Game Review - Puzzle Quest (DS)

I am by no means a video gamer. At least not an avid one. My video game upbringing was the venerable Atari 2600 aaaaand…. That’s pretty much it. I played several PC games in the 90’s and dabbled on a friend’s NES in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Played WWF WarZone with some pals on a PS1 a few times. That’s it though. Pretty lame right?

A few years ago I finally picked up a PS2 and played a few games here and there on that. But I haven’t been the type to just sit down and play a game for hours and hours on end for many, many years. I used to joke that my house was the House of Archaic Console Systems (HOACS) because I didn’t own a single system that was the current system by any manufacturer. I got a PS2 after the PS3 debuted and the price dropped a good bit. That was the newest. We still have an NES system and a 2600 right next to the PS2.

But shortly before Gwen was born, Steph asked for a Nintendo DS to play games with during what we assumed would be some long stretches of nothing happening in the hospital. Aw, man! The DS is still the current system in Nintendo handhelds! I can’t be archaic anymore!!

I’ll get them though! I won’t play any new games. That’ll show ‘em! *insert maniacal laugh here*

The DS has been sitting in a cabinet for some time now. Steph never plays it at all so I decided to drag it out, charge it up and start playing with it during down time at work.

I tell you all this to give you some background into my gaming past before announcing this new segment of my blog. Here comes Tim’s first video game review!!

Puzzle Quest (Nintendo DS)

Not sure when this game was released, but it was recommended to me by a co-worker when I asked him for some games my wife would like since she is into Bejeweled and Mahjong type games. He said it is strangely addictive. He was right.

The game appears to be your standard RPG medieval fantasy type game. You pick a character class, and you go around the countryside fulfilling quests, gaining experience and money to buy more and better gear and eventually conquering cities and such. Along the way you gain allies and fight undead baddies. But combat is where this game takes a novel swerve from the norm.

You don’t fight anyone directly. There’s no having to learn 15 different keystrokes to maybe be able to swing a sword and block effectively.

Combat is done with a Bejewled type puzzle board. You and your opponent take turns lining up three or more colored jewels which give you increasing levels of strength, mana, money, etc. which then get used to cast spells and make attacks against your opponents hit points. Each puzzle also has several skulls which, when lined up, cause direct damage to your opponent.

If you lose, the game tells you your character has been chased away and must try again. So you go back to the puzzle and start over exactly as you were before. No apparent penalty for losing.

The game is very simplistic and lends itself to just playing for a few minutes at a time, which is very appealing to me. I can play for 15 min. here and there or I could spend an entire long car-trip playing as well (so long as I’m not the one driving!!)

If you see this one in a used bin and have a DS, pick it up for sure. You won’t be disappointed.