Puzzle Quest

Apparently this game had some sort of following before I'd stumbled upon it on XBLA in between sucking at Grifball and trying to gold star "Vasoline". I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised when I found the game to be much lighter than your average RPGish fare. See, I've got somewhat of an addictive personality, especially when it comes to games involving XP, lootz, and spells. The drive to get more levels and get a buffer guy consumes me. This is why I don't play games like WoW, EQ, or even single player adventures like Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect. I actually want to have a life, and I know that for me personally such a life cannot exist while I'm hunting orcs on some electronic media. Puzzle Quest isn't like that, which isn't to say that it's an addicting and yet interesting game. It's puzzle are quite entralling and I do find myself thinking about colored gems dropping in patterns when I'm not playing, but I do find I can put it down quite easily. I'm not sure if this is personal growth on my part, or some mechanic of the game, but I'm not compelled to sit in front of the TV for hours leveling up my character. Perhaps it's the way that you can more or less choose which fights you get in, but this non-junkie behavior is quite a refreshing change for me.

The most surprising aspect of the game is the music. It's regal, majestic, and almost unappropriately good for what is essentially Hexic with XP. One almost gets more entranced with the medieval fantasy-inspired soundtrack and forgets that their actually playing a puzzle game to besiege that city and pillage the citizens for greed and fun.

If you haven't already, jump on this colorful bandwagon and match some pretty colors for the glory of your... uh... kingdom, and not in the least for your own gains. $15 or 1200 MSP makes this one of the more pricey Arcade titles, but I'm feeling that it's worth it. I give it a 8/10 VP.