There is but one mode of play in Jewels of Cleopatra. In another game it would probably be called Adventure mode. That works, because this is really an adventure. The game board is truly immense. It stretches off the screen in every which direction. You need to travel through the chambers, picking up treasure along the way. You click on the mini-map to tell Dr. Turnstone where to go. By making the matches of three or more jewels, you turn the path to gold. Felicity makes her own way towards her destination, following the gold tiles. The idea is simple enough - the execution can be somewhat more challenging.

I ran into a number of obstacles as I made my way through the various rooms. There are sometimes large stones that can block the way. There are also a number of somewhat more animated hazards. Spiders can trap you in their sticky webs. Other creatures, like snakes and scorpions, will send you back to the beginning with their deadly stings. And watch out for those mummies! You have tools to help you with these challenges. There are bug sprays and mummy zappers. There are pickaxes and dynamite for blasting rocks. You can also (temporarily) banish the creepy-crawlies by converting tiles under or around them. You’ll also find that some squares take multiple matches before they turn to gold. The darker the background of the square behind the gem, the more matches it is going to take you to move past it.

Shady has set traps too. He’s planted locusts in some of the rooms. Locusts fly all around and every square they touch looses its gold. I just saw a note that he was seen buying some snakes. Oh my! On your side, there are scarabs. They scurry about and turn various squares to gold for you.

In addition to the utility items you find, there are also things to let you turn an individual or block of tiles gold, or to blast away an entire column or row of tiles. There’s even a gem matcher to remove every tile of matching type in the immediate vicinity. I did quite well without these items in the earlier excavations, but I came to need them often as the areas increased in difficulty.

About midway through each set of rooms in a given dig, you get to take a break and enjoy the scarab races. There are six little colored scarabs in each race. I was the gold scarab. I steer my little guy through a race course using the left mouse button. I tell him to sprint using the right mouse button. It’s a real kick zipping through the course and careening off the little stone markers. If you’re not happy with your place in the finish line, give it another try. The race courses get a little more complex as you proceed. It’s really helpful to have a second go at the race after you learn the layout of the race course. If you finish in the top three in your race, you win a nifty prize to help you in the game. Yay!

When you’ve finished all but the last room you have a picture puzzle to decipher. A really (really) rough approximation of the picture is displayed in the upper right corner. You get to assemble the pieces into the full color puzzle before time runs out. If you like Egyptian style artwork, you will really enjoy these little puzzles.

The last chamber on each level is a real race against time. This time Shady is joining you for a head-to-head race to the hidden artifact. He moves slowly but steadily through the course. You can only advance by turning your path to gold. You’ll really need to watch out for those darker squares that need multiple matches. If you’re getting stuck, this is a good time to use your little helpers to immediately turn the square gold.

As you finish each chamber, you do get your score for that level. There are points for how many of the total tiles you turned to gold, as well as a bonus for speed. There’s a real trade-off between those two factors. My personal preference has been to move as quickly as I can and just worry about converting the tiles that I need in order to move through the puzzle. There are also treasures you can collect in many of the chambers. Along with the item you get from the treasure, you also score points for each treasure you find. If you manage to banish those troublesome critters, you’ll get points for that too. You also get a rating for each room you complete – from one star (poor) to five stars (great). I personally didn’t care about my numeric score. I cared more about my star rating.

When I first started the game, I have to admit that I got a little frustrated. I felt like the tutorial was moving too slow and I still hadn’t reconciled the differences between Jewels of Cleopatra and the typical match three game. Initially I was very concerned with trying to clear every tile and I was not having much luck with that while Dr. Turnstone was charging off. Finally I realized that steering her quickly and profitably through the level is the real challenge. As the dangerous critters are introduced into the game, you really need to pay attention to direct her safely through the level. You don’t want to convert just any tiles if you can make more judicious choices and keep her further away from the scorpion lair.

Lest I forget to tell you, I found the music in Jewels of Cleopatra to be a real delight. It’s upbeat and adventurous. The soundtrack reminded me strongly of belly-dancing music from some of the videos I have. I found myself bopping along in my chair while I played the game. As a side note, if you ever want to watch some entertaining belly-dancing performance videos, Lifting the Veil of Time and A Night at the Casablanca (both by Serpentine Video) were very nice.

I counsel the new player of Jewels of Cleopatra to learn from my mistake. Take the time to understand that tutorial. The information it’s providing is very important. It doesn’t take all that long to get through, and the training will benefit you in the long run. Once you get through the tutorial section, you will find that the game play is much faster and much more intense than your typical matching game. I highly recommend Jewels of Cleopatra. Give it a try. I think you’ll really like it.

Jewels of Cleopatra was released through the collaboration of Encore! and Boomzap. Boomzap is also the maker of the games Jellyboom and Magic Lanterns. As much as I have liked Jewels of Cleopatra, I’ll probably be having a little look at some of their other titles too.