole family or church group.

Overall experienceEase of use

The game was fun and easy to play. It\'s single player only, so the only way to compete against others is in the winners list. There are quiz editors and options to add questions to keep the game interesting. The graphics are simple but they work well. There\'s no need for fancy video cards or 3D rendering to run this game. The background music was pleasant and the sound effects when used were fitting. You just need a mouse and keyboard to play. The only technical difficulty I had was with the java virtual machine. Microsoft\'s latest didn\'t work so I recommend you use theirs. This game is real cute and can be enjoyed by anyone. I highly recommend it and for $19.95, you can\'t go wrong!

Final Ratings

Graphics B Game play A Sound B Interface A Stability A- Offensive Content A+

Overall 92% A-

System Requirements

OS: Windows CPU: 486 or better RAM: 32MB VIDEO: No 3D acceleration needed SOUND: 16 bit Age: Everyone

Think you know your bible? You know it enough to consider yourself a genius? Test your knowledge with this game! There are 300 questions to help you become a bible whiz. Try it, it\'s fun for all ages.

How do I play the game?

When you start the game you first choose how many players there will be. You can have up to three players, each getting their own buzzer key. After that, you get to choose how many questions/rounds you want to play. You can play a 7, 14, or a 21 question game. There are 12 avatars you can choose to represent yourself. If you don\'t like the people ones you can play as a dog or a cat. There are mystery faces too if you choose to remain anonymous.

How do I score points?

At the beginning of each round there are three catagories to choose from. The dollar amount changes constantly so try to grab a high value one if you can. Be careful though, even though you may win a lot, if you answer incorrectly, you will lose the same amount. When you miss a question you will be boo\'d or laughed at. The sound effects are cute. If you are the only player you will win no matter how low your score is.

Appropriate?

From a Christian perspective this is a biblical game and I see nothing wrong with it. It can be a great learning tool for learning about biblical stories and characters. When you miss a question it does not show you the correct answer, so you\'ll have to keep guessing until you get it right. (Or look it up on your own) This game can be fun for the whole family or church group.

Overall experienceEase of use

The game was fun and easy to play. The multiplayer aspect is great. There are only 300 questions so you will see repeats. However, There is a quiz editor so you can add or delete questions. The graphics are simple but they work. There\'s no need for fancy video cards or 3D rendering to run this game. The background MIDI music was nice but a repetative. I love the sound effects for when you get a question right or wrong. The controls are easy, you just need a mouse and keyboard to play. This game is real cute and can be enjoyed by anyone. I highly recommend it.

Final Ratings

Graphics C+ Game play B Sound B- Interface A Stability A Offensive Content A+

Overall 84% B

System Requirements Windows 98/ME/XP Pentium II 400 DirectX compatible video card ( 3D acceleration 8 or 16 MB Video-RAM recommended ) 64 MB RAM or better. 90 megs free hard drive space. DirectX 8.0 or higher

Swing into action with Bongo the Bible loving monkey. Your quest in the demo is to find the key to a treasure chest in the dangerous jungle. Armed with your slingshot and a limited amount of banana ammo, your adventure awaits!

Bananas?

That\'s right you\'re armed with your Bible knowledge and bananas. Each shot at your enemies costs you 50-100 banana points so we need to constantly replenish our ammo supplies. To get more bananas you can find them, gather Bible scrolls or answer Biblical trivia questions. Be careful, if you answer a question incorrectly, you\'ll get pushed away and take some damage.

What kind of Bible Trivia?

You will be asked to place prophets and books in the right chronological order. There are some good questions I took a beating on a couple of times. Some of the questions are pretty easy, like: \'Which book is a collection of 150 poems about God that were originally meant to be sung?\' Some of the tougher questions ask you how many books are in the Old Testament and New Testament etc.

What kind of enemies will I fight?

The jungle is home to some big carnivorous plants. These babies will gobble you up whole; fortunately you can out run them if you\'re out of bananas. The other enemy in the jungle you\'ll encounter are mummies. Mummies are faster and smarter. Not only will they duck from the bananas coming their way, they will run away from you as well. They have more hitpoints than the plants, be careful of these guys.

Appropriate?

Other than pelting plants and mummies with bananas I think this game is pretty clean. It\'s no different than your Nintendo 64 style games. In fact, this game reminds me in many ways of your classic clean console games, except with Biblical questions.

