Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

"A game with the Nintendo Seal of Quality that has almost no quality whatsoever."

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords sounds like a good idea from a fan's view. It's a puzzle game with RPG elements and a story... Sounds great, right? Wrong. This game does have an interesting effect with that, but that's about it. While the idea of a puzzle game with a story is good, after playing this game I doubt that there will ever be a puzzle game with a story that is actually a good story.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay of the game is very important. It can save a game with horrible aspects everywhere else from being bad. Unfortunatly, this game has gameplay that isn't too good either.

The gameplay is simple. Ever heard of Bejeweled? You switch around gems and make pairs of three or more. You get money, experience, damage enemies and earn runes this way in the game. You use runes to cast spells to damage your opponents. While it may sound fun now, just wait until you are playing approximately twenty of these Bejeweled matches in one hour to advance in the story. It's not fun after awhile. It gets very tedious and often you'll want to quit midbattle. To add insult to injury, you can't skip random encounters that appear on the map so that's more puzzles. To siege castles, to capture monsters, to do pretty much anything in this game it involves playing the game. While you might be buying this game because of the puzzles, it gets tedious when going through story mode. If you have to play three hundred bejeweled matches to get the story finished then I'd rather do something else. If this game had other games besides just bejeweled to pass the time this would be more fun.

The gameplay is also very simple too in one aspect. You equip your character with enhancing items. While this is all good, there is a mode where you can create your own items. Herein lies the problem. Almost every weapon you make can be many times better than the most elite weapons you get in the game. It's insane! It makes the game way too easy and if you used the normal weapons, it'd be quite difficult.

Overall, gameplay for this game is average. However, when you have to deal with average gameplay for so long it gets very tedious and playing this game almost seems like a chore.

3/10

STORY

The story is very simple. The undead are wreaking havoc in your kingdom. Go through the land and find out exactly why they are invading. The story seems very dragged on after awhile. It seems very forced. They just keep putting in quests (The majority are side quests, but some of them have importance). With quests comes bejeweled and to advance in the story you must play bejeweled. That wouldn't be a problem if the story wasn't so bad. There is almost no character development that you can see. It's pretty much just you and your team mates. And none of them seem to develope character wise or change whatsoever in the game. They seem to all act the same no matter what.

The story of this game is also of poor quality. I know it's a puzzle game, but still. It kind of just feels like you're being dragged through instead of wanting to actually see what's happening.

The story is bland. There is really nothing more I can say about it.

1/10

GRAPHICS

Graphics don't make a game. They don't matter at all. They are just something to stare at to get the picture in your head about the game. Regardless, this game has poor graphics. It doesn't use the DS to it's full capabilities. Everything is two dimensional (and poorly done two dimensions, mind you). There are about three pictures in the game that are just there to show when you beat a boss or do something big in the game. They are very boring. Oh yeah, and speaking of bad graphics, what is with the medusa? It has no clothes on! It's a creepy naked snake girl! It scares me! I think I'll have nightmares...

LIke I said, graphics don't make a game. It is fun to stare at nice graphics though, and this game does not have them.

2/10

MUSIC AND SOUNDS

The music is bad. Let me get more descriptive for you: Here you are with a new DS game. You put it in and start to play. But what the hell is that screeching sound? Yes. It is bad. I suggest turning it off immediatily. And if you don't? Well, you'll have to deal with the screeching from a variety of... about three or four songs. What fun! So much variety, don't you think so? I don't think so. Just stay away from the music and you'll survive. Please, don't let your ears bleed. Turn it down.

Sounds are almost as bad as the music, and there are almost as many sounds as music options! The sounds are all only about two seconds long. They also sound pretty bad. There are about ten different sounds in the game and each one is worse than the last.

There is voice acting too! They say about two phrases ranging from "You are victorious!" to "Your hero has been defeated!". Yeah! That totally fixes the entire game with all it's flaws! Not really though.

Overall, it's all just really bad sound and music quality wise. Just turn the volume to zero for maximum enjoyment.

1/10 (And that is a gift!)

REPLAY VALUE

I just did a countless number of bejeweled games and even more quests! Let's do it again.

NO. This game has very little replay value. Unless you still actually like bejeweled after playing this game for twenty hours. If you do then by all means, enjoy.

2/10

OVERALL SCORE

This game is not the DS's best puzzle game. There are plenty of others out there! Don't waste your time with this one.

STORY

+ Hey, I give it credit for being one of the first puzzle games with a story!
- Regardless, it's a pretty horrible story.

GAMEPLAY
+ It's Bejeweled.
- It has been ruined with RPG elements and the sheer number you have to play the bejeweled game rip offs.

MUSIC AND SOUND
+ I can't think of any pluses. It's there. That's all I can give it.
- My ears still hurt from listening to it.

GRAPHICS
+ Um... It's also there.
- The graphics are bad. Plus the medusa is very scary and needs to wear a bra in her next game. Hopefully, said next game isn't a sequel to this.

REPLAYABILITY
+ It's not as bad as the replayability of the Phoenix Wright games.
- Unlike the Phoenix Wright games, this isn't too much fun the first time playing it.

OVERALL SCORE
2/10

This game is flawed in almost every way possible. Bad gameplay, bad story, horrible music and sound, bad graphics (And a scary grey naked snake lady), and a poor replayability level. This game didn't present too much fun to me, so I think you should just skip the hassle of having to go through it.

BUY, BORROW, RENT, OR BURN?

Burn it. It is a game that has nothing to present. It shows promise at first when you see it, but all promise will be crushed away from it within a half hour of actually playing this. It's an abomination on the DS and plagues the two screened system with it's unworthiness.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/07

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