Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Looking at the back of Puzzle Quest’s box, you might be tempted to dismiss it as yet another Bejeweled clone. It’s true that all of the gameplay revolves around Bejeweled’s tried-and-true formula, but by turning it into a combat game with terrific role-playing trappings, Puzzle Quest is one of the few knock-offs that blows the doors off of its inspiration.

Players begin the game by selecting one of four classes, each with its own mix of spells and special abilities. The game then presents an overhead map where players can wander between various locations, taking on quests that unlock an increasing number of locales until the map is spider-webbed with places to go and people to see. As with most role-playing games there are plenty of monsters to kill, each with their own special abilities, and it’s possible to capture them and learn their spells. A host of companions joins your party along the way, each with his or her own specialties. You can lay siege to major towns so they cough up money each time you pass through, which can then be spent on equipment and – more importantly – castle upgrades. Successful battles award more money and generate experience points that unlock more powerful spells and let you contribute points to various masteries (such as Fire or Battle) so you can custom-tailor your character to your play style.

Sounds like any other generic role-playing game, but the twist here is that nearly all of these elements are resolved using the familiar Bejeweled gameplay. During fights, you and your opponent take turns clearing as much of the board as possible, with each gem cleared contributing to a mana pool of the same color. Store up enough mana and you can unleash one of dozens of spells that do anything from blowing up gems on the board to stealing mana from your adversary. Coins and Stars also appear that generate money and experience points when cleared, and there are also skulls that zap your opponent with direct damage when three or more are lined up. Back at the castle, it is possible to forge powerful magic items or learn spells from captured enemies by clearing a fixed number of gems (foes are captured in the first place by solving Bejeweled puzzles).

There are enough quests to support dozens of hours of play, and when you finish you realize that there are three other very different classes to explore. The warrior focuses on devastating direct-damage spells while the druid plays a more defensive game by using healing spells. The Knight takes advantage of experience gems that are practically useless to other classes, while the wizard has a decent mix of offensive and defensive spells. Focusing on certain attributes through equipment or level-ups lets you further play to a classes’ strengths (or fix its weaknesses). For example, pouring points into the fire stat lets you gain more red mana from each red gem that is cleared and also lets you start each battle with some red mana already in reserve - sometimes allowing for a powerful spell even before any gems are cleared.

It’s a brilliant system that makes an already-addicting game irresistible, and the few downsides are very subjective. For one thing, the game is very easy because there is no death penalty aside from losing any experience or gold you may have gained during the particular battle that you lost, and quests can always be retried without any consequences if you fail. This is nice because it means running into an unlucky board where you have no chance will not wreck your game, but it does remove all tension from the proceedings. The graphics are a bit cramped, although the DS touchscreen is perfectly suited for quick and accurate gem-swapping. Money is plentiful and most upper-level spells are game-breaking if you can manage to pull them off during a match.