For many Xbox 360 owners the greatest game for the system isn’t Gears of War, GRAW, Guitar Hero II or other AAA titles. It seems gamers just can’t get enough of Xbox Live Arcade games. These simple, easy to digest, games are often the games that keep 360 owners busy for hours when not playing the newest AAA release. The games are relatively cheap and convenient to play since they don’t require inserting a disc into the system. Well now you can add Luxor 2 to the list of quality Xbox Live Arcade games available for download.

Luxor 2 (L2) can best be described as a shooter-puzzle game. The puzzle elements of the game are very similar to another Xbox Live Arcade game, Zuma. There is a series of colored balls being moved through the game screen. You have to combine at least three of the same colored balls together to remove the balls from the line/chain. Once you’ve cleared out all of the lines of balls, you can have more than one on the screen at a time, you clear the stage.

The shooting part of the game has you controlling a “ship” at the bottom of the screen that fires additional colored spheres at the line. You can switch between two different colored spheres before you fire at the line. But instead of just shooting colored balls you can earn power-ups which allow you to destroy the balls before the power-up expires. Instead or using your brain to match colors you can just fire away to take out as many spheres as possible. There are 13 different power-ups available in the game.

Visually and sonically this is another nice looking and sounding Xbox Live Arcade title. All the stages are bright and colorful and based on Egyptian settings. There are a few nice particle effects during the explosions of the matching colored balls and when you complete a level. All of the stages are static besides your ship, the moving line(s) and a few other small items that move around the stage as you play.  The soundtrack is more a mixture of a booming, thumping soundtrack than a compilation of Middle Eastern music.

If you’re a hardcore Xbox Live Arcade fan or puzzle gamer then you should check out Luxor 2. Sure, I mentioned L2 is a combination of Shooter and Puzzle game but it is definitely more a puzzle game than shooter. The game has 88 levels, 13 bonus rounds and four levels of difficulty. There are four modes of gameplay: Adventure, Practice, Survival and Pharaoh’s Challenge which is exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade. Unfortunately the only Xbox Live features is the Leaderboards to compare your score against other gamers.  Luxor 2 fits in as being a game that offers just enough to keep you playing for hours while not being too complicated or “advanced” to keep new players from jumping in and playing.

Gameplay: 8.0
It’s more puzzle game than shooter that should keep either audience busy playing through all 88 stages. It doesn’t have the same hook that other puzzles games have but it should have enough to justify the low price point.

Graphics: 7.7
Sure this isn’t Gears of War but the game is still bright and colorful enough to at least keep you looking at the screen.

Sound: 7.7
Some inclusion of Middle Eastern music would have been a nice balance to the very cinematic style of soundtrack.

Difficulty: Easy
At one point I played the game for close to four hours without losing. In fact I really can’t remember ever losing while playing the game.

Concept: 7.5
All of the gameplay modes are very similar to each other which will reduce the sense of variety in the game. After a while all of the modes feel the same.

Overall: 7.7
Luxor 2 does just enough right to make this game another good addition to the Xbox Live Arcade catalog. With over 88 stages there is more than enough game to keep you busy for a long time.