Game Reviews

Wizard Quest

Star onStar onStar halfStar offStar off
|
iOS
| Wizard Quest
Get
Wizard Quest
|
iOS
| Wizard Quest

Wizard Quest by Mana Giant is a match-three/action game hybrid with a devious little trick up its sleeve.

It charges admission, loads up its store with in-app purchases, then stacks the odds against you to goad you into spending some coin.

Boo! Axe the magic show and send in the clowns!

Match three for memory restoration

It's a shame Wizard Quest attempts to skin you, because its core concept is a good one. You play as a wizard on a mission to reclaim his lost memories. Along the way you trudge through some eerily familiar landscapes and battle some eerily familiar monsters.

The manner in which you trudge and battle is what makes Wizard Quest an interesting game. Your wizard pal walks automatically, and you need to keep his path clear by matching up three or more arcane symbols. In some instances, you must match a designated number of symbols to break open a treasure chest, disarm a trap, or open a door.

Every so often, the screen stops scrolling and you're thrown into a boss battle. In these stationary scenarios, the nature of the magic tiles changes. When the pieces are cleared away, they deal damage according to their elemental properties (blue tiles freeze, red tiles burn, green tiles heal the wizard).

You can also utilise runes, which you unlock if you play well. Runes can heal, as well as deliver powerful blows to the enemy.

If you manage to make the boss monster's hit points drop to zero before yours do, you win. If you lose, you're given the option to save yourself and continue by using a crystal (Wizard Quest's purchasable hard currency). If you pass, you lose all the items you collected in the level and you must start again.

Sound familiar?

You shall not pass without cash

It would be one thing if you could get through Wizard Quest by playing well, but you can't. The game's challenge ramps up to nutty levels quite rapidly. Soon, you'll encounter locked doors on narrow pathways that require a match of five or more tiles before they'll open. And right behind that door is another door.

While you're trying to manage things, you're scrambling not to let any tiles scroll off the screen, because they deal damage if they do. And if the wizard's path is blocked, his hit points take heavy hits until it's clear (or until he just gets squished off the screen altogether).

Herein lies a major issue with Wizard Quest: outside of boss battles, green tiles don't heal your hit points. To make things even more obnoxious, boss battles often happen mid-level and leave you weakened - but you're expected to carry on without being allowed to heal yourself.

From there, a single trap or a few missed tiles are usually enough to kill you. Would you like to use a crystal to save yourself?

Sad wizard

When you're a fan of match-three puzzle games, it's always disappointing to come across a title like Wizard Quest. Your excitement over a new idea gradually turns sour as you realise you're being prodded in the direction of the in-game store.

In fact, as you level-up you actually unlock the ability to make bigger, better item purchases with your cash.

Wizard Quest might also prove a difficult play for anyone with vision problems. The scrolling background can make it hard to see certain game pieces, most of which utilise drab colours. There's a reason why so many match-three games use jewels and candy as game pieces.

Overall, Wizard Quest contains the seeds of a grand puzzle adventure, but the jacked-up difficulty and in-app purchases suck the magic out of it.

Wizard Quest

Wizard Quest is built around an interesting core concept, but its drab graphics and grabs for in-app purchases make it difficult to enjoy
Score