Puzzle Strike (Third Edition) Review

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a "little" game called Puzzle Strike.  I really enjoyed Puzzle Strike, and so I wrote very kind things about it.  Because of this, I had the opportunity to try out Puzzle Strike (3rd Edition).  Since, as I just mentioned, I've already written about the Second Edition of the game, I'm going to assume that you're familiar with the basics.  If not, I'd encourage you to read my original Puzzle Strike Review, since in this one I'll really only cover the major changes between the two editions.

First and foremost - the majority of the chips have changed.  There are a few reasons for this.  Some of them have minor tweaks to make their text more clear in some of the new game modes.  Some of the chips were overpowered and have been made slightly worse to balance the gameplay.  Others have been re-costed.  Some have had one of their abilities altered.  But, of these changes, there are two that are most noticeable: Combine and Argagarg/Rook character chips.  In the second edition of Puzzle Strike, Combine allowed you to combine two of your chips, take another action and gain a dollar!  This chip was awesome!  In the third edition, it allows you to combine two chips, take another action, but you lose a dollar.  This chip is still very strong (and, if you ignore it because of the -$1, your games might drag on a bit), but at least it's balanced enough that you have to think about whether it is worth playing, instead of being an automatic buy and automatic play.  On the character side of things, Argagarg and Rook were generally agreed to be the most powerful choices in the previous edition.  Which is unfortunate, as you really want the characters to be all different but equal.  So, because of this, their chips have been altered to give them the same feel and general abilities, but not give the person using them a major advantage.  As an example - Rook's "Stone Wall" chip previous reflected all gems back to the opponent that sent them (awesome), but now reflects them to the bank (useful, but less awesome).

Argagarg has a new makeover

The next major change is that when crashing gems, you don't have your own personal punching bag.  In the previous version of the game, every time you crashed gems, you targeted the person on your left.  And, unless you were playing two player, they couldn't really do anything about it (aside from counter-crashing you), except for glare at your or flip the table.  Now, however, the rules have changed so that you can target any other player when you crash.  This combines with another new rule, however to make a new dynamic to the game.  Also introduced in this edition is that the game is over once one person has 10 or more gems in their gem pile at the end of their turn (instead of a last man standing rule - this was to avoid player elimination).  These two rules work together to give an "always attack the leader" element to the game.  After all, unless you are the leader, there is no reason to attack someone who isn't winning.  What this actually causes is for the leadership to shift, and it also means that the person who has played the best doesn't necessarily win.  Specifically, if I make a very good bag of chips, and I'm winning for most of the game, but on the last turn I get attacked two or three times (since I am winning), then I might not be able to defend myself from all of the attacks, and thus wind up having a few more gems than another player.  Whereas, previously, any given player only had to worry about being attacked once per round.  Overall, though - if you don't like this rule, it's simple enough to play it the previous way.  I wish that the previous way of playing had been mentioned as a rule variant.

Speaking of rule variants, they are one of the other changes to third edition.  To me, these are really just nice bonuses to try out once you get tired of the basic game, but it is always nice for games to include new ways of playing that can keep the replayability fresh through extra gameplay.  The gameplay variants in third edition include: 2x2 team play, free for all, custom clockwork mode, and tournament rules.  Most of these modes are roughly what you would expect if you've played other Sirlin games (such as "custom clockwork" means create your own character), and it's also worth noting that the tournament recommends using the two-player game (to avoid what I mentioned in the previous paragraph about the person who plays the best not necessarily winning).  But, the one that I found most interesting was that in the free for all mode, anyone can counter-crash.  So, if someone is attacking the weakest player, and is about to knock them out of the game, then one of the other players can jump in and protect them!  A very interesting dynamic, though it would also slow the game down, as it is regularly pulling gems out of player piles, whereas you want to put more gems into player piles for a fast game.  (And, at this point, I feel that I should admit something.  I can't absolutely guarantee that we played the 3-4 player basic game correctly.  It was unclear to me in the rules whether the basic rules that I read were for 2-4 players, and that free for all mode was supposed to be an optional variant when you had 3-4 players, or if the basic rules were for 2 players, and free for all was the were the basic rules for 3-4 players.)

Rook is also a bit weaker

The final rule change (that I will mention) is put in place entirely to make the game go faster - Panic Time!  Once several piles of chips are empty (equal to the number of players), you start anteing a 2-gem.  Once another pile is empty, ante a 3-gem.  Another pile runs out, ante a 4-gem.  Another pile runs out - ok, at this point, how has nobody lost yet?  This rule is a nice safety net to keep the game from dragging on.  However, it didn't really come into play very much in the games that I played.  We ran into panic time very briefly in one of the games.  Ultimately, if you are building your bag of chips well, you should be able to knock each other out before these modes really affect much (unless you have certain chips that you really like, and you buy out the piles early on).  I like this rule change, and I'd encourage you to try it out, even if you're playing with one of the previous editions.

Overall, I give Puzzle Strike (Third Edition) a 9.0/10.  Why?  Well, because I gave Puzzle Strike (Second Edition) a 9.0, and I would recommend this game equally highly as the last one.  I feel that, though the game has undergone some minor surgeries, the skeleton is still the same.  If you are deciding between buying one of the previous editions and this one, then I would encourage you to go ahead and buy the latest.  However, if you are deciding whether you want to upgrade, I think the main reason to upgrade would be if you are bothered by the balance of your previous game.  And, as a note, both editions should be compatible with the Shadows expansion.

