Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Challenge of the Warlords? Since when has that subtitle been there?

I wasn't lying when I said we're in a bit of a puzzly bit of the 1001 list, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Before we get there, though, comes a title that I absolutely did not expect to see get released on the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable before mobiles phones.

I could have sworn Puzzle Quest was exactly the kind of match-three drivel that came out with a bang when the iPhone hit, taking a simple game and applying the most generic of fantasy theming on the top, turning a puzzle game into a quest, and adventure to take a hero on.

I say drivel, I don't know if I mean that yet. I've not played it, but it sounds intriguing, turning a puzzle game into an RPG. The only similar gaming experience I can immediately bring to mind is some WWE game that did a similar thing to this. Well, identical thing to this, only a decade later (typical) and crammed full of adverts to spend money on it (again, typical).

Anyway, let's go on a quest, shall we?

Fun Times

I learned about there being a PSP version of Puzzle Quest after I'd played the PC port, sadly, but a bigger screen means being able to read all about the four types of hero we can be, from a Druid to a Knight, or a Warrior or Wizard. You can pick an avatar, which annoyingly resets your character name, so pick one of these incredibly generic and bland faces before you do that, and then buckle up for a quest.

As I say, I've not played Puzzle Quest, and have barely seen any of it over the last decade, but when tasked with imagining what a match-three puzzle crossed with an RPG could be like, I'm seeing some pretty interesting things, let me tell you.

Frustrations

What I'm not seeing, or hearing, is this awful, awful, introduction to the world of... the world. Is this really the opening cutscene? A scrolling image of a bloke on a horse in front of a clifftop castle devoid of any appeal, narrated by someone who I'm not sure actually speaks like that at all?

'Cheap' doesn't quite begin to describe it...

Is this real? Have I actually downloaded Pozzle Quest instead, some cash grab on the Steam store design to lure suckers into buying the wrong game? This is horrendous. This is why I always thought Puzzle Quest to be mobile drivel.

Well, no, actually, I didn't, because I didn't know it had cutscenes - comic strips, even, at a push - that were this poor. This is our introduction to the Queen of Bartonia. We're in training to be part of her Royal Guard or something, but she's fine with us just waltzing out into the country because a letter came through from our father out in Siria.

Alright, let's see where this goes.

Amazing. It wasn't urgent, just an old Broken Shield of my grandfathers, presumably found in the loft, that our Dad thought we could make use of, what with us in training to be part of the Royal Guard.

No, let's not mock the story. Not all games can have good stories. Maybe the developers don't have English as their first lan- they're Australian. Right, well, let's just dive into the meat of Puzzle Quest, shall we? Surely the gameplay is the main attraction - it is, after all, what WWE would copy for whatever their version was, as would many other mobile developers I'm sure.

Further Fun Times

It may look a bit on the rubbish side, but Puzzle Quest is rather clever in the gameplay. You're not just matching coloured blocks for high scores here, oh no. In fact, you're not doing that at all. Matching blocks, skulls, and coins is a matter of life and death.

Not against this training dummy who doesn't fight back, but it will be in future as both you and your opponent battle over the grid full of items to connect three or more of to give you magic, money, or deal damage to your foe.

Damage dealing skulls are the most obvious starting points. Match three or more of them, horizontally or vertically (you know how to play a match-three game by now) and they'll be zapped out of the grid and send your opponent's health down by whatever value they were worth. Some skulls deal more damage, and as you level up or equip your character with better gear, basic skulls will do more too.

So far, so interesting, right? You can guess what matching piles of money does - it gives you money. Puzzle Quest is making sense. Looks poor, but has got it where it counts.

Collect the right colour of magic, though, and you can unleash character-specific special abilities that allow you to just get rid of one block, or every block of a certain colour, or allow you to deal double damage for the next few turns, or stop your opponent from taking their next turn - very useful when you're using the same grid and can't find a four in a row to make, which will give you a free turn.

