A Fun, Addicting Lunch Hour Diversion: Alexey's Dwice for Windows

Last year I had a computer at work that didn't allow me to play games online during my lunch hour. That computer was outdated and was just a mess. I could, however, play games that were installed on my computer via CD-ROM. So I went to my local Circuit City in search of a game or two that I could play on my computer during my lunch hour. I like games that don't make me think. I don't want to build a theme park or keep track of anything. I want to pop some bubbles, line up some bricks and match up some shapes. Bejeweled was OK, but I needed something else. I came across Dwice and bought it. I'm glad I did, because it's been over a year and even though my company upgraded my computer, I'm still playing this game at work on my lunch hour on a fairly regular basis.


Game Details:

In a nutshell, Alexey's Dwice is a puzzle game that requires you to click on two matching shapes of colored ice that are lowering from the top of the computer screen. If you click on two matching shapes, they disappear. This is a good thing, because if the big group of shapes gets to the bottom of the screen and hits your characters' houses (characters are monkeys, eskimos, etc. and the houses are little shacks and igloos, etc.), you lose a life. You are allowed three lives per game. The whole premise is that the ice pieces lowering from the top of the screen is an "avalanche" and you need to keep this "avalanche" from hitting your characters' houses.

So you know you're supposed to click on two matching shapes of colored ice to make them disappear, thus buying you more time as the group of shapes is lowering. If you can click on two blocks that are the same shape AND the same color, you rack up extra points. It's a challenge, especially as the levels get higher and the ice blocks are coming down faster!

There are two modes to Alexey's Dwice - Arcade and Quest. The Arcade mode has you stopping as many avalanches as you can. This mode is endless and doesn't have levels like the Quest has. The Quest mode has 60 levels, and as you move from level to level, the "world" becomes warmer (thus less snow and ice).

There are several "tools" that you will be provided with as you play the game. One is an "ice pick" tool that you get more of as you play the game and eliminate more ice shapes. This allows you to click on the ice pick tool, which makes your cursor become a little ice pick. You will then click on a stubborn shape that you can't eliminate (because you can't find a match for it) - the shape will break up like a block of ice being hit with an ice pick. Another tool is a wave of destruction. If you click on this, a big wave of destruction flows quickly through your falling shapes, eliminating a lot of them in just a few seconds. Another tool is a stick of dynamite. Clicking on this tool, it will blow up your ice shapes into much smaller pieces. This is not as helpful of a tool, as you then have more pieces to match up and get rid of. You can run out of these tools, though, as you earn them as you play. If you run out of tools, you will have to rely on just your matching and clicking of the shapes in order to clear the ever-lowering board and move to the next level.

In order to play this game, you will need to meet the following system requirements:

-PC with 733 MHz equivalent or higher processor
-Microsoft® Windows® 98/NT/Me/XP/2000 operating system or later
-128 MB of RAM
-30 MB available hard disk space
-Microsoft DirectX® 7.0 or later
-Microsoft DirectX® 7.0 compatible 1MB PCI video card capable of at least 640 x 480 Hi Color (16 bit) display
-Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
-Microsoft DirectX® 7.0 compatible sound card (optional)


Playing The Game:

This game is a tad bit reminiscent of Tetris (the same guy who invented Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, also invented this game), but only in the sense that there are colored shapes in both games and you must make things disappear from the screen in order to prevent a pile-up and thus a loss of one of your lives.

This game is definitely for anyone of any age. I think that the youngest that can play this game and actually know what they're doing is maybe an eight-year-old. I think that a child younger than eight is going to get frustrated trying to match the shapes. However, I could be wrong. There's probably a four-year-old out there who can play this game better than I can!

The graphics of Alexey's Dwice are very colorful, vivid and unique. The game always starts out as a winter scene with snow and eskimos. You'll see a few other scenes as you progress, and in the Quest mode you'll get to a summery scene with monkeys and little huts with palm fronds over them. The graphics are cute and I enjoy them even though I'm pushing 40. I like a vivid, colorful game.

I don't see a whole lot of difference between the Quest mode and the Arcade mode. I tend to play the Quest mode so that I can progress through the levels. Both levels are fun and challenging, though, and have the same tools (stick of dynamite, wave of destruction and the ice pick).

As you play the game, you will sometimes earn a little helpful wave of action, such as a firestorm. This will burn up a bunch of your ice shapes quickly. These are in addition to your normal "tools". And speaking of the tools, you must use them carefully, as you only get so many as you play the game and it can be quite easy to start relying on the tools too much and run out of them quickly, leaving yourself in a situation where you have no tools left and still have a lot of ice shapes to clear out. And as you play the game and advance through the screens and levels, the ice shapes start coming down faster and faster.

One really annoying thing about this game is the music. I generally play the game with the sound turned off. It's a generic song that will stick in my head after I'm done playing the game and annoy me for a couple of hours. You can either turn the music down through the "Options" menu or just turn the sound down on your computer.

This game also has the option to play with "enhanced effects", which really aren't all that enhanced. A couple of scenes might be more detailed. When I play with these, the game slows down for me. Sometimes to the point where I can't play it at all for a few minutes until it sort of "catches up" with itself. This is super annoying and I always have the effects turned way down to the lowest level. This is done through the "Options" menu.

Overall, I love this game. It's worth the $19.99 I paid for it, but it is currently just $8.99 at Amazon.com, which is a real steal. It's the perfect game for those of us who like a challenge but don't want to perform surgery and build a zoo. It's a great "lunch hour" game. If you like games like Zuma, you may like Alexey's Dwice and might want to check it out.

You can go to www.wildsnake.com/puzzle/dw/ to download a free demo of Alexey's Dwice, download the manual for this game, and buy it online (for $19.99).


Price and Purchasing Information:

I paid $19.99 for my Dwice game at my local Circuit City in 2007. I haven't seen this game at Best Buy or any other retail store. This game is currently available at Amazon.com for just $8.99. It's worth every penny.