Customer Reviews

Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

As someone that spent way too much time playing the Puzzle Quest demo for the PC, I was really looking forward to finally playing this game. I picked it up for the Wii so that my fiancee (who loves Bejeweled) could play it with me.

However, while it is exactly the same 5-star game under the hood, its appearance and interface on the Wii make it a 2-star version. The first time I fired it up, my fiancee said, "Ew." The graphics don't translate to the TV, at all - I tried it both on my big screen and on a 20" standard def screen and the text is nearly impossible to read, and the graphics get mangled by the translation. It just looks... ugly.

Furthermore, this was the first game on the Wii where they didn't use the Wii interface correctly -- instead of using the "point at the letters" keyboard interface that every other Wii game uses, this makes you hit up and down on the d-pad to slowly scroll through every letter in order to enter your name! Furthermore, the pointer used to move jewels on the board is very shaky, meaning that it will falsely make moves for you, costing you your turn as well as some life. You can get around it by switching to the "nunchuck controls", which also doesn't make a lot of sense, since the nunchuck isn't used for anything but the c and z buttons -- which could have easily been put on the 1 and 2, avoiding the need to two-hand the controls for the game at all, which just feels very awkward.

It also doesn't support play over the internet, which is pretty disappointing.

While puzzle quest is an awesome game, I would recommend that everyone avoid this port of it like the plague, and pick up the PC version instead. The appearance and interface issues with this version just suck all the fun out of it.

A lot of folks are saying some seriously negative stuff about this port and I think a lot of it is whining. I've read all the complaints with the Wii version of this awesome game, and after playing it, I do agree with all of them. The pointing mechanic is flawed, the text is stupidly small, there's no widescreen support, and the music transitions are nonexistant.

But.... none of these flaws are crippling and can be lived with easily. I think this port is still worth buying if you like your Wii, so I'm going to defend it and go over each big flaw:

1) Pointing with the Wii: many people complain they keep making mistakes because it's hard to point. I had this same problem at first, but found that if you PUSH AND HOLD A on a tile, it will only let you swap it with one next to it and won't swap until you release the button. This cut down my mistakes to zero. Easily remedied.

2) The text is small: Yeah. It's small. I have a 29" widescreen lcd so unlike a lot of other reviewers, my TV isn't huge. But the text is still readable if I sit around 6 feet away, which is a pretty reasonable distance. I've had no eye strain and I have pretty bad vision to start with, so if you're willing to sit just a bit closer, this problem is solved as well.

3) No widescreen support: It's true the image stretches, but so what? Your other options are to buy it for a handheld system (which will be a small screen) or to buy it for some other system. The stretching really doesn't make the game look that bad.

4) No music transitions: This one is a stupid one and I have no idea why a programmer didn't just spend 10 minutes to add in some crossfade or something, but this negative to the game is also just niggling. I play with my TV hooked up to a nice sound system and I think the tradeoff of no transitions with being able to hear a richer sound is perfectly fine.

After reading these reviews, you KNOW what you're in for, so if you think you can look past these small flaws to enjoy the game, do it. If not, buy it for another platform. I personally find playing Puzzle Quest on the Wii very enjoyable, but no one is forcing you to buy this version if you don't want to!

I eagerly anticipated PuzzleQuest for the Wii.

Everything said in the previous review echoes my experience with this game. It's hard to stress enough the difficulty I had reading the text on screen - it made me dizzy and I was only able to play for a short time. The controls don't work well, so you lose points and die making moves you didn't really make.

This was an exercise in frustration and a waste of money. They should have spent more time and actually made it Wii friendly. Grrr. This gives the abomination of a game called Chicken Shoot" fierce competition for worst Wii game.

I dont know why this game is getting such bad reviews, me and my husband LOVE it. The controls are not bad as others have said; you just have to be careful when you point the wii remote as it should be. As for the game cheating, LOL I think all games cheat some when I'm losing but what fun would a game be if you won every battle or finished the game in 3 hours. Then people would be screaming it was too easy and where would the challenge be. The only thing wrong with this game is it keeps me up too late doing 'just one more quest'. Out of all our wii games, and yes we have lots, this is one of our favorites and the replay value is awesome. No two battles are the same, how many other games can say that.

