I cannot even begin to tell you how many hours my family has lost to this game. Now, let me follow that up to say that none of us - me, hubby, or son - have every FINISHED the game. It's that hard. However, it's also super easy. At it's heart, this is a match-3 game much like Bejeweled (which I probably should have included in this list, too...) .. but that's about where the similarity stops. There are SO MANY facets to this game. Taming creatures, learning spells, fighting monsters, training your mount, forging new weapons, building your castle, leveling your character, and, above all, participating in an immensely engrossing story. And - even though most of those things involve doing match-3 puzzles, they all feel different enough - and challenging enough - that once this game gets into your head, it's hard to put down again.
The game was developed by a small Australian company called Infinite Interactive and published by D3. It was first released on the Nintendo DS and PSP in 2007, and has since been ported to Windows, OS X XBox 360, Playstation2, Playstation3, Wii, iOS, and Nintendo Switch. If that list doesn't illustrate what a surprise hit this game was - let me also mention there is a remaster available on the Switch from recent years that also includes new content. They tried to repeat the success of this game with several spin-offs and sequels, but I will 100% say that they're not particularly worth checking out. I've played most of them, and I tried to like them. All fell short to the charm of the original.
Technically, this game itself was a spin-off of the original "Warlords" series which merged turn based strategy with RPG, and was successful enough to spawn a huge number of sequels. I will say, however, that I only found this out fairly recently, and have never felt the need to go back and find out where the game came from by playing them.
The first release of this game in North America consisted of 40k units for the Nintendo DS, and apparently it was sold out WITHIN A WEEK of shipment. The reviews weren't particularly glowing or something, but there's something about this game that pulls you in ... and holds your attention for HOURS.
It's just as addicting. That's pretty much all there is to it. I can't recommend it any higher for anyone who is even slightly interested in the match 3 or puzzle genre. In fact, I'm still considering buying the new remaster for the Switch just to try to finally beat the story....
Playing this on stream was super fun. It was amazing how fast I remembered the ins and outs of the game, and even though we didn't get very far on stream, the addiction is still there. If you have any doubts, just watch how "into" the game I am by the end of the VOD....
