Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

How can a game that mixes Bejeweled mechanics with elements of an RPG possibly hope to succeed?  Well, it can't.  On paper, it doesn't work.  It doesn't even sound like it could possibly work.  In fact, I'd love to read the pitch for this because nothing about screams, "Excellent idea!"

Except it does work, and it works really well.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords not only works, it is amazingly addictive in the way all good puzzle games are, and I can't figure out how that happened.  Not only does it work well, the game is also pretty damn deep and includes not only the required stats boosting and spell casting you would expect to find in an RPG, but dungeon building, capturing monsters and using mounts.  If you haven't played it and can't figure out how any of this would work, don't fret.  I couldn't figure it out, either, but it took a chance and bought it on the PSN and have been playing it ever since.

It's available on almost any platform you can imagine, and it got great reviews, but somehow it slipped under my decidedly broken radar.  Now that I have my hands on it, though, I can only say, "Brilliant."  It kind of makes me wonder what else is out there that I've been missing.  I doubt there's another game quite like this (though one comes to mind that isn't nearly as good), and maybe that's a good thing.  There is really only one true Tetris and a host of imitators, so for there to be one true Puzzle Quest isn't a negative.  It's a sign that capturing lightning in a bottle sometimes only happens once, though the rest of the world will try to replicate it ... no matter how poor the outcome.

Mandatory FTC Disclaimer: I bought this game, and clicking on a link may earn me some cash.