"...The Heck? Why hasn't this been spoken more of?"

Let's face it - Bejeweled is one of the most common of the internet gaming phenomenons in recent memory, spawning more clones than Mario did in the glory days of his prime. The basic idea of Bejeweled is simple: with a board of jewels/objects, slide pieces to make three or more in a row, which will remove the row of identical objects. Doing so and making "combos" (where other three or more in a row eliminations happen) is ideal, as well.

Why am I talking about the workings of Bejeweled?

Well, just as Namco realized that you could take a shooter and add an RPG to it (Sigma Star Saga), someone at D3 realized you could take a puzzle game (namely, Bejeweled) and slap an RPG around it.

And, just as Sigma Star Saga melded both old-school shooting and RPGing together seamlessly, Puzzle Quest makes you wonder why no one put a puzzle game with RPG elements together before.

The plot is one with typical new trainee (you can choose a character class, which determins your primary "abilities") and an ancient mystery, and while sometimes interesting, the static character portraits (which are not bad, but pale against the lively anime-style ones from games like Custom Robo Arena) don't help any. There is an audio score, and is one of those hit-or-miss tracks. I personally found it a bit too middle ages at times, but other times I found it quite fitting.

Keep in mind that the above paragraph is the reason this game does not rate a ten for me.

The meat of the game is the "combat," which is basically a multiplayer Bejeweled game with a few twists. For one, as mentioned, you take a turn, then the opponent, then you, foe, etc. But you do not simply go out of your way to score points. Making three or more of one icon nets you mana of one color (of four - Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth) to store for spells (which can aid in various ways), some to gain gold (to spend on various areas, including building up your little home kingdom (!)), some for experiance (which, when level ups are reached, allow you to get additional enhancements like more mana from combos), and some that damage your foe.

Read that again, and let it sink in.

Sadly, this game has to be experianced to be appreciated. I spent about an hour against the dummy "bot" the story gives you as your first foe figuring out the basic gist of the game, and had not realized how long it was until I saw my cats begging for their food. It is too easy to get involved and loose time, just as with the real Bejeweled.

And for those that want to take a break from all the plot, the single player mode does offer you to go strait to a "random" encounter, where you fight a random foe (on a setting of Easy, Normal, or Hard), and any experiance or gold you collect is added to your save file. A multi-card multiplayer is available for two players, which fits given that anything you do in the game's extra features helps your main quest. Though a single download demo option would have been nice, to show just how good this is.

In short, this is a serious must-own for gamers. This game single handedly interrupted my playing of Final Fantasy Fables to drag me into its addictive game.

And that is saying something.

Score - 9 of 10

+ Best Features: Bejeweled has never been cloned so well, combat is easy to learn and hard to master, controls are basic, story can be interesting

- Worst Features: Character art pales against other DS fare, music is love or hate, no demo download

* If You Liked: Bejeweled (freeware on PC), Hexic HD (Xbox 360), Final Fantasy Fables (DS)

* Guilty Pleasure: Playing this and realizing that you would rather spend a "few more minutes" to get the ability to better control that Water mana instead of getting that rare Cactar card in FF Fables...

* (Good) Reality: Whereas most games sell based on either brand name or advertising, the word of mouth on Puzzle Quest is quite high at the moment, with its praises being sung in a beautiful tune. Who'd have thought a Puzzle RPG hybrid would work so well?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/07, Updated 11/20/07

Game Release: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (US, 03/20/07)