The Treasures of Montezuma

Game addiction can be an ugly thing. How ugly? We're talking four in the morning, waking up and not knowing where you are ugly. Gaming is usually a healthy and sociable pastime (parent groups and politicians be damned), but every once in a while it rages out of control, an all-consuming hunger where you're sitting bolt upright, eyes red, hair frazzled, fingers twitching. It only takes one game to do that, ladies and gentlemen, one game and you're hooked. Big time.

The Treasures of Montezuma is one such game. The troubling thing is that it catches you completely unawares. The premise doesn't look very original – it's a match-three puzzle game with more than a passing resemblance to Bejeweled – and the graphics on the version tested are small, pokey, and horrible. And yet, for those players who hang around long enough, the game will suddenly unfurl its charms and ensnare you in its trap. Everything clicks, the game makes perfect sense, and you're absolutely done for.

So what does Montezuma do right that hundreds – nay – thousands of Bejeweled clones do wrong? It builds on the original concept and dramatically improves it. Apologies if we're making too many references to another game in order to evaluate this one, but we think it's necessary in order to make the point about its genius.

It's not enough to match three tokens by themselves. There's an added purpose in that certain tokens contain gems that can only be released after they've been matched. Hence, players have to choose between matching tokens which don't contain gems and those which do. This ruse adds a dynamic complexity to the game mechanic that was previously lacking, and players have to rethink their strategy. The temptation to match five tokens, for example, is not always as useful as matching two smaller sets of three.

This also eliminates the key weakness of Bejeweled. Often, in it, the game would be declared over because there were no more moves possible on the grid. Players would be caught by surprise, and could reasonably feel that they were being unfairly penalised for a design quirk they weren't responsible for. With Montezuma the goal posts have been shifted for the better; because the objective is not explicitly concerned with only matching tokens, the grid is simply restarted when all the moves have been exhausted… but with a small time penalty.

Ah yes, the time penalty. Did we forget to mention that bit? Like most puzzle games, you are still expected to work against the clock, with each stage requiring that you collect a certain number of gems within a certain period. It gets significantly tougher as you progress, because the time limit remains the same even though you'll gradually have more gems to collect.

This is where the bonus items come into play. Match four or five gems and you'll get special tokens which can extend your playtime. Initially it's just singular entities like sticks of dynamite to remove blocks, but eventually players gain access to a thing called Power Totems. These can be activated with two or more consecutive matches of the same colour tokens, which then trigger chain reaction effects like time delays, token removal and mass gem collection.

So, doesn't sound like much, does it? But this is an excellent diversion and one which we'd gladly recommend to all and sundry. The graphics and audio are below average, and that's what prevents it from scoring higher. But it's a testament to the quality of the core mechanic that Montezuma remains an essential experience.

Be warned, however: it's preposterously addictive. You'll be losing plenty of sleep over this one, we promise. And when you do get to bed, you might start seeing little coloured tokens in your slumber, by which point we'd argue the time to check into the game addict's rehab centre will have arrived.