Puzzle Prince

Game Description: You are the Puzzle Prince, a prince with magical powers! Do you have what it takes to battle against zombies, monsters and other bad guys in this amazing puzzle battler? Taking on the game mechanics of Collapse and combining it with the versus battling of Puzzle Quest, you are set on a journey to save the kingdom with the aid of destroying magical groups of orbs. Good luck!

Please Note: Before playing Puzzle Prince in Full Screen mode, you may want to take a moment, or two, to read my review. Then, after playing your game, simply click the back button on your browser to return to this page. By the way, don't let the length of this review scare you into not playing this fine game. I always try to be as thorough as possible. But sometimes, perhaps, I tend to overdo it a bit and get rather long-winded. This game is easy to play, and easy to understand. The only tricky part is perhaps figuring out when to click the 'Save' button, which is part of the game strategy.

How to Play Puzzle Prince:

• You are the Puzzle Prince, a prince with magical powers!
• There are 5 types of orbs: Water (Blue), Fire (Red), Earth (Green), Air (Pink), and Evil Orbs (Black).
• Use the power of the 4 elemental orbs (Water, Fire, Earth, and Air), that is, Blue, Red, Green, and Pink to conjur up powerful magic to defeat your enemies by clicking on groups of orbs of the same color to break them open and throw magic at your enemies! (Evil Orbs, that is, Black Orbs, cannot be clicked on or broken. However, Evil Orbs will automatically turn into elemental orbs after only a few seconds).
• There are 4 spell cards on the board. Each card represents one of the 4 elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Water and Earth, (Blue and Green), are on the left. Fire and Air, (Red and Pink), are on the right.
• Each card has a magic bar directly below it. Each time you break an orb, the magic bar for that color increases (the larger the group you destroy, the quicker the magic bar increases!) Once the bar fills up completely, the card will glow around its edges. This tells you that the card is ready to be used. You can use that card to cast a powerful spell against your enemies by clicking on it.
• A spell card may be used an infinite number of times. Each time you fill up the bar below the card, you may use that card again and again.
• Puzzle Price has 11 Levels of play: Harbour, Village, Witch Lake, Dark Ruins, River, Evil Woods, Caves of Fire, Citadel Dungeon, Caves of Ice, Citadel, and Throne Room.
• Each of the first 10 levels has 2 separate battles called waves. (Level 11, the final level, has only 1 wave).
• There are 2 things to watch at the top of the screen: Your Health (depicted by the red bar on the left), and your Enemies' Health (depicted by the pink bar at the right).
• You win a battle if you can destroy your enemies' health before he destroys yours. You lose if your health gets down to zero first.
• When you win a level, (by defeating the 2 waves of enemies), you earn money. Your health also increases by 10% when you begin the next level.
• You may spend your money in the Shop, to upgrade your cards and make your spells more powerful, by clicking the 'Shop' button.
• Each spell card has 4 levels. You begin the game at Level 1 for each card. You may upgrade each card to Level 2, 3, or 4 when you have enough money. (Hint: I recommend that you only buy the Level 4 card for each card. Find out why in my Playing Tips section below).
• You may only have 4 cards at a time. One of each color.
• You may save your game progress by clicking the 'Save' button. However, do not make this decision lightly. It is important to understand when to save your game, and when not to save your game. When to save your game, and when not to save your game, is a big part of the Puzzle Prince game strategy. To find out exactly what I mean, and to find out about the mistake I made the first time I played the game, read my Playing Tips section below.
• If you lose a level you will see a 'Game Over' screen. However, your game is not really over! Far from it. What 'Game Over' really means is that you can begin playing again at the last point you saved your game (called the 'Save Point'). You can see the 'Save Point' on the map.
• When you lose a level you can either choose to save your score, or not. (Read more about saving your score in the next section). After either clicking 'No Thanks', or submitting your score, it is time to resume your saved game.
• To continue a saved game, always click the 'Load Game' button.
• If you should accidently click the 'New Game' button, don't worry too much. Your saved game will still be there as long as you have not saved your new game. (If you do save your new game, your previous game will be lost forever). To get back to your saved game, simply click the 'Load Game' button.
• You should not click the 'Save' button simply because you want to quit playing and come back later. (If you want to come back later, you can either click the 'Quit' button or simply leave the page. Either way, and your game will be automatically saved without clicking the 'Save' button. The only requirement would be to use the same computer when you return). Remember, only click the 'Save' button if you want to change the 'Save Point'.

