Sounds like an oxymoron but I’m impressed with the new Puzzle Quest game that recently came out for DS and PSP. I’ve played it on both and actually like it on PSP better. It’s a pain to have to look at the stats on the upper DS screen to keep up with how you’re doing against your opponent.
What’s most impressive about the game is that it does a great job of taking casual gameplay into the RPG realm. Basically the entire game is a match 3/Bejeweled mechanic but you play against mobs just as you would in a traditional RPG. All the other elements of an RPG are there as well — quests, spells, leveling, professions, etc.
Mainstream casual gamers (ladies over 35) will probably find it too thematically true to the typical RPG genre — dungeons, ogres, etc. Handheld gamers who like RPGs and are looking for a game that actually works on a handheld device versus a console game that was squeezed into one will probably enjoy it.
I’m particularly interested in it since at flowplay we’re working on straddling this same line — creating a casual RPG experience.
