Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife

Storyline

Queen Nefertiti's tomb was raided by followers of Amun, led by their leader Thutmose. Of the artifacts stolen were her four canopic jars, which disturbed the rest of her afterlife, preventing her from rising to the heavens. The player, the bloodline of Queen Nefertiti, has to pursue the thieves along the Silk Road and help her retrieve back her four canopic jars so that she could rise for her afterlife.

Artifacts

Artifacts were stolen from Queen Nefertiti's tomb, broken into pieces and scattered along the Silk Road. When all the artifact pieces are found, the player has to assemble them to complete the artifact. The artifacts will help out the player in the game.

Eye of Horus - Scries the area to locate the remaining pieces of the artifact.

Golden Scarab - Unlocks the golden scarab bonus in the game. This golden scarab can be shot with a sphere to release a number of ankh coins.

Sphinx - Unlocks the puzzle campaign.

Cow of Hathor - Multiplies the score for collecting gems and coins.

Statue of Horus - An upgrade of the Eye of Horus. Can scry the area for artifact pieces that have not been found.

Chariot - Allows the player to fly to the closest city where a wandering high prophet is.

Sun discs of Aten - 3 Sun discs of Aten are discovered during adventure. Only one can be in possession at once. The sun disc is used to locate a wandering high prophet and can be placed above a city to prevent him from going past that city.

Classic Mode

Similar to the previous Luxor versions, the player has to make matches of three or more of the same color to destroy the spheres. A specific number of lines of spheres have to be cleared, which is shown at the bottom-left-hand corner of the screen. At certain cases, a chest spawns at a random location. It is the artifact and can be shot to release a number of ankh coins depending on the difficulty.

River Mode

A scarab is stranded at the other end of the river. The objective is to destroy the scarab by clearing all the spheres it is pushing. However, there are lines of scarabs on the river, preventing the player from having a direct aim on the stray scarab.

Onslaught Mode

Statues belonging to the followers of Amun are scattered around the route, forcing the scarabs to take a shorter route to the pyramid. The statues can be destroyed by shooting them with the spheres. However, they are enchanted - when destroyed, they respawn at another location after a while.

Battle Mode

The player has to battle a thief or a wandering high prophet who has one of Queen Nefertiti's canopic jars. The treasure is in the middle of the line of spheres. The player has to make matches to spawn green pushing scarabs that will help in pushing the treasure to his side (green tent). The enemy on the other hand, will also attempt to make matches to spawn red pushing scarabs that will help in pushing the treasure to his side (red pyramid). When there are more pushing scarabs, the pushing power increases.

Free Play

Any level that has been encountered in Adventure mode can be played here. There are two modes of Free Play - Classic and Endless. In Classic, the player plays it like in Adventure. However, he cannot earn ankh coins from the levels. In Endless, there is an infinite number of sphere-pushing scarabs which spawn at a faster time. The player has to survive for as long as he can.

Puzzle Mode

Puzzle campaign is unlocked when the player has assembled the Sphinx in Adventure mode. In Puzzle, the spheres do not move, but the player has a limited number of spheres to clear the entire screen.

Power-Ups

The power-ups in Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife fall from the point of explosion to be caught by the sphere launcher after three consecutive launched spheres cause explosions on the main lines of spheres. Each of the colours of spheres represents a different Egyptian god or goddess, and different power-ups will be released based on what colour is involved with the third consecutive explosion. When a power-up affects a certain colour, this colour will be completely random from time to time. Here are the power-ups based on colour (the order of these colours also represents the order in which the colours are introduced into the main game).

