470th played so far
Genre: Adventure/Puzzle
Platform: DS
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Capybara Games
Publisher: Ubisoft
Despite its many games and genres – RPG and strategy most of all – the Might & Magic series is only represented by a single game on the list and an odd one at that. It’s a bit like the Mega Man series – even if the latter’s example follows the standard games more closely.
The Might & Magic series features a standard fantasy world (unlike contemporary Wizardry) with early on some interesting features – the fifth game, for example, was two games that added additional content if you loaded both, allowing play to move between the two games, some time before The Legend of Zelda did.
Our Thoughts
The game doesn’t follow that RPG pattern. Most of the main game is on a game board of sorts – linked nodes with paths between them, where you move from point to point. It nicely constricts the world, making it easier to travel through, and although it should make secrets easier to find, there are still some (in part because the interface isn’t that obvious).
All of this is mostly story and items that wrap around the battle system. It’s a puzzle of sorts – block matching like you find in Bejeweled or Zoo Keeper, where if you gather enough troops, they’ll start charging and attack your opponents. It feels far more strategic than puzzley, having to match your opponents, but the overlap is addictive
Aside from the main story, the game also features plenty of side quests – mostly in the form of bounty hunting or other versions of get to the right place – defeat an enemy, but it allows for a lot more to do (and increases the content in the game).
There’s some additional strategy linked to this, with you leveling your types of units and switching between them, where there are more unit types than you can fit in your army. There are also larger units – with a limited number per army, one of the main things you need to pay for. It’s a decent resource management puzzle that adds to the challenge, do you use the big units when you want, or do you wait?
Final Thoughts
We played this for a few hours more than we initially planned and I really had to draw myself away from it. I’m going to go back to it, as this combines the strategy, puzzle and role playing elements I enjoy in other games.