Game Review: Venice by Popcap Games and Retro64

Venice, a new game by Popcap Games and Retro64 is nothing like you've ever seen before. The best connection I can suggest between Venice and other games is Pinball meshed with Blasterball. This retro-based puzzle/action game You are a gondola (boat) floating at the bottom of a building, hoping to save it from sinking by restoring its lost treasures such as hearts, coins, rings, stars, keys, etc. Shoot these treasures into their respective slots carefully, or your item will come flying back down and you must grab it or beware of losing a life. You certainly won't win that way. Fill each plate of symbols and the plate will disappear, allowing you to move further up the building. Once you've cleared all plates you have passed the level and can continue on to another building, just a tad more difficult.

Along the way, blocks, traps, bumpers and tricks make it quite the challenge. Grab power-ups to help you through your fight to save the buildings of Venice. Try for tumbles and cascading combos, which will score you big points!

"Venice is a different sort of game, melding numerous puzzle-solving elements with varying degrees of retro-arcade action depending on your preference," said Jason Kapalka, chief creative officer and co-founder of PopCap. "There's truly something for everyone in Venice, and the game-play is flexible in giving different kinds of casual game fans different ways to play. The themed soundtrack and artwork create great settings in which to experience the sights and sounds of ancient Italy while navigating your way to victory."

"We're thrilled to have PopCap publishing Venice and helping with the fine-tuning of the game - it's great to be working with the best in the business," said Mike Boeh, lead developer of Venice at Retro64. "PopCap truly has a knack for making a game as good as it can possibly be, and that's reflected in the final version of Venice."

The colors are brilliant, graphics are amazing, and the soundtrack is fantastic and really puts you in the mood for this shape shooting game. The best thing about it is you can play the game for hours on end without getting bored with the 4 different modes of game play. You start out with Journey mode (like most games adventure mode where you have some sort of storyline to go along with your quest). As you finish modes you open others such as flood, survival and trick shots. If you're a pinball fanatic, I highly recommend Venice as your next PC game purchase.

You can download a free trial of Venice at Popcap Games or purchase for $19.95.

System Requirements for Venice:
OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista
Memory: 256 MB RAM or greater
Processor: 500 MHz or faster
DirectX: 7.0
Internet: Internet connection is required to download and register the game

Other Popcap games you might enjoy if you enjoyed Venice are: Peggle and Dynomite.