Having never played the original
Luxor, I can't draw comparisons between that and the sequel,
Luxor 2. However, I am a long time fan of
Zuma and since the two games are very similar, I can compare them.
Luxor 2 places you in the role of an ornate paddle AKA winged scarab with balls of different color that you can shoot towards a rapidly snaking row of more of these different colored balls, being pushed forward by a tireless little bug towards a temple. Basically, you shoot the correct color ball into two or more of the same color and these disappear. The goal is to destroy all of the balls prior to the bug guy reaching the temple's door. To help you along the way are numerous powerups that fall down as you destroy more balls. They may stop or slow down the progress of the line, or even reverse it altogether. A lightning strike may take out an entire group of balls or a color cloud may turn a whole area the color of the ball you shoot. The Wild Ball, accompanied by a feral sounding eagle screech, will act as a wild card to eliminate 2 matching balls. Sometimes you'll get Pharoah's daggers, which are great as they destroy any single ball they touch.
Now, with all of these powerups that drop down upon you, you might think it's pretty easy to bust on through Luxor 2. Well, it's anything but. The speed at which these rows of balls come at you is much faster than Zuma, although the gameplay is much the same. Sometimes the relentless rows of balls will come out from either side, tag teaming you. And with 88 new levels to burn your way through, this game will take quite a few lunch breaks to complete.
You can opt to play on Practice to beef up your skill on a specific level, Survival if you want to torture yourself on the same level with endless rows of balls encroaching, or Adventure mode, which is the meat of the game. Here, you'll advance through level after level of well designed torture chambers of stress. It's a beautiful thing, actually. As you progress, your "rank" changes. I think I am up to Sower of Seed or something like that, all the way from a lowly Farm Hand. Methinks the rank of Pharoah is a long way off...
With every group of levels that you defeat, you are given an opportunity to play a Bonus Round for extra points. There are 13 in all. Here, you'll have daggers to take out the balls, so no matching is required, although fancy shooting can earn you extra points and a quicker clearing of the row. Take them all out and earn an extra 15,000 points.
Especially if you use this casual game as a diversion for a lunchbreak, the gameplay will last you for quite some time. The downside is that it defaults to taking up the entire screen. The upside is you can pause and save your game at any time, so no need to worry about losing your progress.
