Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition Review (Switch)

Puzzle Quest first became popular when a host of match three style games were the go-to for mobile users. We first played it on the Xbox 360 and at the time it proved to be a decent distraction which successfully merged a simple but addictive puzzle mechanic with elements of the RPG genre. All these years later the series is still going and now we have this seemingly complete edition, backed with all the additions and extras added over the years.

The concept is simple, the interface of the game follows the template of a retro style RPG, something that reminded us of adventure games on the Amiga for a reason we can’t quite place. After picking from a preset host of characters that fall into the classic fantasy moulds of thieves, wizards and warriors, you move around a map going to locations of interest such as towns and castles. Here, you can find quests and information and visit shops to buy items and weapons to increase your stats.

Quests generally involve taking on a number of enemies in turn, sometimes with a boss monster at the end. These start out as things such as sewer rats and skeletons but quickly move on to more threatening members of the classic fantasy menagerie. All encounters are handled in the same way which is in the form of a match three battle. You are presented with a grid containing a host of shapes and colours. All of which do different things when matched. Three colours, when matched fill up bars which can be used for different types of special and magic attacks. Matching skulls inflicts damage on your opponent, while you can also get experience points and host of other bonuses.

The key is to balance attacking your opponent with making sure that you don’t leave yourself open. You also need to keep an eye on the potential to match four or more of a shape or colour as this allows you to take another turn. Matching is simply done by swapping a shape or colour from its current position with an adjacent one. It starts out simply but quickly develops into something with far more depth. Even early on the game moves quickly away from its basic format and introduces all sort of bonuses and special symbols. It’s often easy to find yourself in serious trouble even with middling opponents if you let your guard down so players will always have to be thinking a few steps ahead.

There are a host of spells and skills which can be utilised as well, and the effects are wide ranging and varied enough to have a major impact if used properly. It’s easy to amass many skills which do everything from causing more damage to destroying a certain colour or shape on the game field.

Despite its initial casual nature, it’s amazing how much of a time sink the game becomes. It may have casual roots, but we found hour after hour drifting by on occasion, and it certainly has that one more go appeal to it. The combination of the RPG elements and simple but addictive mechanics make this a difficult game to pull away from once you get into its zone.

Overall, Puzzle Quest remains a solid fusion between two different genres. It has enough depth to keep you playing for long periods but is also perfect for on the go play on the Switch. It comes to life in handheld mode and is packed with content that means when it sucks you in, you’ll be with it for hours. All the mechanics work well and there’s even concessions for colour blind players with use of both colours and shapes. If you haven’t played the game in any of its version so far this is a great place to start.

Overall 8/10

Lucy Dreaming Review (Switch)

While many genres from the old world of gaming have found new form with indie developers, the point and click adventure has, for the most part, been conspicuous by its absence. There have been a few of course, the recent(ish) Monkey Island game and Broken Sword 5, (and the re-release of the original) spring to mind. But, for the most part it is an often-unexplored genre in modern times. Lucy Dreaming is a valiant attempt at trying to change that.

Lucy Dreaming, developed by Tall Story games is a British point and click adventure with the ‘British’ aspect of it very much at its core, at least in terms of the accents and voices. Lucy and her family have crazy accents so thick you’d think they were coming to you straight from a Dickensian novel. Aside from that though there isn’t much else to this tag. The game is heavily influenced in terms of style by the Lucas Arts point and click adventure games, most notably the 8-bit ones such as Maniac Mansion which the game takes its graphical style from. There are of course multiple Easter eggs placed around to point this out as well.

The game follows the tried and tested route of point and click games. You move Lucy around using and on-screen cursor. Then you can look at, use, or pick up objects. Objects can then be used to solve puzzles allowing you to progress. In timed honoured fashion, a fair few of these puzzles require the most lateral of thinking to achieve. Telling jokes to a piranha plant so it laughs and spits out a key is a prime example of this. Some of the puzzles are a touch too obscure though, and you can descend into wandering around using every object on everything else until something clicks which isn’t ideal.

The main premise of the game is that Lucy is having strange dreams. This allows the developers to give us two distinct worlds to move between. There’s the dream world of course where things are much more surreal and stranger and the waking world where Lucy can explore her house and neighbourhood to gather items that will eventually allow the poor girl to get a good night’s sleep.

For the most part the writing and humour is good. The characters Lucy encounters are just the right side of zany to be amusing without descending into it being too on the nose. Lucy herself has enough sharp responsive to things to make sure you are unlikely to get bored clicking on things as well.

Controls wise it’s always difficult to move mouse-based games onto consoles, but the Switch version handles quite well. The analogue stick isn’t completely ideal, but it just about holds up. There is also the option to go touch screen but then you’ll be covering your screen in more smudges than you can possibly imagine. The streamlined commands keep things logical and although it invades the view screen, having your inventory and other information available at all times is incredibly useful. There aren’t that many concessions for players who may struggle though.