Fireball (destroys all spheres within a certain radius)

Speed-Shot (shoots spheres twice as fast as normal and projects a coloured line to where the sphere will be placed if currently shot)

Reverse (sends all of the latest connected sets of spheres backwards in each line of spheres)

Net (collects all objects falling from the play field all across the board)

Slow (slows the progress of the spheres)

Lightning Bolt(causes one sphere to directly destroy all spheres within the width of the lightning bolt)

Stop (the progress of the spheres is temporarily halted)

Wild (one sphere can be used to complete a match or to make a match between spheres of two different colours)

Colour Bomb (destroys all present spheres of the colour indicated on the falling power-up)

Scorpion (goes backwards from the pyramid and destroys a particular number of spheres; this will only work on the furthest out line of spheres even if not all of the possible spheres have been destroyed)

Colour Cloud (turns all spheres within a radius to the colour indicated on the falling power-up)

Colour Re-placer (next sphere will change all spheres of one colour to the colour indicated on the falling power-up)

(Note: through this point, this is the same order of colour introduction throughout the main game of Zuma.)

Pyramid Blocker (makes a certain number of spheres explode before reaching the pyramid, then this power-up explodes to remove a few more spheres)

Match Highlighter (makes bold circles around groups of two or more spheres with the same colour as the sphere about to be shot)

Color Sort (arranges all of the spheres in all of the lines of spheres on the board into groups that can be easily destroyed)

Sandstorm (destroys half the spheres on the map, and rearranges the rest)

Upgrades store in Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife.

Power-ups can be upgraded to higher levels (such as in length of time or in size of impact) by purchasing such upgrades in the store of the game. The unit of currency is Ankh coins, which are earned by collecting these coins as they fall in the middle of the game from large sphere explosions, three from each golden scarab explosion in easy mode, four in medium mode, five in hard mode and six in insane mode, and one for each 15% of the Luxor track open from the pyramid to the end of the sphere line at the end of the level (Small jewels will also fall for parts of the incomplete 15% after the last Ankh coin is released). The types of spheres can also be upgraded in the store, as well as the type of shooter used in the game (these will only be unlocked for purchase when you have reached the target points needed to unlock the shooter). The onyx sphere set is unlocked for purchase at 2.5 million points, the sci-fi sphere shooter is unlocked for purchase at 5 million points, the wooden sphere set is unlocked for purchase at 7.5 million points, the stone set is unlocked for purchase at 10 million points, and the Xtreme sphere shooter is unlocked for purchase at 15 million points (these purchases cost one one-hundred-thousandth of the number of points needed to unlock them in Ankh coins; for example, once the onyx sphere set is unlocked, it can be purchased for 25 Ankh coins, and so on). These upgrades not related to power-ups do little more than enhance the visual and audio quality of the game to the preference of the person playing the game, with the exception of the Xtreme shooter, which has a wider area for catching falling objects (this will not make a difference when the net power-up is in effect).

Specific Upgrades to Power-Ups

Each power-up (with the exception of the color replacer, color bomb, wild, color sort, and sandstorm power-ups) have certain factors that can be upgraded by purchasing these upgrades with Ankh coins.

Power-Ups based on time

Short time

The stop, reverse, and slow power-ups all start at two seconds in length and can be upgraded to three, four, and five seconds.

Medium time

The speed shot and the match highlighter power-ups are upgraded from 12 seconds in length to 15, 18, and 20 seconds in length.

Long time

The Net power-up is upgraded from 20 seconds in length to 25, 30, and 35 seconds in length.

Power-Ups based on size of effect

Radius size

The radius of the color cloud and fireball power-ups starts at small and can be upgraded to medium, large, and huge.

Width of effect

The lightning power-up starts with a small width, but can have its width increased to medium, large, and enormous.

Power-Ups based on number of spheres

The pyramid blocker and scorpion power-ups start at blocking or destroying (respectively) eight spheres, but can be upgraded to have effect on 12, 16, and 20 spheres.

Costs to upgrade power-ups

The first upgrades of power-ups cost between 30 and 60 Ankh coins. The second power-up upgrade costs twice as much as the first upgrade. And the third power-up upgrade costs between 1.5 and 2 times as much as the second upgrade. This applies to all of the power-up upgrades except one, which costs 30 Ankh coins for the first upgrade, 45 Ankh coins for the second upgrade, and 60 Ankh coins for the third upgrade (which is the slow power-up).

Removed features

Added features