Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Wii)

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Description

As a citizen of the kingdom of Bartonia, it's your job to discover why the Undead have begun swarming all over the world of Etheria. In this RPG hybrid you'll be following the story of your character as they rid Etheria of the Undead scourge and save Bartonia, complete sidequests for extra money, experience, items and companions, craft your own weapons and armor, capture monsters for use as mounts or to learn their spells, and even lay siege to neighboring kingdoms in order to add them to your own empire. However, Puzzle Quest is an RPG with a twist. Everything is done (as the name implies) with puzzles.

Everything in Puzzle Quest is done with puzzles. The puzzles themselves are similar to Bejeweled in execution, with a few slight variations used for things like item crafting and enemy capture.

When fighting an enemy (which can range from zombies to orcs and even castle strongholds, each with their own special spells and abilities), you both take turns using the same board. The goal is to reduce your opponents hitpoints to zero, which can be done directly by linking up skulls in rows of three or more, or by using spells which require mana. To build up mana, just link three or more runes of the same color together, just like the skulls. Every time you gain mana, it's stored in your reserves until you use it (or are hit with a mana draining attack). Gold and experience are built up in the same way, using gold coins or purple experience orbs that occupy the same board and can be linked just like runes and skulls.

The real strategy behind the game comes into play when you factor in elemental mastery (gaining extra mana when linking runes for a specific element), equipment (which can prevent damage, drain mana and more), spells (which can poison, drain mana, stun and so on) and linking up groups of four or more. The reason groups of four are important is that every time a row of four-of-a-kind is created, you get an extra turn. While it doesn't sound important, getting four runes in a row could possibly give you enough mana to cast an extremely powerful spell and give you the extra turn to cast it before your enemy can even move.

There is also a direct action mode in which players can hone their skills against various opponents independent from the story mode, as well as wireless multi-card play where two players can square off using their own characters from the campaign mode.

Screenshots

There are no Wii screenshots for this game.

There are 76 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Alternate Titles

• "The パズルクエスト～アガリアの騎士～" -- Japanese spelling
• "The Puzzle Quest: Agaria no Kishi" -- Japanese title
• "Puzzle Quest HD" -- iPad title

Part of the Following Groups

• Genre: Tile matching puzzle (creation)
• Portability Engine: Cider
• Puzzle Quest series
• Simple DS series
• Warlords universe

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the Wii release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

The Press Says

4Players.de	Oct 17, 2007	91 out of 100	91
Nintendo Front	Feb 20, 2008	82 out of 100	82
GameSpot	Jan 11, 2008	7.5 out of 10	75
GameSpy	Jan 22, 2008		70
Nintendo-Online.de	Mar 12, 2008	7 out of 10	70
Gamer.nl	Feb 21, 2008	7 out of 10	70
Game Over Online	Jan 04, 2008	70 out of 100	70
IGN	Dec 10, 2007	7 out of 10	70
Video Game Talk	Jan 22, 2008		40

Forums

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Trivia

1001 Video Games

Puzzle Quest appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

PC Version

Because there initially was a Windows demo, but no full PC game released along with the other platforms, Steve Fawkner (CEO of developer Infinite Interactive) received at least six death threats and one bomb threat from fans demanding a PC version of the game.

References

The game contains a Frost Giant named Jarl. This a reference to the Frost Giant Jarl from the old AD&D module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl.

Awards

• GameSpy
  • 2007 – #5 Handheld Game of the Year
  • 2007 – #5 PSP Game of the Year
  • 2007 – #6 Nintendo DS Game of the Year
  • 2007 – Best XBLA Game of the Year

Information also contributed by Jeff Sinasac.

Related Web Sites

• Triple Your Gaming in Puzzle Quest (An Apple Games article about the Mac version of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (April, 2008).)
• X360A achievement guide (X360A's achievement guide for Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords.)