Many of these games now have hint systems but all you’ll get from Lucy Dreaming is a button that highlights interactive objects in the room. This is of course essential on the Switch when in handheld mode, but it’s not going to help if there’s a puzzle you just can’t get your head around for a few hours. Lucy does give decent hints as well, but we certainly found ourselves stuck on a few occasions for far longer than was comfortable.

Overall, Lucy dreaming is mostly successful in trying to bring an old school style point and click adventure to a modern audience. Long term fans of the genre will get on well with it and will likely not be as phased by the occasionally obscure puzzles. Newcomers though would be better served starting with something a little more up to date in terms of mechanics. One thing we can say though, is that this would fit neatly into the output when point and click games ruled the gaming world, and that alone should be applauded.

Overall 7/10

Boulderdash 40th Anniversary Review (Switch)

Hands up anyone who feels old at the fact that we have reached the 40^th anniversary of Boulderdash. The classic rock dropping and gem finder has gone on to influence a ton of games and dates back all the way to the 8-bit era. While we were always Repton fans ourselves, it’s undeniable how iconic the game is and now it’s been brought to new systems in a comprehensive package.

For the uninitiated the game revolved around the player navigating a maze of dirt, rocks, gems and moving enemies from a flat 2D perspective. You can move freely through the dirt, but any rocks perched on top will then fall. If they hit you, you get crushed and die. Rocks will also fall off other rocks, sometimes creating huge landslides which can easily trap you in and cause a level restart. Once enough gems in a level have been collected an exit will open allowing progress to the next stage.

We certainly can’t complain about the number of levels included. As well as the first three games, there are a ton of new levels created with more up to date graphics. We do think the new look has a very ‘mobile game’ quality, but this isn’t the most deep of experiences so it’s not the end of the world. While most collections now seem to include emulated versions of original games that isn’t strictly the case here. You can play the games with either a C64 or Atari filter, but these aren’t the original versions of the game. You would be hard pressed to tell though.

Controls wise everything works well. Before a recent update you had to use the left stick to control movement, which was incredibly twitchy, but you can now use the cursor keys which is transformative in terms of precision movement. This has made the games a lot more friendly to play and means you are rarely overshooting when moving around. With a game this tough it really didn’t need anything else getting in the way of progression.

Boulderdash 40^th anniversary does fall between two audiences though. If you haven’t experienced the game before there probably isn’t much here that’s going to really draw you in. While fans may feel a little shortchanged by the fact there isn’t much in the way of archive footage or that more versions of the games haven’t been included. When you think to the extensive retro collections now filling the Switch this does begin to look a bit bare bones in terms of content by comparison. That said, there’s a lot of Boulderdash here, so if you are a fan or into these types of games there’s certainly enough to get into.

Overall 7/10

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance Review (Switch)

With all the recent retro revivals and intense 2D nostalgic throwbacks recently it’s hard to believe that we haven’t had a proper Shinobi gave for a long time. There was of course a 3DS game that wasn’t the best and most of the back catalogue has been made available, but Art of Vengeance is a resounding return to form.

The thing that stands out straight away are the gorgeous visuals. The game has been designed to look like a Japanese style painting and the colour and detail present throughout are stunning. In motion, everything flows as well as it looks with the game moving at an intense speed without faltering, even in handheld mode. It allows for a flow and momentum that every ninja game is crying out for.

The combat is much more involved than previous games as well. Historically, Shinobi games have limited the player to a jump and attack button, with the occasional special move. Here, there’s a combo system in play with light and heavy attacks and constantly upgradable and changeable special moves that can be bought from an in-game shop. There’re also instant kills and a host of movement options such as dashes and wall slides that wouldn’t be out of place in the latest indie Metroidvania.

To clarify, Shinobi hasn’t gone the Metroidvania route. The game is set out as linear, platform, levels. These can be revisited later when new power ups are acquired which can in turn can then be used to access a few hidden areas, but generally you are going from left to right through large levels and then taking on an impressively large and difficult boss at the end. Between each of the main platform levels there are also further throw backs to the past such as more action-based stages riding on horses or other vehicles.

The general games difficulty is challenging but fair. There’s certainly nothing here to compare to the Mega Drive games in terms of difficulty. If you do die you start back at a checkpoint, and as the levels are vast this is a smart design choice. It also helps to lessen the frustration on the few occasions it’s difficult to tell between a pit and what is the legitimate way forward. The bosses though are tough. They are damage sponges which go through varying phases of attack patterns, and we often found ourselves zooming through a level, only to be stuck at the boss checkpoint for a considerable amount of time. While this can be frustrating it’s good to see some of the old Shinobi challenge remaining in the game’s DNA.

Overall, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance represents a stunning return for Sega’s much-loved franchise. The action is slick and frenetic, and the level design is both beautiful and creative. Enemies are varied and provide enough of a challenge to be interesting obstacles and getting through a level provides enough satisfaction to continually push on to the next. Sega has been slow to mine some of its formally popular IP’s so we hope this is a sign of things to come. This is a creative, fun and intense success that it’s hard to see anyone not liking it, especially those with nostalgia for the original games.

Overall 9/10