Allura: Curse of the Mermaid. I don’t know to describe this game except average and uninspiring. I didn’t dislike playing it, but it does absolutely nothing new. Like waiting in line at the DMV, it requires little attention and barely evoked an emotional response in me.
The story is a generic off-brand rehash of The Little Mermaid. You are caught by humans after you fall in some water a wardrobe malfunction exposes your tail. You bump into a tall single young man who offers to help. You escape enemies, make some friends, and eventually fall in love with him because this is clearly being marketed to bored housewives in their early to late 40s.
This game was likely ported from a mobile release, because the art looks really stretched out on a 1080p display. This gives it an authentic 90s feel for those with nostalgia for the Disney classic they copied the main character from. The voice actors sound like they just ate a big lunch and were trying not to fall asleep. Its not terrible acting, they just sound as spaced out as I was. Even the price is boring. Have you ever been to a $5 and under store? There’s nothing good in there. Its not cheap enough to impulse buy, and nowhere near top shelf expensive to make me wonder what surprises might lay in store.
If you’ve played a match three game you’ve played Allura: Curse of the Mermaid. You match tiles and unlock abilities to help you clear harder levels. I should add that the difficulty in this game spikes very quickly. Most titles like this don’t try to trap you so early – they hook you over a period of time by slowly progressing the complexity of each challenge. By level 3 I felt like a smooth brain that wasn’t even good at playing boomer games.
HH-Games has released a bazillion titles just like this on Steam and they’re all mostly the same under the hood. If you’re looking for anything new and refreshing I would pass on this. If you purchase these games like my nana buys crossword puzzles, then you will probably enjoy this one too.
The crowd I will definitely recommend this to are future Steam Deck owners. This requires so little emotional investment that I feel this would be perfect to load up while you’re taking a crap. Its more interesting than reading the ingredients on your shampoo bottle, and you can easily put this game down before your legs go numb.
Purchase Allura: Curse of the Mermaid on Steam!
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