Treasure Fever – Hunt for Riches in this Tycoon Game with a Twist
by Paul Wilks
Dec 29, 2011 11:34 AM –
Install
Treasure Fever is a fun tycoon game with a cool twist. The aim of the game is to hunt for treasure in a series of diverse islands. With graphics not a million miles away from Farmville and similar tycoon titles, Treasure Fever is a welcome and refreshing spin on the genre. Progress through the various islands, increase your levels, find new treasures and share gifts with friends through the Papaya gaming network. If you like tycoon games but are beginning to find the genre stacked with overly familiar and repetitive gameplay, this might be just what you’re looking for!
Price: Free with In-app Purchases
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Smooth graphics!
- Novel gameplay!
- Generous starting kitty!
- Lots of islands to explore!
- Ability to gift friends!
Cons
- Music can only be stood for so long.
- Tutorials are a little brief and could be more helpful early on.
Features:
Treasure Fever is a fresh blast of sea air in a genre that is relatively choked with identikit tycoon games. It’s not a city, a farm, a tower block, a prehistoric village or any other kind of themed landscape. Instead you hunt for treasure and visit a variety of islands along the way. Gameplay is immaculately simple- controls rely on your merely tapping the part of the island you want to dig- and there is lots of rewards to be earned and treasure to be found!
With most tycoon titles the main principal is to accumulate accumulate accumulate! While there is emphasis in Treasure Fever to build and decorate your own island, most gameplay takes place on the various islands you visit in your search for treasure. Simply tap on the dark areas of the island and your character will dig there. Collect treasure, fruit, coins and artifacts to add to your trove. You only have a set amount of energy (although this builds up over time) but with fruit your energy can be partially restored. Thankfully fruit is quite a popular find so there is lots of gameplay to be had before you completely run out and have to await your energy to build up again.
I think Treasure Fever is a great remedy to the very similar tycoon titles you often see in the Android Market. It’s just very different and, while perhaps the accumulative platform is familiar, the gameplay is at least novel and often fun. It’s interesting to see what you will dig up next and you are not prompted to use real money as often as you get with similar games which rely on in-app purchases.
I find the thing with tycoon games is threshold. The game needs to give you enough starting capital to get you immersed in the game. If the game does this successfully, you are far more likely to dip into your real-world wallet or purse. Here you could suggest the threshold is quite high and the developers give you enough buy-in to enjoy the game. The flip side of this, which is sadly far too common, are games which quickly pester you for in-app purchases before you even understand the game properly. Treasure Fever however has a suitably high threshold which allows you to play and enjoy the game without being hounded by constant pop-ups to spend real money.
The game is well designed, fun to play and offers nicely balanced and immersive gameplay. While I’m not always a fan of these kind of games, Treasure Fever is a nice blast of fresh air and lots of fun.
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Treasure Fever – Start Small
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Treasure Fever – Island mid-clearing
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Treasure Fever – Use items like dynamite to move heavy obstacles
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Treasure Fever – Build and expand your own island
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Treasure Fever – Welcome to a new island to explore
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Treasure Fever – Explore all kinds of different islands in different locations
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Treasure Fever – Be sure to explore everywhere to complete the island
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Treasure Fever – Tips and hints along the way act as impromptu tutorial
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Treasure Fever – Shop
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Treasure Fever – Collected treasure
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Treasure Fever – Decorate your own island
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Treasure Fever – Raise your levels
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Treasure Fever – Ooops, out of energy
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Treasure Fever – Oh yes
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Treasure Fever – Free gifts
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Treasure Fever – Finished Island
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Treasure Fever – Buy items with in-app capital
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Treasure Fever – Splash page
Fun Factor:
Treasure Fever is different and as such, more fun than your typical tycoon title. You are not inundated with requests for real money and your gameplay isn’t persistently slowed down by essential purchases. It’s lots of fun and well worth looking at if you want something different from the tycoon genre.
Addictive:
While Treasure Fever is definitely a casual game- you can only play for so long before having to leave the game to accumulate more energy, it still retains a nice threshold so that you can get stuck in. It’s a game that gives and as such, is something you find yourself wanting to invest more time in.
Graphics:
Graphics are quite smooth and reminiscent of Farmville characters but on a small screen. While it doesn’t blow you away, the graphics here are consistent and quite nice, certainly suiting the game well. If I have to criticise something about the graphics, and this applies to most tycoon titles, is that they all seem to be irrepressibly bright, with migraine-inducing boldness and incredibly vivid visuals. I’d love to one day see a darker, more dystopian tycoon game where the overt capitalism is actually acknowledged as a bit creepy. Not shiny or happy it would definitely be a game for grown ups. Maybe one day…
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
OK, while Treasure Fever is an altogether fun game, the music is pretty awful. It’s like a Spanish Guitar riff on such a short loop it quickly becomes unbearable. You can turn the music off and I would challenge anyone to play the game for very long with it playing in the background.