The Labyrinth Plus! Edition
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The Labyrinth Plus! Edition, made by NonStop Entertainment, is a computer game for Windows XP. It consists of a 3-D maze puzzle in which the objective of the game is to get a ball to the end of a maze, using dots on the board to guide the player around the obstacles. It was produced in 2000 by Microsoft, and is only available as part of Microsoft Plus!.
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[edit] Gameplay
To complete a level, the player has to touch a golden trophy at the end of a maze guided by the mouse using a ball that have different themes such as a lemon. On the way, players will encounter many holes on the board. If the ball falls into a hole, one ball out of three balls in the level will be taken away. If three holes are fallen into, all lives are lost and the level must be restarted. After falling in the hole, the ball appears back by a close spot of where the ball dropped into the hole. Some open and close in a pattern, and players have to go over them while it is closed, especially where they are all bunched up together. It takes rhythm and momentum to master these types of holes and dodging.
There are 40 levels altogether, with the feature of replaying a level as many times as desired. When a maze is completed, the player qualifies to play the next level. Points are awarded for advancing the ball, completing mazes quickly, and collecting gems. If all collect all the gems on a maze, your gem bonus points are doubled. The gem bonus points are displayed at the upper-right corner of the screen during a game.
On the Level screen, levels are listed in order of difficulty, from easiest at the top to hardest at the bottom. You can play only the levels you have completed at least once, and the next level. Available levels are displayed in brighter text. Unavailable levels are displayed in dimmer text. After one selects a level, the labyrinth displays the current record score for that level on your computer at the bottom of the screen. finishing the stage is more important than collecting gems.
You can have several players on the game. You type in a desired name, and using this will show the name that completed a level, and its high score.
[edit] Gems
There are gems on the board that you collect. The green is 50 points, red is 100, and the blue gem is worth 250 points. It can be seen in difficult places to reach, such as some being between two separate holes. If you get enough, you'll get an extra ball. You can earn an extra ball by reaching specific point milestones.
[edit] Power-ups
Power-ups are small icons that you will encounter on many levels of the labyrinth. Some power-ups help you complete a maze faster, while others can hinder your progress. Some can temporarily close all holes on the board, some make your ball go slower and faster, and touching a teleporter icon sends the ball to another part of the maze.
[edit] Moving the ball
Players move the ball by moving the mouse, which tilts the board. Moving the mouse to the left tilts the board to the left. Moving the mouse to the right tilts the board to the right. Moving the mouse forward tilts the board away from you. Moving the mouse toward you tilts the board toward you, so just like in the Super Monkey Ball series, it is actually the level you're controlling; not the ball itself.Players must be cautious with mouse movements. The ball will accelerate if the ball is kept tilted the same way. It is important to continuously adjust the tilt of the board so the ball is not recklessly moving around.
[edit] Game modes
[edit] Arcade
The main type of game is arcade mode, in which there is no time limit to trying to get the ball to the end. The levels get harder as you progress.
[edit] Race the clock
Unlike arcade, Race The Clock is when you have to get to the end before the time run out. There are usually hourglass items on the board, meaning you'd get 5 or an 8-second time bonus. Even though time isn't cut down that much, a level called "Nick of Time" requires hourglasses, or the time will indefinitely run out. There are 20 levels in total, just like the Arcade's.
[edit] Options
In this game, there are many customizations to suit the players' personality and skill. There are different balls to use for the gameboard, such as a tennis ball, soccer ball, wiffleball, and a lemon. There are options such as sound volume and mouse sensitivity. During gameplay, you can also customize the view and perspective of the maze. From angles to zooming and zooming out, or both.
[edit] Free add-on pack
There is a free pack of more levels to add on the game, named as "My Labyrinth". It includes 20 more levels with random difficulties; but the vast majority are difficult. They all are quite larger, and have two more themes, such as using pylons for boundaries as "walls". The version of the labyrinth included in Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP contains only some of the functionality of the full game. This full version includes the enables you to create and modify custom modes using a specific program. Altogether the labyrinth contains five themes, 60 levels, and 24 balls.
