Puzzle Kingdoms
Puzzle Kingdoms challenges players to plan out strategic attacks in order to defeat their opponents. Order troops across the map, conquering cities through innovative puzzle gameplay. Players build and manage armies led by heroic commanders to save the world of Etheria from the brink of destruction. By matching corresponding gems on the game board, players will both inflict damage on enemy forces while building mana that can be used to perform devastating attacks that will cripple their opponents.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Not Puzzle Quest II
After Galactrix tanked I naturally heard that this game was the TRUE sequel to the amazing Puzzle Quest, well, not quite. I liked it at first, it plays very much like the original Puzzle Quest game but doesn’t allow for any random battles allowing you to level up more. Ultimately this makes the big boss fights INSANE! When you are level 5 going up against a level 11 it makes it quite frustrating because you can’t just go fight more battles to gain levels and equipment you just have to keep trying to beat the high level boss which leaves you stuck and frustrated.
I would have loved to have seen this have random battles to make the game better similar to the original game.
The campaign really drew me in last time and this game just doesn’t measure up at all due to this style of linear playing. I really wanted to love this like the original but sadly it didn’t last long at all for me. But, you can play just a quick battle if you want to play the game without the frustration of getting stuck in the campaign etc.
5 Stars Just as addictive as puzzle quest
I am in love with this game!!! After beating Puzzle Quest, I was eagerly looking for the next puzzle game. I searched on the internet and found out about Galactrix. But I read all of the negative reviews and stayed away from it. I found this one in the store and took a chance on it. Boy oh Boy I can honestly say I am impressed. It even has a few familiar characters from the first Puzzle Quest. The goal of both games is very similar. But the Storyline is different. It is very involving. The storyline is a bit more linear than Puzzle Quest. After you conquer a kingdom, there are only a few places to go. The minigames are cool and cause you to run out of Gold before you know it. I will say one thing, this game is a bit easier ro play than Puzzle Quest. It seems more equally biased. The first game seemed as though it was constantly biased toward the computer. This one seems more balanced. I’m not done with the game yet, but I haven’t been able to put it down. I completely recommend this game. It’s only $20 and it will keep you entertained for days.
5 Stars Most addictive of the three battle type puzzle games
Having played Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Puzzle Quest: Galactrix all the way through, this game is more fun, addicting, and creative than the other two combined.
Learning to play the game takes a bit of getting used to, as you control the gems from the edges (which move entire rows) rather than moving the individual gems. This is a refreshing and smart change from the conventional match 3 gem game.
General gameplay: You go through kingdoms and battle the kings and villages to take over their kingdom. You then command the kingdom with the king you just defeated. You can then recruit new troops by solving puzzles (by clearing a certain amount of gems in a time limit). You can also discover new spells in newly defeated kingdoms (by clearing gems in a limited number of moves). To compare to hacking galaxies in Galactrix, the time limited puzzles here are actually relaxing!
Sounds: That brings me to the music. You don’t usually expect much from the music on the DS, but this game actually has really outstanding music and great medieval sounds that go along with the atmosphere.
Troops: The main portion of the gameplay is battles of course. Your one leader controls troops as you conquer a kingdom. Your troops can die, and you can recruit new ones. You can customize what troops you want. For example, I recruited a Unicorn, Ogre, Knight, and dwarf. Who’d have thought these types would fight together? There are a large number of other possible recruits you can use, up to about 20-30.
Spells & unique items: This is another major aspect of the gameplay during battles. Spells do things like heal, change gem colors, give troops power points, etc. Unique items are a major help in battles as they do things like give bonus defenses, and extra turns.
Kingdom customization: As you obtain many kingdoms, you can customize each individual kingdom and go on fighting with different leaders. This is an awesome feature as different leaders have different skills. The variability in this game is incredible, that’s what makes it such a fantastic game.
