Avatar Hunter is based on the card game Concentration also known as Pairs. The aim of the game is to turn over two cards and try to make a matching pair. Is Avatar Hunter a perfect match? Read on to find out.[singlepic id=1243 w=320 h=240 float=center]
Everyone has probably played Pairs at some time or another with a pack of playing cards. It can be played with as little as 4 cards for young children up to a full deck for older players (or gifted children). The player must turn over two cards, if they match they are removed from the game. If they do not match, the cards are turned back over and the player turns over another two cards and repeats until all the cards are removed.
Avatar Hunter uses this game as a basis but instead of playing cards it uses the 360 Avatars with an easily forgotten story to tie it all in. An evil Teddy has kidnapped avatar twins from around the globe and you must rescue them from his mansion.
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There are five themed levels to play on. NYC Party is themed with avatars in smart dress and the matching requirements is based around their clothing. Hunter High is school based with avatars wearing school/university style clothing. Hairdo Land is based around the avatars hair styles. Wacky Tacky is a hippy themed level and sees the avatars wearing funky clothing. The final level is Random Land and can be a mix of any styles. There are some difficulty differences in the levels, in particular Hairdo Land which I found to be a good challenge as avatars would often look similar but only have different hair styles to distinguish between them.
There are two game modes to choose from; Time Attack and Challenge. Time Attack gives you a five minute time limit to complete six levels, starting with a 3×2 grid of cards with each level increasing up to a grid size of 4×6. You should be able to complete each of the five themed levels on your first or second attempt which gives you around a hours gameplay.
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The Challenge mode follows the same principle but instead of a time limit you have 50 chances to make a pair. The Challenge mode is the harder of the modes and requires good memory and concentration to complete. This mode will provide you with a slightly lengthier challenge of maybe up to two hours.
Both game modes have a simple highscore system and will record the highest score for each level. You gain score by matching the avatars and multiplier bonuses for creating chains by matching pairs on each subsequent turn. The smart players will try to remember all the avatar locations until the end and go for a long chain to gain the highscores.
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Avatar Hunter is presented well with easy to navigate menus. Graphically the game is fine, but I would have liked to have seen a larger theme difference as only the cards backs are drawn differently while the backgrounds remain the same. Music is also a bit of a let down with only one repeating song, it is not too repetitive to listen to but as with the graphics I would have liked to have heard some different music to represent the themes. Sound effects are done fairly well with a variety of speech which can be heard when playing the game. There are some funny quotes which liven things up, but it can get a little repetitive after hearing them a few times in short succession.
Avatar Hunter costs 80 :MSPoints: which is a fair price for the game. You will get two to three hours worth of gameplay if you try to complete all the levels. After doing this there is little replayability, the addition competitive multiplayer mode for example would have worked great and added more replayability. If you like games which tax your brain you may enjoy Avatar Hunter, it does exactly what it sets out to do.
More information on Avatar Hunter as well as the trial and full version of the game can be found on the Marketplace.
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