I hve no idea what all the negative reviews are about! I got this game and have been hooked since. It's full screen on a 56" HDTV, the graphics are perfect, I can read the words just fine. I'm already addicted and I LOVE IT!

This game is pretty fun.. It's very similar to Bejeweled but with a little twist. The only issue is that if you get this game for Wii, the text on a majority of the screens is physically impossible to read. I'm not sure how it works on other systems. I had a 27" TV and could NOT read the words. I recently upgraded to a 50" flat screen and it's still not the easiest read in the world, but it's legible now. If you like Bejeweled with a plot, this game is for you.

I'm not entirely sure who is to blame for it, but Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for the Wii is a huge disappointment. The game has no widescreen mode for 480p televisions, the text is too tiny to read comfortably, and the gameplay is hampered by bad controls.

The developer clearly does not "get it" when it comes to Wii games. The one thing that tipped me off right away was the name entry screen. While I would normally expected a sort of pop-up keyboard approach to entering text (a very common and convenient interface component adopted by many games) the alternative was to enter each letter by scrolling through the alphabet. And since each new letter entered started back at A, you had to traverse the entire alphabet once just to get to the lowercase letters. Even then, if you entered a name eight characters long, your name would end in the letter A. Bugs like these are unacceptable in modern gaming.

This game was rushed out the door, which is unfortunate since it has enjoyed success on other platforms. Having played it on the 360, I suggest sticking with that, and using your Wii for more Metroid-oriented pursuits.

I love puzzle type games and RPGs so why not buy it?
The graphics are terrible, there is alot of reading, and at this point I dont get what to really do with the game, its not a very fun game and I think Ill be turning this one into the used game store.

My wife and I both find this game completely addictive. We play on a 42" LCD that does a good job of up-converting (many TVs don't), and while the graphics and text are definitely not hi-def they're more than good enough. The storyline lets you take different tracks through, and consequences vary based on the decisions one makes - from the initial definition of the avatar on. The puzzles are challenging enough to make you think, easy enough - once you figure out the 'rules' - that you can do it as a relaxing mental exercise. But one with enough challenge to keep you involved.

There are sometimes problems with the control, where the system reads a minor twitch as a move, that can result in pretty bad consequences when the move you were trying to make goes wrong. But you know what? That's part of the game. You do that once, and you remember for a long time to be very careful how you move. Besides, the only consequence is that you may lose a particular battle and have to play it again, it's not like you were sent all the way back to the beginning of the game.

It is possible - in fact, probably even likely - to get access to a very difficult match when you don't yet have the points to succeed. This makes you have to come back and try again after doing some less difficult matches to build up your points, and probably helps to stay involved with the game.

Sometimes playing feels repetitive, and we take a break for a little while. But when we come back to it it's fresh again. My most advanced avatar is at level 42 right now - I recommend creating multiple different avatars so you can play it through in different ways.

It's not for finger-twitchers, gore-lovers, or probably even most devotees of FPSs. But if you like puzzle-solving in an interesting mythical world you'll probably enjoy this.

I purchased this because I can't ever seem to get my DS lite version away from wife and thought it would be fun to see how the game translates on the WII.

As you can tell from the other reviews, the game doesn't utilize the WII remote very well, but you also have to realize that not every game will translate well to the WII. I use the optional controller method and the majority of my action utilizes the D-pad on the WII remote with the A button. I actually found this to be more relaxing and comfortable than constantly pointing the WII remote. A bejeweled type game really wasn't a good candidate for WII anyways, but at least they are making the game available.

The graphics and gameplay so far are nothing to write home about. It is simply a translation of the hand held version to the WII system. I was a little disappointed in that.

The text is a little small, but I do use a 40" widescreen LCD and don't find it intolerable. I don't plan on playing this game for hours at a time.

Overall, the game is priced well below what most WII games start at. If you already own Puzzlequest then I would pass on this. If you don't then I would buy the DS Lite version. However, if you don't have a DS Lite and want to play the game then I think this version is fine. Ultimately, the game is very addictive but you do have to know in advance what you are getting into and the limitations that are built into the WII version. At it's heart this is really a handheld game.