Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords had to be the most unexpected hit of 2007. The game was a huge success on the PSP and DS, and recently arrived on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. While Wii owners have to buy the game the old fashion way of retail, it is offered at a fairly modest price of $30 US. The question to be answered, then, is whether or not the developers successfully translated the Puzzle Quest experience to the quirky Wii.

First and foremost, put aside your puzzle prejudices. Gamers who see the word "puzzle" in this game's name and run shrieking out of the store are missing out on one of the best RPGs of 2007. Yes, this is a puzzle game, but the puzzles are brilliantly integrated into a combat system chock full of the RPG goodness that makes the genre so popular. As a gamer whose last-gen brain isn't up to complex puzzles, believe me when I say that Puzzle Quest should not be discriminated against simply by this single aspect of the game.

People who have played (or seen someone play) Bejeweled will immediately recognize this game's puzzle roots. The puzzle consists of an 8x8 grid of jewels, gold, stars, and skulls. Matching any three or more of these will cause them to disappear. At the same time, items will continuously stream down from the top to fill the remaining void.

Simple enough, but you might be wondering, how does this translate into a combat system? The puzzle represents a battle between two characters: the player's custom-made character and either an evil computer villain or another player with a character of void. his or her own. Each player takes a turn matching three or more items in a line on the grid by swapping any two adjacent items horizontally or vertically.
What the combinations mean depends on the type of item being matched. The jewels consist of red, blue, yellow, and green varieties; each of which add mana to the player's character. Mana is used to perform special actions such spell casting, attacks, or grid manipulation. Skull combos perform direct attacks that take away from the opposing character's hit points. Stars represent experience points, which the player uses to level up their character. Gold is gold - buy stuff with it.

So what makes a puzzle feel like combat? Two words: special effects. The developers added wonderful animations to the combos. Attacks rip lightning across the screen directly into the opposing character's hit point indicator while buzzing sounds and vibrations emanate from the Wii Remote. Special actions such as casting spells will create an explosion of colors on the grid. At times, cascading combinations will occur as items fall, creating an avalanche of colors and sounds. The effects create a visual punch to the puzzle itself and add to the intensity of the fight.

Other than in combat, the graphics in Puzzle Quest mostly consist of still images with medieval etching. The world map is just a background with lines that intersect cities for the character to travel between. There are no random encounters as are famous in other RPGs. Bad guys appear on the lines between cities - the player may choose to fight to continue on their way or find an alternate route, if one exists.

The visual presentation is good, but the translation from portable to big screen is not perfect. Words look somewhat blurry and the imagery is not as crisp as on the smaller screens. These minor complaints aside, the overall visual presentation is good, if not basic. The style has the Tolkein look and feel that is typical of the medieval era. The models are entirely 2D and there is little animation outside of the battle effects.

As for the music, it is some of the best heard in gaming. The composer created a magnificent score with an epic, archaic feel. The music ranges from low drums with guttural, chanting voices to soft music and a choir of tenors singing in Latin. I dare say the music is of movie quality and that is a rare feat, especially for this kind of game.

While the visuals and music are great, the controls are not. Players have two different control modes to choose from: Pointer or Nunchuk. Pointer is exactly what one would think it is: simply point the Wii Remote and push the A button on the place to travel to or the items in the grid to swap. The response is fair, but more than once I made mistakes by pointing and inadvertently moving an item while pushing the A button. Nunchuck style is a bit more cumbersome and frankly, not thought out well. The Nunchuk is only used for moving between cities with the analog stick, while the d-pad on the Wii Remote handles item swaps on the grid. Why the developers did not simply use the d-pad for both purposes, I am not sure. If any game screamed out for the Classic Controller, it is Puzzle Quest, but players unfortunately do not have that option.

So many questions are left to be answered: What about the story? What can I buy with gold? What character classes can I choose from? Patience, grasshoppers, all will be explained in Stage 2.