The distribution of stats to increase skills you don't quite know about is a bit weird and unexplained, but you can get an idea of why Puzzle Quest was so good, and why it spawned licensed versions starring Marvel characters or adaptations from the WWE. A simple puzzle game, RPG mechanics, endless replayability... it's got the makings of something amazing.

Further Frustrations

But in this form, it is like taking a kid to a museum of technology and having them laugh at how we used to be entertained. "You did what on your phones? You're silly!" or whatever lingo they use these days.

Puzzle Quest looks awful. The only thing it has going for it is a solid game, which, in a list of 1001 must-play video games admittedly does make a lot of sense, but I'm still shocked to finally learn of what Puzzle Quest actually is, only to find out it's this.

The game 'opens up' at this point for want of a better phrase. After two sparring sessions, one against a dummy, we're not a Royal Guard. Rumours have been circling about the dead walking around, only those crazy stories from the grandfather must be exactly that - crazy. There have been no living dead for hundreds of- ooh, no, there they are. Loads of them. Shall I investigate, your Majesty? I mean, why not me, right? You've just sent me to deliver some post. Is there anyone else working in this place or is it just me?

Of the three 'quests' I had available to me, the red one that involved skeletons caught my eye. I don't know why it's red. It's either because it's part of the main quest or it's deemed too difficult for me. I assumed the former and dove in.

Further Fun Times

I'm going back and forth like the UK Government's handling of Coronavirus (there's one for the Internet historians of the future), but I want to stress that I see potential in Puzzle Quest. These skeletons have different abilities than I do - of course they would, I'm not a skeleton. Yet. Do I go for the colours they need to turn every skull into a super skull, or do I focus on powering up my own abilities and using them to my advantage?

It's this sort of gameplay that interests me. It's annoying how the computer is always chaining together blocks that aren't even on the screen yet, but that's puzzle AI for you sometimes. You've just got to think about your moves, almost like a game of chess, wondering what not to leave for your opponent to get an easy hit on you.

I like it. I wish it were more obvious what I was doing, what my stats meant when applied to the game itself, what bonuses my equipment gives, but I like it.

I was defeated an uninstalled the game, but I liked it.

Final Word

I don't know where Puzzle Quest will take me over the course of a game, but with writing as poor as I've seen so far I'm not expecting it to be an incredible quest. It's not even an incredible puzzle, matching three of the same colour of blocks to force the grid to refill so you can do it again, but to mix it with an RPG? Stroke of genius.

I mean that. What better way to keep players hooked than a progression system, or a plot? A match-three game you play, maybe set a high score, maybe try again, but ultimately abandon. A match-three RPG where the next game is against a skeleton standing between you and your objective? Now that's worth investing some time in. Even I lose, maybe I'll have gotten enough experience or money to level up or purchase new equipment to make the next match-three game go in my favour. Somehow. Using some mechanics I don't understand. Bigger numbers equal good, I suspect.

Puzzle Quest is the kind of game that some developers are really angry that they didn't create first. But if we're all being honest, many could probably do it better. Can you imagine Puzzle Quest with coherent, readable graphic design? Could you imagine it with a plot and characters you care about? Because I can, and I want to play that game.

Is it to be found in the sequels? Do I need to track down Marvel Puzzle Quest? What is the sci-fi version of the game like? Will that be more to my tastes?

Puzzle Quest with the right theme could be phenomenal. Puzzle Quest as it is is just the framework that proves the idea works but lacks the polish to keep me with it. But do play it, or some of it, by all means. You might not stick with it, but I hope you see the potential I see.

I am more than a decade late to the party, though. Surely that potential has been met somewhere. I doubt it was in WWE Champions.

Fun Facts

What happens when you get addicted to Bejeweled and merge it with Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy Tactics? This, apparently.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, developed by Infinite Interactive, first released in 2007.

Version played: PC, 2007.