Charm Tale

aka: Feenzauber
Moby ID: 31372

Description

Charm Tale is an inlay puzzle game. The game relies heavily on the hand-drawn artwork that comprises all the backgrounds in it. Each small section of the bigger picture corresponds to a certain chapter in the fairy-tale story. Each of those sections features a specific creature or object which directly relates to the story itself. Poet and the nightingale, the girl and the knowing snail, schoolmistress, dolphins are some examples of the characters player will encounter through the course of the game, bringing it the flavor of an ongoing adventure.

The gameplay remains typical to that of an inlay game. The player should correctly fit the crystalline shapes given to uncover the picture beneath them. The trick is to do that before the string will be overrun by shapes. Additionally player has an access to an array of power-ups that will either stop the string of figures or abandons some of them. Also player can take advantage of Chameleon Shot that will break the complex figure into a simple one. Together with crystalline shapes players will encounter a piece of jewelry that must be correctly assembled in the additional portion of the screen. Once done it will allow to upgrade various gameplay stats. For example, player can increase the number of score given or decrease the speed with which the figures are moving.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

17 People (1 developers, 16 thanks)

Reviews

Players

Average score: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 1 ratings)

A puzzle game for children mostly

The Good
It is surprisingly addictive despite being not exactly hard - for adults. It is rather relaxing to play a few levels in between work or reading. You can put a lot of perfectionism into dissolving the pattern efficiently, but you can also use more of a brute force approach (then the game will probably get boring). I actually liked the (repetitive) music. Matching the stones to the patterns may improve spatial/geometrical perception/understanding and there is no violence or anything offensive in game, so IF you want to let your kids play on the computer, this is a game I can recommend.

The Bad
For 20$ it is a bit short for my taste (about 50 to 60 levels IIRC?) The plot/story as well as the artwork and it's themes are quite cheesy. Probably okay or even interesting for children. Sometimes you will not pick the stone from the line you wanted and this can result in loosing valuable stones - annoying. There isn't much variation in the patterns, mostly they just get bigger (and thus the levels longer) and partly have 3 layers. You tend to end up with removing many single tiles towards the end - lots of clicking, annoying. You collect a bonus ability per level and if you focus on the right bonuses even the 'hard' setting becomes really easy quickly. You collect points for using bigger stones, but ultimately collecting points in this game (as in many others) is pointless.

The Bottom Line
It's a puzzle game where you have to remove a given pattern consisting of drop-like tiles by using random one- or multi-tile "stones" that travel along a line. If stones reach the end of the line, you lose, if you remove the pattern, you move on to the next level. In "no lose" mode, stones reaching the end of the line just disappear.

Windows · by Tomthesecond (26) · 2010

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 31372
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by St. Martyne.

Additional contributors: Yearman.

Game added November 30, 2007. Last modified July 27, 2023.