Let me preface the rest of my review by being honest with you; I never liked Bejeweled. The game always felt like another cheap internet puzzle scheme to lure middle-age America into Yahoo's newest "Gaming Lounge" attraction. I couldn't find anything original with it, nor did it seem very fun or challenging. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Puzzle Quest, a game that happily blends this simple puzzle game with elements of what could easily add up to an everyday JRPG. Surprise not only due to my recent Bejeweled fixes becoming more frequent, but that a developer successfully mashed up two genres instead of something that feels like two different games taped together and shipped to the nearest publisher. Within the first 20 minutes of playtime, I realized something about the world as well; there are people like myself who are not smart enough to come up with ideas like this, and those like the team at Vicious Cycle who don't review games and have all the brilliant ideas which result in great titles.

As classic as an RPG can get, players will start out by creating their own persona, from the classes of knights, druids, and wizards. After such, Puzzle Quest drops you into a story of heroism, leveling up, and of course battling all kinds of monsters. The best part of all this? Fighting hordes of the undead, duh. C'mere, I'll tell you more about it. If any of you have ever played Bejeweled, there isn't anything different here -players will work out a matching system in a turn-based manner where they must complete lines of three or more symbols of like objects by swapping pieces back-and-forth. For instance, there are skulls on the playing field which will inflict damage on your enemy if they are properly aligned. By swapping a skull with a blue mana, we create a row of three skulls, eliminating the row and taking 3 HP off your enemy's lifebar. Easy, right? Yes. Fun, huh? No. Except for the part that the pieces are skulls and that you hurt someone, that's boring gameplay.

The fun comes with the RPG elements. Because the battles are turn-based, you've got to keep track of the playing field. Certain attacks in your repertoire will require different amounts of mana, so you may have to work hard in order to get your hands on that yellow mana in the corner. On the other hand, you can only have six spells equipped at a time. Meanwhile, your enemy has certain abilities that you may not have. For instance a thief can steal your gold, and a skeleton can change all the skull heads on the field into deadlier 5X damage pieces. Keeping this in mind, a simple game of Bejeweled turns into a more sophisticated, meatier and more strategic puzzle game than you'd expect. Players will also level up throughout their travels, where more special moves can be learned along with the extension of your HP and other abilities. You'll also make friends who will join our party and can be used as mounts in order to give you an advantage

All of this becomes very challenging, and much more complex than your average puzzle game. This is for better or worse, as some of the enemies can be as difficult as those featured in full RPG boss battles. I found myself replaying an ogre for at least 40 minutes until I finally landed me some gold to show for my efforts. Fortunately, for times like this, the game lets you instantly replay the battle with a little tongue-in-cheek challenge such as "He dares you to trespass in his cave again" or something of the like. It's a good thing Vicious Cycle added this in, because some of the most unassuming battles can turn into hour-long ordeals. I might add that there seem to be odd pauses in the middle of gameplay where the UMD is reading data that last for a second or two. This is a little disheartening in the midst of a heated battle where your concentration may be broken or the delay just throws a wrench in the good time you were having.

All in all, Puzzle Quest is a must-own for PSP owners across the map. It's highly accessible and equally enjoyable to the RPG or puzzle nut in anyone. The anime-inspired art style looks great on the PSP, along with the special effects that appear on the screen which happen to be less prominent on the DS version. This brings my next point right up; if there is a definitive version of Puzzle Quest, it would be for the PSP. The game easily has 85 hours of play in it, and at least another 40 if you're really looking to master it. This is all considered having not mentioned the head-to-head battles you can go into if you've got a friend who also owns a copy of Puzzle Quest, and there's no telling how long that could extend the game's life.

To reiterate, there is no reason not to buy Puzzle Quest if you see it in a store, unless you have absolutely no money, and in that case you should probably be looking for a job right now. The music is good, the game looks as sharp as you'd expect a shiny, stylized version of Bejeweled to look, and the gameplay is nothing to sneeze at as well. With rewards such as an extra turn for linking four or five gems together or the warm feeling of doing double damage to your enemy because of a well-planned chain incorporating themselves into the tactical side of a game like Bejeweled, players will find themselves playing to master the game as best as they can -and that's not a bad thing. Before you know it, you'll be playing Puzzle Quest in your sleep.