"Another Clone, Another Average Title"

Quick Summary

Being a Bejeweled clone is not easy. With so many variants in the market place, one has to stand out to really catch the eye. Once in a while, a rare gem like Puzzle Quest comes along. Most of the time, however, wannabes fall into quick oblivion. Jewel Quest falls somewhere between the two extremes and it is hard to either love or hate it.

On a side note, Wikipedia's explanation on Bejeweled being a game developed in 2001 (as checked on 27 Dec 2007) is probably not correct. I recall receiving a free version of this simple but fun game by email way before 2001. It was one of those no-frill single-file game, probably developed by freelancers or university undergraduates. Unfortunately, my Pentium system (with the old Window 95) had longed ceased operations and I lack the proper documentation to show evidence. Nevertheless, let us proceed with the review proper.

General Description

The game is divided into a few key stories and each story is further split into levels. For each level, you are supposed to clear a Bejeweled-style board.

Each board is made up of squares and these squares are randomly filled up by shapes. Using the stylus, you can swap each square's shape either horizontally or vertically with the shape in the next square. If the swapped shapes are able to match a straight line of three (or more) similar shapes, these shapes will be cleared. This means that the matched line of shapes will disappear from the squares. New shapes will be randomly generated from the top of screen and the upper shapes (above the cleared line) will then drop onto these empty squares. You will then repeat the process by swapping more shapes.

The catch in Jewel Quest is that every time you clear the shapes, their inhabited squares become yellow. The objective is to make all squares in the board become yellow. This means that each square must experience at least a “cleared” shape. Once the entire board turns yellow, you win this level. Each level however comes with a time limit, tracked by a decreasing time bar. If the time limit runs down to zero before you manage to turn all squares yellow, you will lose one life and have to repeat that level.

Story

In between the levels, the game comes with a strange adventure-cum-love story. Right from the opening screens, you would have notice the similarity between the title fonts and the fonts used in the movie Indiana Jones. And the male protagonist looks strikingly close to Harrison Ford's movie character as the whip-cracking archaeologist. Thus, it is no surprise that the story is about an adventure involving treasure-hunting. It is important to note that the story has no direct bearing on the gameplay whatsoever. On a positive note, the silly script-writing does offer some cheap and weak laughs in between the levels.

Difficulty

As you progress through the levels, you will note that the developers introduce some variations to spike up the difficulty level.

One interesting variation is the introduction of “rocks”. In some levels, the boards will feature some shapes which are locked up by rocks. This means that you are unable to move/ swap these shapes. The only way is to clear the rocks is to move/ swap the adjacent “normal” shapes surrounding the rocks. Once a correct line is matched, the rock will crack and this will release the locked shape within. In addition, some rocks hide the shapes totally and you have to play a guessing game when you match its surrounding shapes.

Another fun variation is the gold coin, which can be a seen as a special bonus shape. Whenever you clear a line of gold coin shapes, you will earn one Gold Coin Power (which is tracked in the upper screen). This Gold Coin Power can be activated to help clear difficulties in any level. For example, this power can be used to “crack” a problematic rock or turn any tricky square in an odd corner into yellow. The only strange thing is that the developers did not bring this idea of special power even further: for example, how about special silver coins to extend the time limit?

Sadly, the rest of variations are either non-existent or not worth playing. In some levels, for example, you are supposed to clear each square twice before it turns yellow. This is a lame method to increase the difficulty by merely making you do the same thing twice in the same level. Once you clear the first story (which contains 5 main levels), you will note that there are too much repetitions and too little interesting variations. Law of diminishing returns will probably kick in and the enjoyment curve is likely to dip.

It is easy to have a strange love-hate relationship with this game. There are times during bus journeys when this game may becomes handy and even addictive. However, during a lazy day in a relaxing café, the urge will be to switch on DS with anything else but Jewel Quest. Perhaps, this is due it being a mixed package. On one hand, there are some fun elements in this clone. On the other, the repetitive nature of the levels offers not much entertainment.

Recommendation

Final verdict: Go and buy the superb Puzzle Quest. However, if you or your WAG (refers to wife-and-girlfriend, a popular term often used during a certain nation's international football campaigns) is a Bejeweled addict, you may consider getting Jewel Quest. At the end of the day, this is just another average clone.

<review by ray_lightcaster>

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/08

Game Release: Jewel Quest: Expeditions (US, 09/18/07)