Overall

Bongo Loves the Bible is powered by the A5 engine. The surroundings are 3D rendered and look pretty good. The demo level is big and has some secret areas for those who like to explore. As with many console games you\'ll come across some jumping puzzles. The controls are limited to the arrow keys, and there was no option to change to my beloved WASD. The mouse cursor was a bit difficult to navigate on the menu. One annoyance is that the mouse cursor is always visible during game play. I did get stuck once in a level, but the game is stable otherwise. The sound effects were nice. The menu screen has a theme song which is cute but the game play music is a tad repetitive. There is some music variety when fighting mummies, but other than that it\'s the same loop over and over. The game looks to be single player only. It does have great potential. It\'s a fun way to learn the Bible. Check out the demo. Or buy the game for $19.99.

Final Ratings

Graphics B Game Play B+ Sound C Interface C+ Stability B+ Appropriateness A-

Overall 77%

OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP CPU: Pentium 500Mhz RAM: 128MB HDD: 600MB VIDEO: 32MB Direct X 8.1 compatible SOUND: 16 bit Age: Everyone

Based on the famed Pilgrim\'s Progress novel by John Bunyan, Heaven Bound is set in a world of Christian Allegories. Our lone adventurer, Christian, must find the narrow pathway leading to Heaven. He is aided on his journey by Evangelist and other characters he meets along the way. Beset with trials and tribulations he must overcome ancient mysteries and vicious demons. Seek always the prize and do not be discouraged, for though the road is long and hard, great indeed is the reward.*

How do I play?

So you want to go to Heaven? Well talk to people around the towns and see what they have to you. What, they don\'t want to talk? Well seek the evangelist, he\'ll tell you what to do. Follow his directions and you\'ll begin your journey. When you start the game, the evangelist will give you the staff of Moses to ward off demons. To charge it up, find the altars and answer some bible questions correctly and get ten charges for each correct answer. There are some jumping puzzles in this game, the demo has a second level dedicated to jumping across poisonous swamps with sinking stones. Very challenging and kind of annoying. I believe the full version is a tad easier. :) There\'s more than jumping around so that\'s good.

What kind of enemies are there?

From what I\'ve seen in the demo you will encounter little demon looking monsters. There are bosses in this game so be prepared! The AI was decent, the enemies will attack when you hit them or come close to them. Often times you can lure them into danger and take advantage of their stupidity.

Glitches?

I\'ve encountered a few bugs along the way. For starters the game detects your joystick and there is no way to disable it. I had to unplug mine to stop my character from moving out of control. I also experienced trouble loading some of my saves. For example I would load my save and the mouse would hover over the new game and a new game would load if I didn\'t move my character right away. (This made dieing VERY frustrating). On a positive note, the developers really do care and were very responsive to all the comments I have made. The final version will have many tweaks so that\'s always good news.

Appropriate?

This is a Christian game so naturally it\'s pretty clean. It\'s all about spreading God\'s truth to those who do not know him. Along the way you\'ll fight demons and bosses but there\'s no blood, just cool explosions when you defeat them. I liked how they included a message on how to become saved right in the game menu, way to go!

Overall experienceEase of use

This game is easy to install and play. The graphics remind me of Final Fantasy VII in a way, not sure why. The characters are cartoony and the environments are decent, not a whole lot of detail but you can tell what objects you have to interact with. Although the buildings look 3D at certain angles they are paper thin, kind of like a Hollywood studio. The voice narration is good and very fitting. There are some sound effects when attacking monsters, nothing spectacular. The game engine does support OGG music files so that\'s cool. There is no multiplayer from what I\'ve seen, nor can you adjust the difficulty. So the replay value is a bit limited. If you like adventure games and don\'t mind the occasional jumping puzzles Heaven Bound is worth checking out. It\'s got a great message and you might learn more about God\'s word while having fun! Check out the demo! The full version of the game retails for $39.95.

Thank you Left Behind Games for giving us this game to review!

Since Left Behind Games acquired Cloud 9 Games, they have revamped and re-released their titles as LBG products.  King Solomon’s Trivia Challenge is a repackaged Solomon Says Anything Goes.  The announcer is new and the game’s background graphics are improved a bit, but as far as I know, the questions remain the same.

