Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Say cheese! Now spot the difference in Zoo Games latest Photo Phantasy. There are three different themes to be played each sporting their own graphical style and background theme. The premise in each theme is to spot the differences from the left photo to the right photo. The most precise way to select objects on screen is to whip out the mighty stylus but your clumsy thumb also works.

Each game you start gives you three lives, when those run out your game ends. Or does it? You can continue from the stage you failed at endlessly continuing it with one life until you are able to pass. The difficulty decides purely how many objects must be found to complete a stage, it does not change the kinds of photo mistakes you can spot or ramp up difficulty. Also there to help you by way of the R/L button menu are hints. Hints can be used to auto find a mistake and are good fallback when you just can't see the squiggles on Dream Woman's dress are going counter clockwise.

This menu also reveals how much time you have left which otherwise is a real mystery. The amount of wrong answers is never set in stone, some stages allow 5+ wrong guesses and other stages will give out after two wrong pokes of the stylus. Finally on that same menu is the ability to add more time by tapping blue circles on that menu, this allows for even more wrong answers.

The graphics in Photo Phantasy are at different points on the scale of quality. The first theme Dreams makes little sense story-wise but looks the best of the three tales. Design captures the essence of mystery that dreams have and is the easiest on the eyes. The Goldilocks and Robin Hood tales have animated cut-scenes between levels but neither are very appealing. Goldilocks style is a bit creepy almost bordering on a dark parody of the story. Robin Hood's style is flat out strange looking, the style has everybody with a Jay Leno size chin and very soulless expressions.

The audio in this game is kind of painful when your stuck on a particular stage for awhile. The song used in Dreams gets old very fast and is by far the worst of the three stage tunes. The sound effects in this game are standard and accomplish the job. No sound effects that kill the ear drums is always a positive if you are not lighting the world on fire.

In the end Photo Phantasy is a pretty strange title. It takes no risks with it's game play mechanics but takes the risks in art direction and story direction for it's classic story adaptions. A bit of a strange choice that serves only to give the game more character if anything. The original story Dreams ends up being the best experience on the title.