Jewel Thief: World Tour Demo

Simple arcade games need to sport very addictive mechanics to be worth the trouble, otherwise gamers get bored relatively quickly if nothing exciting is keeping them glued to the screen. Complexity has nothing to do with it and neither do graphics, because it’s all in the gameplay mechanics and whether they spark the curiosity of the players.

Jewel Thief: World Tour is a colorful arcade game in which your primary purpose is to steal priceless jewels from all over the world, while avoiding the cops in the meantime. There are multiple levels you must clear and you get to visit a different location every once in a while, in order to change the scenery and deal with more unusual situations.

Gameplay-wise, everything revolves around your ability to move the mouse quickly and use the cursor to catch the jewels floating on the screen. However, the guards move randomly around the same area, so you must avoid hovering over them by mistake. The goal is to collect a certain number of jewels from every level, although that is easier said than done in most cases.

Naturally, it might happen to get caught every once in a while, but it’s not that big of a deal. In essence, you are sent to jail, where you take part in a mini-game that asks you to collect a certain number of keys while avoiding the rats. If you fail this as well, then the game over screen greets you and you must take it from the top, or at least from the last level you have managed to clear.

There is a bird you can catch if you have good reflexes, which has the ability to start a special event. However, this event is not always beneficial for you, because it can also turn all the jewels into coal for a limited period of time, which subtract points from your score if you pick them up. Some of the other events can help you win the level more easily as well, so it’s up to you whether you take the risk of picking them up.

In the end, Jewel Thief: World Tour should be fun enough to keep you entertained for quite a while, as long as you do not mind the repetition. Not only that, but the adventure takes you all over the world, hence the ‘World Tour’ tag to attest to that.