Review: Mystic Emporium
March 3, 2010
, Posted by App-reciation Reviews at 5:25 PM
Seller: 99 Games Online Private Ltd.
Price: $ 3.99
Requirements: iPhone or iPod touch, OS 3.0 or later
Version: 1.0
What's good: If you're ready to be taken in by the magical charms of 99Games' newest iPhone title, then don your pointy wizard's hat, pick up your wand, and step into the boots of a bright and innovative witch named Sally. A girl with big dreams, she realizes her heart's desire when she buys a dusty old shop to start her own business, and it is your job to help her turn this into a successful endeavor. Following along the lines of classic time management games, the goal in Mystic Emporium is simply to serve up customer orders as efficiently as you can so as to turn the required amount of daily profit and proceed to the next day. However, you're not running an ordinary shop, so instead of regular human customers looking for drinks and foodstuff, you get a wide and creative array of magical personalities, all clamoring for the best and latest potions you can cook up. Wait on vampires, sorcerers, medusas, and an assortment of interesting creatures as they stand at the counter and tell you what they want: potions require a mixture of ingredients which you can find at your cupboard and then brew in cauldron pots, whereas artifacts like crystal balls and skulls only require you to summon them from the shelves and quickly restock by calling on your trusty tentacled assistant.
As your shop becomes more and more popular, you will get many more customers coming in at a time, but as the difficulty hikes, so does your income. At the end of each day, the gold you earn allows you to purchase various shop upgrades and new items that will prove extremely helpful in different ways. Buy up to two additional cauldrons to prepare more potions at a time, or improve your cauldron's quality to hasten the simmering process. You can also purchase up to three storage slots to store finished goods, a magic harp to soothe and placate waiting customers, and even enchanted boots to make Sally move around her store at a much faster pace. Armed with these tools and extras, it is up to you to see the continuous improvement of Sally's emporium through over twenty challenging levels, with fast-paced matching games scattered randomly in between levels which, when completed, will reward you with even more helpful power-ups and lucky charms. Do well and you'll even unlock gorgeous trophies for achievements like completing the game, getting expert scores in all stages, and not losing a single customer in a succession of levels.
Captivating and feature-packed gameplay aside, what makes this port so perfect are the brilliant graphics and bewitching sounds that bring color and magic to the game. Every tinkle of delicate glass and bubble of stewing potion blends yet stands out from the noisy chatter and the comings and goings of various interesting characters in a breathtakingly colorful world of intricate detail and design. The best part is, it retails at only $ 3.99, so it should be easy to decide to get this spellbinding game and go on the mystic adventure yourself!
Suggestions for improvement: This game is so much fun we feel that twenty four levels is just too few. Hopefully, additional levels or difficulty modes will be added in the next update to extend gameplay value.
Breakdown:
Graphics - 5/5 Creativity - 4.75/5 Gameplay - 5/5 Controls - 5/5
App-reciation - 5/5
Thanks a lot for the wonderful review of Mystic Emporium! We're delighted to know that you enjoyed this unique time management game. Lilly's Mystic Emporium is one of the most engaging time management games you'll find on the App Store. We'll keep in mind all your suggestions for the future updates.