I love adventure games. Specifically third-person adventure games, an obsession brought on by the original Diablo by Blizzard. Armed with my first iPhone, I downloaded Solomon’s Keep for a very tolerable $.99. Little did I know then that this game would still have me excited to play it two years later! Solomon’s Keep didn’t get many updates until they released Solomon’s Boneyard, which is kind of a condensed version of Solomon’s Keep with a bunch of new features. They’ve now incorporated many of the new Solomon’s Boneyard features into Solomon’s Keep, making an already high replay value that much higher.

I flat out love this game. If I had a choice of only five game apps to put on my iPhone or iPad, Solomon’s Keep would be one of them (and I have played thousands of game apps) along with Solomon’s Boneyard.

Solomon’s Keep is a third-person adventure quasi-role-playing game with a very unique and brilliant character customization mechanism. You’re an apprentice wizard sent into a castle to prove yourself by defeating the wayward evil wizard Solomon. You begin with a choice between the newly expanded spell classes of: fireball, magic missile, lightning bolt and frost jet — with each skill having additional enhancement skills that you can choose upon each level-up. Along with these skills, there are others that enhance your mana regen, health, foot speed, cast speed and a myriad of others that you can choose. The most exciting skill feature is the ability to combine any two spells to create an uber hybrid spell with really fun and dominant results.

After nailing down a spell type, you enter the castle where you face skellies, zombies, ghosts, mages and fire elementals who are desperate to munch on you in a non-horrific manner. I personally appreciate the developers Raptisoft Games’ decision to eliminate any sense of gore. One less thing for us parents of little ones to worry about. After every few levels, you face a boss who grants you a large amount of gold and a rare epic ring or staff (the only equippable items) after his demise. Ultimately you end up at the top of the tower to fight the bad boy himself. Don’t fret after you beat him the first time because you get to continue on repeating the game in more difficult modes.

The graphics are simple but very well done. The gameplay is smooth, addicting and problem free. The controls are intuitive and effortless. The minor storyline, voices and music are funny and appropriate. Bottom line is this game is a blast to play over and over again. There isn’t anyone I wouldn’t recommend Solomon’s Keep to or the follow-up Solomon’s Boneyard. Raptisoft Games developed a gem that will be viable for years to come.