Here are the categories: (Anything Goes covers everything)

• Anything Goes
• Food and Wine
• Signs and Wonders
• Old Testament
• New Testament

System Requirements

OS: Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP CPU: 300mhz RAM: 64MB VIDEO: 16 or 32 bit color SOUND: Direct X compatible Age: Everyone

You can download this demo at http://www.popcap.com There are three different game types: Action, Strategy and Puzzle. I honestly didn\'t see much difference between the Action and Strategy modes except that the Action mode is faster paced. In the Action and Strategy mode you have to match up the animals 2 x 2 and you must match them quickly as water is rising. If the water level gets too high you lose. The puzzle mode is completely different. In this game type you have to swap around animal pieces so you can make matches of 3. In the demo the Puzzle mode is timed and you can only play for a minute or so. The demo also limits you to playing 10 times.

How do I play the game?

The common goal in all the game types is matching up animals. When the water level is rising you can lower it with every match you make. All the game modes offer easy, medium and hard difficulty levels. If you have trouble finding your next match there is a hint system that will brighten up your next move for you. This of course can be disabled. Like Mahjong, you may run out of moves. If this happens, the game will shuffle the tiles for you with a slight score reduction.

What is in the full version?

The full version will give you unlimited play. You will also be able to add your information to the high scores list. (this is disabled in the demo.) Maybe the full version\'s Strategy mode will truly be turn based like it says in its description?

Appropriate?

From a Christian perspective this is a biblically based game and I see nothing wrong with it. People of all ages will enjoy this game.

Overall experienceEase of use

The game is fun to play and it\'s easy to maneuver. The graphics are simple but good for this game type. The music and sound effects are in ogg vorbis format. The background music loop is pleasant and the rain and voice sounds are good too. Installation and removal is simple and the game is stable without any problems. If you wish to purchase this game it\'s $19.95. I\'m sure any puzzle lover will enjoy this.

System Requirements
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, OS X
733 MHz, G3,G4 or G5
120MB HDD Space 128MB RAM
16MB Video RAM
CD-ROM

How well do you know God’s animal creations? This Bible trivia game will stump adults and kids alike. Some of the questions can be answered from the Bible but not all the questions have a verse reference. For example do you know how many eyes a caterpillar has? How about a grasshopper? (Both have more than 2!) There are over 500 questions in five categories so there aren’t too many repeats. There are three levels of difficulty however you get more points for answering harder questions. You can have up to three players and since this a Digital Praise title, you can even use your dance pad as a controller if you prefer. The default controller is a keyboard with each player using different keys.

Categories

Wet & Wild Creepy Crawly Things With Wings Marvelous Mammals Creatures Great & Small

Game Play

This game is pretty fun and with the wise cracking announcer it’s similar to the “You Don’t Know Jack” series. Single player mode has a different feel than when you’re playing against someone else. The point system is completely different. In single player, after the question is asked, your total available points decrease until you answer the question, so think fast! Another difference is that you are not penalized for wrong answers in single player mode. In multiplayer mode if you answer a question wrong you lose the amount the question was worth. Unfortunately, no matter how well you do in single player your score will not be entered into the Hall of Fame. There are un-lockable characters available to you as you play the game. These are avatars that you can choose to represent you in the game. There’s a monkey, a lion, a dog, and more!

Graphics

Trivia games don’t need the latest and greatest 3D engine and this game is no exception. The graphics in Solomon Says are colorful and flashy; they fit the bill nicely.

Sound

The menu music has a jungle rhythm to it and it fits with the game décor. The announcer is amusing and the animal sound effects are good too. You can taunt other players in an attempt to distract them.

Stability

This game did not error out on me but we did discover a bug. When my husband and I were playing against each other, we got a blank question with no audio or text to read or choose from. That only happened to us once.

Appropriateness

This game has Bible based trivia, so I don’t have any complaints in this department. I recommend this game for all ages (7+ up according to the box).

Final Thoughts

I have not played the original Solomon Says, but this title is very fun and I have learned a lot by playing it. (Caterpillars have 12 eyes btw). Some of the questions require Bible knowledge while other questions require animal expertise. The 3,000 bonus point questions are either super hard or super silly, good luck getting those right. All in all this game is very enjoyable and I recommend it for any animal lover.

Final Ratings

Game Play 17/20 Graphics 7/10 Sound 8/10 Stability 4/5 Controls/Interface 5/5 Appropriateness 50/50

Total 91%