Review of an incredibly addictive phone puzzler

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Mobile Phone
THQ Wireless

So addictive it should be made illegal

On the surface this award winning mobile game is infuriating. A stupendously tricky difficulty curve gently introduces the player to a surreal mix of MSN Messenger favourite Bejewelled and stripped down RPG elements, before throwing your face in a pile of shit and making your squeal like a pig.

But without you realising, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords sticks its grubby claws in you and draws you into the most addictive fun you can have in the palm of your hand.

It’s pretty ambitious for a mobile phone game too. After selecting a fantasy stereotype (I went for the druid owing to his prowess with herbs), you gallivant around a 2D map, conversing with weird old men and battling trolls. Runes, hit points and other such mandatory RPG jargon is muttered as you upgrade levels and the like. And what does our brave hero do upon encountering wolves in the woods? He battles them in the only way he knows how: by taking in turns to re-align jewels into lines of three or more.

Mild sarcasm aside, this is actually a pretty addictive game. The neat RPG facade simply forms a backbone to what is essentially a puzzle game that cleverly incorporates strategy and tactical nuance. Think Bejewelled, but rather than simply racking up multiples within a time-limit, your objective is to destroy your opponent by stringing rows of skulls together or casting spells fuelled by magic accumulated from combining coloured jewels.

If that lot doesn’t make any sense, chances are that you have a life.

But the lack of a time limit on your actions added to the pure frustration of helplessly watching yourself being mercilessly butt-fucked by the AI enemy, forces you to think tactically and pore over the possible consequences of falling jewels, and how to limit your opponents moves. This deep strategy however is offset by the occasional flurry of chain reactions where a fluky move can win a game almost instantly.

Yet despite the advent of 3D graphics, improved memory and larger screens on mobiles, most mobile phone games are still crippled by infuriating controls over-reliant on quick finger-work. The brilliance of Puzzle Quest is its thoughtful fusion of genres that actually work well on a mobile phone; RPG, puzzle, turn-based strategy, into one superbly addictive bundle.
www.infinite-interactive.com/puzzlequest
Dave Allen
4.5/5
For fans for: Final Fantasy Tactics, Jewel Quest, Metal Gear Acid, Tetris, Dungeons & Dragons

initially pub. on www.subba-cultcha.com

Proof that I don’t wear indie blinkers… kind of.

Duffy
Glee Club, Birmingham
 11^th March 2008

Number one in the charts, purveyor of unmistakably retro pop and somehow not yet hated by indie kids, Duffy brings Motown chic to Birmingham tonight.

“Do you fancy reviewing Duffy at the Glee Club?” a surprisingly proactive PR agent asked me during one absent minded afternoon at work. Upon considering this perfect opportunity to take the other half out to see her favourite, Welsh, retro-pop songstress for free (all dressed up as ‘my treat’ at no cost to myself), I quickly hammered “Sure!” into the half-hidden Gmail window.

Yet seeing a teacher isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the night before the gig with lesson plans aplenty, the girlfriend pulled out, leaving me with two tickets for a gig I wasn’t fussed about and no-one to go with. Thankfully, it’s always useful having a mate easily lured to any event on the promise of booze and drugs.

So stood in the hot, tight confines of the Glee Club, high as a kite, we awaited Duffy, currently standing at number one and collecting a string of plaudits along the way from both mainstream and alternative circles. The small comedy club-cum-gig venue was overrun with all sorts, middle-aged one-gig-a-year families, northern soulsters bedecked in Lambretta and the occasional brick shithouse with a shaved head who amazingly knows the words to every song.

 “Duffy? Isn’t she just an Amy Winehouse rip-off?” My friend asks. But before can I inform him of the strange irony of a white man’s Aretha Franklin being herself a source of imitation, the short blonde from the Llŷn Peninsula pops on stage to greet the crowd with a few nervy words about it being the last night of the tour.

She opens her intimate set with album title track Rockferry, and finally, we get to hear that astonishing voice. At a time when the general direction of music washes about aimlessly looking for a way forward but only hitting the past, Duffy unashamedly embraces the likes of Dusty Springfield, resurrecting Motown chic for post-modernity.

“That song’s about not putting up with any shit,” she tells us after her heart-wrenching vocals tear through album highlight, Stepping Stones, “much like a lot of my songs tonight.” Clearly overjoyed to be in front of a packed, appreciative crowd at the end of her tour, Duffy inevitably leaves the hit for last, closing on Mercy, she returns for a brief encore with anthemic number Distant Dreamer.

But it was well before that, when the backing band left the stage and her vocals were accompanied only by a simple guitar on Syrup and Honey, that her voice was fully let loose, transforming – if only for three minutes, Brum’s, smoke-free, Glee Club into a liquor-soaked, seedy, Detroit jazz cafe circa 1961.

Is she the Arctic Monkey’s to Amy Winehouse’s Babyshambles? Well I don’t know, but her potential as a future queen of pop is massive.
www.iamduffy.com
DAVE ALLEN
4/5
For fans of: Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Billie Holiday

pub. originally on www.subba-cultcha.com