When you think of a Role Playing Game, you expect certain things: interesting story and character development to fantastically unreal scenarios. When you think of a puzzle game, you expect mind-bending puzzles and problems that are fun and interesting to solve. One wouldn’t expect the two to get crossed in a major way: even though some RPG’s have puzzles in them, has there ever been a puzzle game with RPG elements in it? Not until now, with Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords.
You start out creating your average character archetypes, including warriors, wizards, etc. After that you begin the game with one of the RPG genre’s most famous quests…the delivery. While it’s not spectacular, and it’s nowhere near inventive, it does set you into the world rather nicely. After completing quests and moving on, the story goes more in depth, following a number of mini plots via quest chains. From eradicating dragons and ogres, to saving someone’s father, there is plenty to keep you playing this game for hours.
The Nintendo DS version of this game features some nice full touch screen mechanics. Every now and then, the cramped gameplay would cause me to choose something I didn’t want, but this issue is sort of moot if you play with a little bit of finesse, and don’t overdo it. The screens are divided into a number of areas, including the puzzle field, the skills/attacks bar, and the character screens. The top screen shows your character and your opponent, with your life and different types of mana displayed clearly. The bottom touch screen is where the action is at though, as this holds the puzzle field that you use to “battle” your opponent.
The puzzle field is very reminiscent of the puzzle game Bejeweled. You’ve got a grid type area, and you must connect colors together. Three nets you mana of that type, four an extra turn and so on. The area overall is an 8 by 8 grid, populated by several different things. The items here include four types of mana (Green, Yellow, Blue, and Red), purple experience diamonds, bags of money, and direct damage skulls. The colors are tied to your various types of attacks and spells, each having its own designed mana type. Green is for earth, red is fire, yellow is air, and blue is water. Each type has its own type of attacks/spells that can either buff you, attack, or do something else to the opponent. The experience diamonds are just that, experience. Just like in every other RPG, by gaining experience you level up. The coins on the map are the game’s currency; you can buy items and such, just like in most RPG’s, by collecting lots of them.
Just like the majority of other RPG’s, Puzzle Quest has an assortment of upgrades for your characters. From various randomly named items that increase your stats, to more obscure items like the “Giant Rat Mount.” You read that right, you get to ride a giant rat…this also gives you a bonus attack, and just looks fun to ride.
Another interesting mechanic is the abilities to sack cities, and capture opponents. Both goals use a different version of the puzzle screen to achieve that. The capture process has you clearing the entire screen of diamonds, with unlimited repeats…making it almost too easy to figure out the pattern with time. Once you capture something (you have to have beaten it at least three times before), you can train to use the special abilities that monster might have had. You can do this at your home town’s castle, which is upgradeable with a lot of gold. It’s an interesting twist, allowing you to take that annoying attack that would always seem to kick your butt and use it against your enemies. Sacking a city is like attacking a normal opponent…however, the cities happen to have a lot more health, and some bone crushing attacks.
The graphics are golden for the DS, utilizing fantastic animations and some beautiful artwork. While most of the graphics you’ll see are in the battle screen, with a single image of your character and your opponent, the outside traveling animation is smooth and easy, with no problems at all. The same goes for the battle screen, though I have noticed some slowdown when you gain a number of multipliers at the same time, but that only happens for a second or two, not affecting the gameplay at all.
Bottom Line:
Puzzle Quest for the DS is a fantastic example of blending and merging genres. It’s a rarity to see it done so well, without one side overpowering the other. Puzzle Quest has a lot of longevity in its game play, giving it a ton of replay value. If you’re looking for something to play at work, when commuting, or just for relaxing, Puzzle Quest fills that bill nicely, with its fast gameplay allowing you to pick up and play, or turn off, at a moment’s notice.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
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| 8.0 |
Posted: 2007-08-27 13:59:09 PST