Product Description

Building upon the addictive and easy-to-learn gameplay of a puzzle game by integrating story and character progression elements found in RPGs. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords delivers a brand new type of game that pushes the puzzle genre to a previously unseen level.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2159 in Video Games
• Brand: D3 Publisher
• Model: 32004
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
• Platform: Nintendo DS

Customer Reviews

A perfect fusion of two different gaming genres creates something new
If you've done any research on Puzzle Quest, you know it's a fantasy RPG where combat is done in a "match 3" Bejeweled style puzzle game. That's a good summary, but it doesn't do the game justice - the fusion of two different games is complete and total, making an RPG whose gameplay, though familiar, is done in a completely different manner than we've come to expect.

At the core of the game you create a character from one of four classes. Moving around on a stylus-guided map, you travel to various areas, get quests, and battle assorted monsters. The combat is done on a grid of icons you line up - skulls (which you line up for a physical attack), coins (to get bonus gold), stars (to get bonus experience), and mana gems (to get one of four kinds of mana), and wildcards. Special abilities let you go beyond simple line-up-the icons to do damage, alter the puzzle board's contents, affect your opponent, and more. You can figure out cascading combos that are just as satisfying as any fighting game.

Alone, this would be a reasonably fun game. However, the game is both a complete puzzle game and a decently-detailed RPG. You level up your character and gain new abilities and add to existing skills - which can affect gameplay radically. Equipment also affects gameplay and varies considerably - a whip does damage when you collect yellow (air) mana, a suit of armor helps reduce damage, a ring may heal you as long as you keep your blue (water) mana above a certain level. You'll find yourself mixing and matching abilities (you can only have six ready at a time), equipment, and more to find new and better strategies.

However, the game then takes this one step further with adding even more - you can capture enemies and use them as mounts (and train them) or learn their special abilities, craft items with runes you can uncover, and build up citadels and bring other towns under control of your Queen. Throw on a lot of optional quests, random monsters, and more and you've got a satisfying RPG experience with plenty of ways to play.

Finally, the icing on the cake is how the plot is handled. It's a sadly standard plot, but it's told with some interesting characters (such as a motormouth dwarf or a scheming princess whose father knows her all too well) and some little details in the game that flesh out the world.

If there are any flaws, its that the presentation graphics are a bit mixed, from an OK overhead map, to barebones status screens, to some very nice character artwork (each class has 4 possible character portraits, 2 of each gender). It's good enough, but I felt the status screens and maps could have been done a bit better.

The only caveat I will add - this is not exactly a casual game. Each combat is very intense and can take a few minutes to play, and you definitely have to think as the AI certainly will. It's not something I can reccomend to truly casual gamers as it takes some investment of time and brainpower.

Overall? A fantastic experience deserving of the hype, and a step forward in gaming.

More fun than you would even think
This game is so MUCH fun! I sort of felt blah about the idea of another Bejeweled style game, and though the combat takes on a Bejeweled like interface and general idea, it has so much more to it! Each type of thing you connect means something different for your character (connect 3 skulls and it does damage to your opponents life, connect 3 piles of money and you get gold, connect stars for experience or orbs for different types of mana!).

It's Bejeweled at the very core but it plays like an RPG. You have a character that levels, has spells, equipment and gets quests. It's incredibly fun and more addictive than you could possibly imagine.

I also want to mention that the art, interface and music are fantastic. This game is top notch in my book, just plain fun!

Mom converted to video game geek
I am not a gamer. I'm in fact a mom who is often known to be nagging at my kids to turn off their game devices. I fell hard for this game, though. I now own my own DS (pink so my son won't steal it) and have repeatedly played Puzzle Quest. I bought it last spring and played it daily until I just yesterday completed battling Lord Bane in the final Quest. I love strategy thinking without the time pressure - so the bejewel like game is interesting enough, but the added layer of increasing levels of opponents and spells kept me coming back to see how the game play changed. Too much fun.