Bzzzzzt! Attack effects are cool! First and foremost, put aside your puzzle prejudices. Gamers who see the word “puzzle” in this game’s name and run shrieking out of the store are missing out on one of the best RPGs of 2007. Yes, this is a puzzle game, but the puzzles are brilliantly integrated into a combat system chock full of the RPG goodness that makes the genre so popular.

As a gamer whose last-gen brain isn’t up to complex puzzles, believe me when I say that Puzzle Quest should not be discriminated against simply by this single aspect of the game. People who have played (or seen someone play) Bejeweled will immediately recognize this game’s puzzle roots. The puzzle consists of an 8×8 grid of jewels, gold, stars, and skulls. Matching any three or more of these will cause them to disappear.

At the same time, items will continuously stream down from the top to fill the remaining void. Simple enough, but you might be wondering, how does this translate into a combat system? The puzzle represents a battle between two characters: the player’s custom-made character and either an evil computer villain or another player with a character of void. his or her own.

Each player takes a turn matching three or more items in a line on the grid by swapping any two adjacent items horizontally or vertically. What the combinations mean depends on the type of item being matched. The jewels consist of red, blue, yellow, and green varieties; each of which add mana to the player’s character. Mana is used to perform special actions such spell casting, attacks, or grid manipulation.