Puzzle Trooper

There exists in the world of gaming a multitude of genres.  From first-person shooter, turn based strategy, platforming, whatever you like, you can enjoy.  However, there are a few times where there is a perfect combination of genres that makes for unique and pleasant gaming, and Puzzle Trooper by gumi Asia makes such a combination with an action RPG and turn-based match-3 puzzle game.

This game comes to us on a mobile platform, which continues its rise of importance within the gaming marketplace, and as the name implies, has a military feel to the game.  While it does contain a military characteristic, the overall feel, sound, and even artistic direction of the game is more lighthearted, jovial, and quirky than anything.  This makes for great casual gaming; in fact, this game gives something for such a wide audience of mobile users, from the casual to the dedicated.

The reason it makes for such variety is that it’s simple for anyone to pick up, yet has so much involved in it, making the action RPG/match-3 combo genre a great choice for the developer to use.  The story that forms the backdrop of the game is extremely simple in that you have an enemy, named the Evil Villains In League (E.V.I.L. …corny I know), who plan on taking over the world, which you must stop.  The humorous irony from the developers is that you’re in fact defeating them to become a warlord yourself.  As the leader of the army that attempts to stop this from happening, you have the opportunity of controlling five different types of groups to do battle with against this organization.  You first start with the “Iron Bulls,” who are colored red, and go through the levels on each map.

The way you fight is where the match-3 part of the game comes in, for on the bottom half of the screen, you match up the balls to create combos, which determines what or how much you attack with the squad that you have.  The balls on the screen have specific colors to them, which is very important to learn early on, for depending the crew you have on the field will determine how potent your combos will be on your enemies.

I’ve pretty much described the casual points in this game, but where the RPG level of complexity comes is in the amount of characters that can be used and upgraded, massively increasing the combinations possible in coming up with your 5-member team that’s put out to battle.  My only wish is that I would’ve found this out in the beginning when playing, because while you can pick it up and play without prior knowledge, if you don’t know this information, you can be stuck trying to figure out the right combination of team members PLUS knowing which leader to pick which can increase your attack strength, etc.  Aside from a bit of a learning curve in that area, the game is straightforward. 

Outside of the team members that you attack with, if you combine five or more balls together, you can accomplish airstrikes to take out your enemies, and you can even buy more airstrikes if needed, which brings me to the next part of the game; the store.  As with any RPG-genre game, there is a store to purchase items for in game use, and in this game, the currency is diamonds to purchase everything from more diamonds to extra barracks and energy.  Of course diamonds can be hard to come by the more you progress in the game, and while I haven’t had to make in-game purchases, be aware that there are reviews from some Android users I saw complaining about the amount of purchases they’ve made.  I haven’t found this to be overbearing in my experience, but knowing that this is a free-to-play game, this is the way money is made on the game if you do encounter this.

Overall, I found Puzzle Trooper to be an enjoyable game to play because it’s unique, and in my love affair with Candy Crush currently, it brings an added dimension of playability and enjoyment.  Combined with lively graphics, endless possibilities towards combat, and zero cost to download, there’s no reason to pass this one up.

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