I Interviewed Someone Else!

That's right folks, I interviewed that Sebastian Pfaller chap you should all be quite familiar with by now over at A Hardy Developer's Journal.

Puzzle Kingdoms (DS)

Puzzle Kingdoms is the best game I've ever played that mixes RPG style tactics with casual game style block matching.

It's also the only game I've ever played that mixes RPG style tactics with casual game style block matching. That's right, in order to attack your enemies and cast spells you have to match coloured blocks. Lots of them.

What interests me about this idea is the blending of two genres with fairly successful results. The story is hardly as deep as the story in some RPGs, but the gameplay is, considering its nature, impressively enjoyable. Most of the time spent playing is on the battle screen, where the tile matching is done, but in order to win here you must also prepare your forces well before battle.

It's interesting to see the two elements working together. If you really focus on the tile matching but don't prepare your army well before the battle, you're not going to have the firepower or spells available when you've matched enough tiles to use them. If you spend plenty of time organizing your forces and unlocking new troops, but don't play carefully when matching tiles, you won't get enough chances to use this force.

It's also a good example of how a simple mechanic can be used over the course of an entire game without getting overly dull due to the addition on new elements. Matching blocks forces you to make difficult choices about which blocks you need the most, which blocks you have to avoid your enemy getting, whether the move you're considering will give the enemy an even better move next turn... it's hardly deep tactical strategy, but does admirably well with what it's got.

Puzzle Kingdoms, then, was an enjoyable game. I think it serves as an example to designers that simple gameplay can be embellished to more interesting and challenging levels with the addition of other ideas, which is something we can surely do with our adventure games. I enjoyed beating the main campaign, and will keep these thoughts in mind for future games that I design.

Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand That Feeds (PC)

Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand That Feeds is the best hidden object game I've ever bought.

It's also the only hidden object game I've ever bought, but that's besides the point. While I'm not usually interested in HOGs, I hadn't played a casual game all year and this one has 100% more Steve Ince than other HOGs. I'm shallow like that.

This makes it kinda hard for me to judge it, but I'll try. The basic premise is that you play two detective in a new unit, that being Special Enquiry Detail, and you have to investigate a murder for you first case. Gameplay is a mix between looking for objects hidden in backgrounds, doing police type work such as dusting for fingerprints and puzzles such as cracking safe combinations.

The story itself is well told, with enough twists and mystery to keep the Sherlock Holmes fan in me well satisfied. It feels a little like watching a television drama that you can take part in, and I didn't mind this at all. I particularly liked that effort was made to give each of the main characters a specific personality. I would have liked conversations to be interactive rather that merely something I observe, but understand this is regular behavior for casual games.

It's a very nice game to look at - whilst the backgrounds seem to be mostly photo montages, there are flies buzzing, steam from hot coffees, dust particles, even a television playing a music video... this really adds to the atmosphere. Audio wise the music and ambient sounds were very nice (I particularly like the title screen theme). I felt the voice acting was a little off, but was glad it was there anyway.

The only thing that I felt a bit weak was the gameplay. While I didn't mind hunting for hidden objects, it rarely felt relevant to the case at hand. A detective story lends itself perfectly to have players hunting around for clues and evidence to the case, and when I was actually looking for hidden objects that were case relevant I enjoyed it very much. Sadly most of the object finding isn't really looking for evidence... it's more about finding bananas and thermometers hidden deviously in the backgrounds.

The actual puzzles were great, and I enjoyed them quite a bit - enough to keep me busy for a while but not so many that they got dull and annoying. My favorite parts were the police work sections, where I had to do things like photograph evidence and dig through dumpsters looking for clues. These parts are well designed and put together... I would have absolutely loved it if the game was filled more with these and less with finding the number 23, a lily, slippers, chinese doll (10) and a sparrow.

For those who don't mind casual games and want a well written, good quality experience, Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand That Feeds should fit the bill nicely. It's my first casual game for the year, and I'm glad I played through it.