What's great about the Puzzle Quest world is that the more you explore the more stuff you'll find. Along with the great battles, you can also earn friends who will travel with you, animals you can fly on, and all sorts of other wild additions that can potentially change the way you play the game. While a game like Final Fantasy XII is probably deeper, Puzzle Quest is certainly no slouch. There's so much to do and see in this game that you'll probably still be playing it long after you've beaten the game and maxed out your hero. It really says something when you can go through the same game three times on three different consoles and look forward to playing it again and again. The fact that you can go through the game using characters of different classes only makes the replay that much greater; there is no doubt in my mind that Puzzle Quest is one of the greatest puzzle games of all time. Heck, it's one of the best adventure games of all time.
The fictional world of Puzzle Quest has a lot of familiar faces; if you've played other fantasy role-playing games then you're going to feel right at home. I'm talking about trolls, dragons, imps, zombies and a whole host of other creatures. Part of the fun of Puzzle Quest is just going around and trying to capture each and every one of the 51 monster types, especially if you want to learn all of the spells and exert your dominance over the world map.
This Xbox Live Arcade version of the game is essentially a port of the PSP version of Puzzle Quest. While the Nintendo DS and PSP versions of the game were largely the same, the PlayStation Portable version had better graphics and a slightly easier interface. This "next gen" version of the game retains those better graphics and improves the look enough to feel right on your television set. Obviously this isn't going to look as good as Halo 3 or BioShock, but Puzzle Quest isn't one of those games that needs to push millions of polygons and crazy lighting effects.
Like the PSP version, this Xbox Live Arcade game has you controlling the board with either your D-Pad or analog stick. You move the cursor around the board until you figure out what you want to move, and then you push the "A" button to select it and push the D-Pad/analog stick in the direction you want it to move. You can only move a piece in four directions, either up, down, left or right. While on paper this game sounds like a perfect fit for the Nintendo DS' touch screen, the game seems to work better on the PSP and Xbox Live Arcade. The main problem with the DS version is that the pieces were so small that it was easy to make a touch screen mistake. In contrast I don't recall ever running into any control issue in this Xbox Live Arcade port.
While Puzzle Quest is not about amazing graphics and stunning CGI cinemas, the graphics are pretty good for what they are trying to do. The problem with judging a game like this is that you're constantly going from battle to the world map, so there isn't much time for beautiful graphics. The world map looks good, and it's fun to go from area to area because of how different everything is (even if the battles look the same every time). The battle graphics look fine, but don't expect to be wowed by amazing animation or detailed enemies. This is just not that kind of game; this is not a showpiece for the power of the Xbox 360.
When you're not trudging through side-quests and story missions, you do have the opportunity to go in and just challenge different enemies. This is actually a lot of fun because it allows you to play the best part of the game (the puzzle battles) without worrying about wandering around the map looking for enemies to kill. On top of that you get an online one-on-one mode that allows you to see how good your character really is. Granted, the multiplayer mode is a bit limited, but it's definitely a lot of fun to finally be able to take on real opponents and not just computer characters.
Seeing how popular the two portable versions of Puzzle Quest were, D3 has done the smart thing and decided to port it to just about every console known to man. In the next few months you will be able to buy this game for the PlayStation 2, PC, and even the Nintendo Wii. But despite all of those newer versions coming, this Xbox Live Arcade port is easily the cheapest way to buy the game. At $15 this game is a steal, I wholeheartedly recommended the game at twice that price on the PSP and Nintendo DS. If you're one of those gamers who didn't pick the game up on one of the two portable systems earlier in the year, then this Xbox Live Arcade version is a must-buy. And I'll be honest with you, even if you do already own the game on the DS or the PSP, this still may be worth it for the achievement points and online multiplayer. Either way, this is easily one of the best puzzle games of all time, and (at least for the time being) my favorite game of the year.
A-
What makes Puzzle Quest the best game of 2007? It's easily the most addictive game you will play this year, full of exciting quests, easy to learn puzzles and an online mode that is way more fun than any game deserves to be. It may not look like Halo 3 or BioShock, but that shouldn't keep it from being considered one of the best games of the year ... if not the best.
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