CASUAL GAME REVIEW: Gold Miner Special Edition

You're a grizzled old prospector diggin' fer gold** in them thar hills. Blocking your way are boulders, bats, bones, TNT, & evil little pickax-wielding leprechauns.

Gold Miner Special Edition is one of those fun little games we stumbled onto in RealArcade (though you can find it on any of several websites - see "Games For All Ages" on the right sidebar) a couple weeks ago. During the free 60-minute demo alone, we cleared 52 levels, and earned exactly $51,701, for whatever that's worth.

Actually it is worth a little something, because you need to earn cash to buy things to aid you in your quest. For example:

• Dynamite, which allows you to abort when you've hooked a large, very slow-moving boulder with your winch, instead of more lucrative and fast-moving cargo.

• Some sort of moonshiney mystery potion, not unlike the Brain & Nerve Tonic that Monty Burns made the Springfield Power Plant softball team drink, which caused Ken Griffey's case of gigantism. So sad. Anyhoo, this drink gives you the energy to winch anything much more quickly.

• 4 Leaf clovers....... to improve your luck (duh!)

• Various & sundry other useful things.
  

But watch out for the shyster storekeeper (below). He'll charge you $87 for a stick of dynamite one round, and $387 for it the next. Be judicious in your spending, and you're good to go. He also gets really pissed when you don't buy anything. By "pissed," of course I mean that he just gives a little growl. My kids thought it was funny.

Of course, the game is basic enough that your kids should be able to pick all of this stuff up as they go along.

OK, run along and play, now. Go on. It's okay, I'll call you in for dinner.





** FYI, in addition to gold, you're aiming for bags o' cash, and gems, which can be either free standing or carried by rodents. Good times.

Oh, yeah. There's also a slot machine bonus game, but you have to nab little silver coins to earn your shot at lady luck.