By Jason Nimer

I, like everyone else out there, was astonished when two summers ago, Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords, an out-of-nowhere game from an out-of-nowhere company, turned out to be a must-play, must-buy game. Sure, it was just a Bejeweled clone with an RPG twist, but it had heart. For whatever reason, it hooked the whole handheld gaming community for those three hot months, and you'd have a tough time finding a DS or PSP gamer who doesn't have fond memories of the title. It's been a few years, and some of the folks behind Puzzle Quest are trying to recreate the magic with Puzzle Kingdoms for the Nintendo Wii. This new game fails to inspire the kind of dedication most gave to Puzzle Quest, but the core puzzle stuff is just as great; it's a shame the overall product is like a filet served on a trash can lid - it might be the best thing in the world, but the presentation ensures no one will be interested.

Instead of Bejeweled, this game copies the puzzle mechanics of Pokemon Trozei and Tetris Attack - you must arrange symbols into lines, horizontal and vertical, to make them disappear. If you've only played the original Puzzle Quest and neither of these two others, the different mechanics will take a few minutes to adjust to… and the game won't be any help, but I'll get there in a second. Either way, after a little practice, clearing the puzzles will be second nature and almost too easy.

Easy - that's the best word for the puzzle-based gameplay. In Puzzle Quest, players had to rely on a mixture of luck, skill and effective usage of runes (puzzle altering gems that could swing battles in your favor). In Puzzle Kingdoms, runes are still part of the game, but they are nearly useless; not because they don't work in the exact same way (they do), but because the puzzles and opponents are so alternately dumb and forgiving that you won't ever need a little boost to turn the tide your way - the game takes care of that for you.

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