GBAtemp book game club is due another edition and as such here we go once more. To start with an overview of the series is standard practice and it is not a bad one so to summarise- each edition a selection of a game or a handful of related ones gets made and anyone that wants can review or discuss it as a whole or parts of it that caught their attention with the others in the thread.
GBAtemp's top ? games this is not as we find those lists have a nasty habit of overlooking some of the more interesting things that come out that are well worth having looked at. Although the selection criteria are not really going to be elaborated upon beyond the previous sentence we do on occasion state another criteria (budget, release territories, of interest to the story/game of the moment and more) or pose an in game challenge (although games are set in code so to speak it does not stop you from trying something odd within the framework- something achievements and trophies in some cases kind of legitimated but usually a watered down version thereof) or a compare and contrast if we have a bunch of similar games. We will usually plunder the GBA, DS and Wii commercial releases, homebrew, leaked versions of games and rom hacks for selections but that is not set in stone (if we do though they will usually be able to be emulated on the DS).
#49- Puzzle Quest (DS)
RTS company gets companies largely known for their cartoon and film tie in games all using a publisher largely known for the same to make a fantasy RPG using puzzle mechanics for the battles (or puzzle game with fantasy RPG interludes?) for the handhelds..... yeah. Surprising many though the game that resulted was actually really compelling to play and has gone on to sell loads and become a cart staple for many. The story was pretty generic fantasy RPG- kingdom/world in trouble and you get to help save it by battling your way around but the integration of character classes, items, spells and stats into the puzzle side of things made for some variety in play the puzzle games often lack.
Later on there were also versions for most other platforms and most of them are pretty good and even somewhat different (the PSP version released alongside the DS one being noted for better/more challenging AI although make sure you get the European version if you get that). Nowadays there is a sequel that expanded and improved on some of the concepts quite a bit as well as an offshoot set in space.
A gameplay video/first ten minutes
[/p]
GBAtemp release thread[/p]
Keep your RPG out of my puzzles or is it now 2am after you just thought you would give it a quick spin at lunchtime?[/p]
gbagotw should get you other links in this series
