Diamond Dan Demo

Indiana Jones made artifact hunting look cool and fun at the same time, even if he was running from Nazi psychopaths and rolling boulders most of the time. Hence, the video games industry took a stab at the genre as well, only using a slightly more appealing character: Lara Croft. In the case at hand, however, things are much simpler and definitely not as violent as in the previous examples.

Diamond Dan is an arcade puzzle game with platformer elements, featuring three-dimensional graphics and a nice idea to drive the gameplay. As such, your primary goal is to push blocks out of your way and try to navigate a maze of traps, in order to reach the bottom of the temples you are exploring and get the treasure lying there.

The story allows you to choose between two characters: Diamond Dan or Diamon Ann. Both of them are quite similar in most regards, but each one of them has a special ability that can come in handy. Hence, it might be useful to switch characters whenever you find yourself unable to advance, because the other guy may have the solution to your troubles. This also extends the life of the game, because you can replay levels with either of the two characters.

The most frustrating part of the game is the descent itself, because the entire temple is formed out of moving blocks, and you never know when they are going to shift. Not only that, but some of the blocks are actually traps, which means sudden death if you get caught into one. There are no checkpoints, so that means you respawn at the beginning of the level and have to retrace your steps, because everything else resets as well.

Visually, the game is not bad at all, but don’t expect anything great either. The 3D graphics are nice, but the environments quickly get repetitive and there is not enough variety to keep you from getting bored. The same goes for the sound, which starts becoming annoying in a rush and you are soon forced to turn it off altogether.

All things considered, Diamond Dan is aimed at the casual crowd anyway, so the expectations should fit the situation as well. However, there are better alternatives out there, so this can only be considered a good choice if you really had nothing else to go for.