Jan Zdarsa Puzzle Quest appeared on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP platforms in early 2007 and many players of this game thrilled by its simplicity, but at the same time hugely addictive. Later, conversions were released on almost all platforms. And this time it did iPhone players also got to see it.
Think of Puzzle Quest as a combination of 3-match games (eg Bejeweled) with RPG elements. The game consists of traveling around a fantasy world to pick up quests (and progressing through the story) and a combat portion that focuses on duels. In duels, you will fight with orcs or wizards, for example, and it is not possible to just stupidly combine 3 identical stones, but you often have to strategize a lot and that's just what Puzzle Quest players love.
The aim of the game is to destroy the opponent. They can serve you for that spells, which you get during the game or a combination of 3 or more skulls. To use a spell, you always need a certain amount of mana, which you get by combining 3 or more stones of the given color. In addition, over time you gain skill points for the development of your character.
I loved Puzzle Quest on my Nintendo DS because the match 3 games are perfect for long hours and it's the strategy RPG elements that really get you. 3 parts are coming for iPhone. The first is called Puzzle Quest: Chapter 1 – Battle of Gruulkar and is currently available for download on the Appstore. The first two parts will be identical in content to Challenge of the Warlords (which was released across platforms) and the third part will be content related to the data disc that is on Xbox (Revenge of the Plague Lord). But the iPhone version for you I can't recommend it at the moment.
It's not so much the price that bothers me so much. The first part costs about $18 on the Nintendo DS (and includes the first two parts of the iPhone version), and the authors promise a business model where price of other parts decreasing (I guess $9.99 > $7.99 > $5.99). Therefore, we should be able to fit under $24 with the data disk. In addition, the authors state that only the first part should endure for 20 hours of playing the story line.
Puzzle Quest on the iPhone bothers me about her sloppy conversion. The graphics look blurry and the font size is often really tiny (and you'll have trouble making out what's written there). In addition, moving stones is as if the iPhone couldn't handle it, the smooth animation of moving stones is missing, and you wouldn't believe how annoying it can be at times. But I could still survive, but such a bad port can really drain the battery while waiting. For such a simple game, I would expect less strain on the entire iPhone and therefore longer endurance. In addition, some players lost their saved positions from the TransGaming server (it is possible to save a character here in order to move to other parts).
So the final verdict is clear. I do not currently recommend Puzzle Quest on the iPhone and although it's a great game, I'd rather choose something else for now. If the authors manage to remove the errors, then of course it will be a hit. If you can get over these bugs, I have to say that for $9.99 this game is a good title. This is especially true for those who have never experienced Puzzle Quest before.
[xrr rating=3/5 label=”Apple Rating”]