Play Puzzle Prince on Full Screen

Puzzle Prince Game Options: The game options may be accessed by clicking the 'Options' button located at the upper right corner. (During game play the 'Options' button will be located near the lower right corner). The game options are:

• The music volume may be adjusted.
• The game sounds volume may be adjusted.

Puzzle Prince Playing Tips:

• Each time you use a spell card not only do you attack your enemies, but there are two other very important advantages. The first advantage is that extra orbs will be dropped unto the board for the color of the card that you just used. It is important to realize that all new orbs are dropped from the top. This means that they are usually dropped in large groups, which allows you to make more big matches quickly. The second important advantage is that each spell card you use increases your health by 20%! So, the obvious strategy is to use as many spell cards as quickly as you can.
• You can only use 1 major spell at one time, and when you are doing that you cannot fire magic bolts at your enemies.
• Different colored magic has different effects on your enemies. Some spells will work better than others, depending on the enemy.
• The smallest magic bolts do not stop your enemies but will still do some small amount of damage. It's always better to try to group as many orbs together as possible.
• The second wave of Level 4 (the giant) is really tough. The only way it seems to me to defeat the giant is to make lots and lots of big orb matches. Casting spells on the giant seems to have little effect. However, casting spells is still important because it does bring more orbs to the board and increases your health by 20%. So make a lot of big matches, and cast a lot of spells, and you will eventually defeat the giant.
• My advice is not to buy any level cards unless you can afford to buy a Level 4 card (that is, the highest upgrade available for each card). What I am trying to say is this. You only have a limited amount of money to spend on your cards. I think the best approach is to try to end the game with Level 4 cards for each of the 4 elements if you can, and there is simply not enough money to spend on Level 2 and Level 3 cards. You are better off if you save your money and buy only Level 4 cards.
• The magic bars below each spell card carry over to the next level at their current capacities. Ideally you would like your 4 magic bars to be near full capacity when you finish a level. This will allow you to attack your enemies quickly, drop new orbs on the board, and quickly replenish your health.
• Make it a priority to finish each level with as much health as you can. If you complete a level with too little health left, this can create a real problem, especially if you compound things by saving your game at that point. Let me give you my own example. The first time I played Puzzle Prince I saved my game after I completed Level 10. This placed the 'Save Point' on Level 11. This meant that if I failed Level 11, I could not go back in the game any farther. My only choice would be to repeat Level 11 over and over. However what I failed to realize is that when I arrived at Level 11, I had very little health left. Even though my health increased from Level 10 by 10% (at the end of each level your health will automatically increase by 10%.), it was still extremely low. Think of it this way. When you add 10% to almost nothing, you still have almost nothing. Even though my 4 magic bars were near full capacity as I begin Level 11, adding 20% to my miniscule health each time I played a magic card, still could not help me enough. So, without enough health to begin Level 11, and after repeating it countless times, I finally decided to give up and begin a New Game back at Level 1. Don't let this happen to you! (Here is an update. I did go back to Level 1 and started over. On my second time playing the game, I finally managed to complete Level 11, which is the final level. I was able to do this by having more health when I started Level 11).
• Do not click the 'Save' button unless your health is in a strong position. Continuing my example from above, it is now clear to me what I should have done in retrospect. (Of course, since this was my very first time playing Puzzle Prince I did not know any better). I should not have saved my level progress after Level 10. I should have kept playing, lost Level 11, and then went back and replayed Level 10. This would have allowed me to come back to Level 11 in a much stronger position. My advice now is not to click the 'Save' button unless your health is in a very strong position. You may also not want to click the 'Save' button even if your health is strong but some of your spell cards are at low capacity at the end of a level. The lesson is clear. It is always better to go back and replay a few levels, rather than finding yourself in an unwinnable postion, like I did, and needing to repeat the entire game. So, be very very cautious about clicking the 'Save' button. (The only exception, I would say, would be after completing Level 4. I would recommend clicking the 'Save' button after Level 4 regardless of your health. Here's why. The giant on Level 4, at least for me, is very tough to defeat. Even if you should get struck on Level 5, by not having enough health, and you need to begin the game again back from the beginning, as you gain a little experience you will find that Levels 1 to 3 are fairly easy. So, you will be back at Level 4 very quickly anyway).
• If you should accidently click the 'New Game' button instead of the 'Load Game' button, don't panic! As long as you don't save your new game, your saved game will still be there. To get back to your saved game, click the 'Load Game' button and you will be right back to the point where you last saved it, that is, at the 'Save Point' on the map.

Richard's Rating: 5 out of 5.

Pro: Great concept, great graphics, great game!

Con: The game frequently loses its sounds. This usually happens after you either go to the Shop, or after completing a level.

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