Puzzle Kingdoms Demo

Match three games are dedicated to those who just want to have some quick fun, without having to learn too many new things. The match-three genre is insanely popular nowadays, with titles like Candy Crush Saga and Bejeweled scoring millions of players all over the world. However, there are slightly more interesting combinations as well, which might even make the less casual public curious.

Puzzle Kingdoms is actually a combination between match-three and turn-based strategy, which means that you still need to be slightly aware of how TBS games work, at least in theory. Even if you do not, a tutorial can quickly explain how things function and you can be up and ready in a matter of minutes, regardless of any previous experience.

The other half is about as straightforward as it can be, since all you have to do is match the colors and the symbols together in order to score various bonuses. Each row and every column has a random symbol attached to it at the beginning of the confrontation, so you get to insert that particular element and move the entire row/column while doing so. Naturally, it can be useful to think ahead and see whether your moves can help your enemy as well, because you certainly do not want that.

This can turn out to be a problem as well, because the gameplay becomes repetitive and boring after a few battles in a row. It is quite difficult to apply any kind of strategy, considering the fact that you must concentrate on not letting the enemy score bonuses instead. Hence, most of the fun dissipates in the first few minutes and you are left trying to entertain yourself with pointless gimmicks.

Visually, everything is about as colorful as you would expect from a match-three game, especially in the combat screen. The characters are nicely drawn and the units are quite detailed as well, although you can only see their portraits. The maps and the environments are nothing out of the ordinary either, since they are rather barren and lacking in detail.

In the end, Puzzle Kingdoms is the kind of game that sounds great on paper, yet the lack of features and diversity makes it really difficult to enjoy properly. Not only that, but the mechanics are flawed and they start to become annoying after the first hour of gameplay.