Leveling up: Each leader you have can gain levels as you conquer kingdoms. What’s awesome is how fast they level up. For example, By conquering only one kingdom I was able to get my Dwarf leader to level 5, which he can now use spells and gains other nice stats. It’s nice to change leaders when you want to experiment with other stats, and it doesn’t take that long!
I’m very happy with this game as it blows its two predecessors out of the water. The only con I can think of is its not good for time management! The game is almost TOO addicting.
5 Stars Liked it much more than Puzzle Quest–Thumbs WAY up!
This game is a blast and better (IMHO) than Puzzle Quest. In PQ I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the game. I did not find it self explanatory. Additionally it always seemed the AI cheated or was at least favorably awarded “extra’s” more often. Although I liked it I got very frustrated. This necessitated some breaks so I would not throw my DS against a wall.
Puzzle Kingdom takes most of the things found in Puzzle Quest and refines it with better explanation and clearer tutorials that explain everything to you. It let’s you save outside of the battles (but it forces you to quit which is a minor annoyance..I just restarted quickly and it was no big deal). If you wait for the game to let you save you will find yourself back at the beginning of the area with all progress lost–so do yourself a favor and save frequently and often. You will be much happier.
I thought the variation on the match 3 puzzle play was great and it makes me think much harder than something like 7 Wonders or Jewel Quest–which is good. After playing many match 3 puzzle games they were kind of getting a bit stale (although they are always addicting!). In JK you know what color is “waiting in the wings” on each square outside the grid so it is more about figuring out which square should move left/right/up/down than about looking inside the square for a match 3 if that makes sense.
I thought the story was fine–nothing too earth shattering but sufficient for me. The mini games were o.k. and worked well and can be quite challening.
Overall a great game!
5 Stars Even Better Than Puzzle Quest
Like the previous reviewer, I was disappointed in the developer’s previous game, Galactrix. Puzzle Kingdoms makes up for Galactrix and now seems even better than Puzzle Quest!
Like Puzzle Quest, you need to put three or more similarly-colored blocks together to clear them and gain power. Unlike Puzzle Quest, the blocks no longer have to be in a row or column. Furthermore, you aren’t forced to make a match. If it suits you better to move certain blocks around to make it harder for your opponent to make a good move, you can do so. Also, instead of just switching the positions of two blocks, you now shift entire rows or columns, so you have to give more thought to what you will be allowing your opponent to do. Lastly, you can see all of the blocks that might be added when shifting rows or columns, so you have to factor that information into your final decision for your move. These differences add a huge amount of strategic pleasure to the basic color-matching system.
If that wasn’t enough strategy, you can build armies out of various units. Your goal is to wipe out your opponent’s units. Each unit has certain color requirements in order to attack, an attack value, and a number of hit points. A unit can attack as soon as its color requirements are met. However, you might want to delay an attack until you have more powered-up units, because a coordinated attack gets additional damage bonuses.
For example, an axeman has a base attack value of 2 and 3 base hit points, and he requires three white power to attack. An imp has a base attack value of 1 and only 2 base hit points, but requires only two blue power to attack, and a goblin has the same attack and HP, but requires only two red power to attack. The imp and the goblin can each hit more often than the axeman, but they are weaker. On the other hand, the imp’s and goblin’s power requirements are lower, so if they make a coordinated attack, they’ll each do more damage overall. Deciding which units to add and when they should attack adds even more strategy to this game.
And if all that isn’t enough, you can earn gold by defeating opponents, and the gold can be used to play mini-games that unlock various items, spells, and relics that can be used to further customize your army. You can tweak your army so it can suit various strategies, and unlike Puzzle Quest, you can have multiple heroes leading the armies, and you can choose how those heroes develop through experience, so you can experiment with many different strategies.
I haven’t played a strategy game this deep, customizable, and addicting since X-Com or Jagged Alliance 2. Puzzle Kingdoms is already in my top 20 of all time, and that’s really saying something, since I’ve been playing computer and video games since 1977!
Buy/More Info
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