If you like Puzzle Strike, you might also check out Flash Duel, Thunderstone, and Yomi.

I would like to thank Sirlin Games for providing me with a review copy of Puzzle Strike: Third Edition.

Puzzle Strike Review

A game with an interesting take on the deck building mechanic is Puzzle Strike.

Specifically, you could say that Puzzle Strike is "what Quarriors was trying to do" (build a "deck building" game without cards). Instead of cards, Puzzle Strike is played with chips. And, instead of the traditional means of victory (victory points of some sort at the end of the game), it mixes in an element of classic Nintendo-style puzzle games like Tetris. Each turn you ante a gem into your pile (like having rows fall down on your screen), and the last person to have his ante pile filled up is the winner. So, to start each turn, a player takes a one point gem and puts it in his ante pile. Next, he is able to perform an action using the chips in his hand (actions can include combining chips into larger chips and "Crashing" chips to remove them from your ante pile and send them to the opponent on your left (who can counter Crash, etc)). After playing an action, you have to buy a chip from the bank. If you have no money, then you have to buy a wound chip - which does nothing, but it makes your deck worse because it keeps you from drawing something useful. Finally, you discard all of your chips and draw back up to five. And, depending on the size of your ante pile, you may draw some bonus chips (one bonus chip for every three points in your ante pile). Finally, you check to see if you have ten or more points in your ante pile - and if you do, then you lose (after all, your screen has filled up - you can sit there envisioning a TV screen with a pixelated "Game Over" label flashing).

Gambling Panda

The first thing that I love about Puzzle Strike (yes, love) is that there are character specific chips. Each "deck" starts with six one-point gems, a Crash gem, and three character specific gems. I have not played enough to see if any of the characters are overpowered (I've played 4-5 times), but they at least all seem balanced. However, each character plays quite differently. Some are good at defense, some help you perform extra actions, one transforms into "Dragon Form" which causes him to ante 2's instead of 1's, but also makes his crashes un-defendable - and one (the Gambling Panda) has a chip that can only be used when he has 10 or more points in his ante pile (is about to die). I wish that more games would start doing this! Can you just imagine playing the Star Trek: Deck Building Game and getting to pick whether you're using the Klingon, Romulan, or Federation starting deck? Sure, Nightfall allows you to draft at the beginning of the game to make player-specific piles, but Puzzle Strike is the only game I've seen that allows you to actually start with different items that have different powers - and it does it well!

The next thing that I like about Puzzle Strike is the vintage puzzle game feel. I really think that this theme allows it to be played and enjoyed without feeling as competitive. Yes, I want to win (as with all games), but the theme is just relaxing and allows you to enjoy the act of playing the game - almost like it reminds me of my childhood to an extent.

Dragon Form!

Next, I think that it's interesting that, essentially, the entire game is played with a countdown timer. Every turn, each player gets closer to losing. Sure, you can counteract this by playing Crash chips to send some of your pile at your opponents, but unless you actively do something to prevent it, you will lose the game simply by playing. For whatever reason, this mechanic resonated well for me.

Finally, I like that the closer you are to losing, the more chips you get to draw. This leads to more combos being played. If I am doing incredibly poorly, I am more likely to draw several Combine chips (these let you combine two gems in your ante pile and perform another action) and then Crash a larger gem at my opponent. It also gives me a better chance of drawing something that helps me to defend. It can do quite a bit to balance out the luck of having to draw the right chips at the right time.

For the most part, I really enjoyed Puzzle Strike. However, there were a few things that I should point out. First of which is that a lot of the chip piles will be left untouched in most games. Whereas, in our first game every chip seemed crucial (and, truly, I haven't seen any chips that aren't ever useful), some are simply better than others. Specifically, Crash and Combine are better than a lot of the other Action Chips - so unless there is a chip that lets you string together several Actions, you will probably find yourself mostly focusing on buying the Crash & Combine (and 2-4 of the other chip piles; especially if there are some that let you steal other people's Crashes and Combines... and then you'll be quite pesky.  And other people will have to play the "Really Annoying" chip on you.  That's right - that's what the chip's name is.  Why?  Well - because it's really annoying.). To be fair, though, this is true in any deck building game - you are trying to hone your deck as much as possible, and so you will often avoid buying good cards in an effort to get better cards. (*cough* I mean chips.  Did I say cards again?  It's like there's not really a difference or something.)

The next con is something that has already been addressed by the game company. It is very easy in Puzzle Strike (during your turn) to get your hand, in-play chips, and ante piles confused. And, if this happens, it can inadvertently change the game dramatically (by changing how many gems are in your ante pile). Fortunately, the Puzzle Strike Upgrade Pack provides you with playmats to keep track of each of these things separately.  Sweet - now if only it weren't $25.  I'd guess at some point they will combine them and sell them together for a discount.

Those are really my only two (very minor) cons. I will mention two other things briefly, though. Using chips instead of cards is unique. It doesn't really affect gameplay at all (which is why I kept referring to chips as cards), but it does reinforce the theme, so that was nice. Finally, the rule that forces you to buy a chip each turn is interesting. It forces players to pay attention to how they construct their deck to ensure that they can always afford to buy something. At the same time, it can water down a deck - which I think is intentional. This prevents the game from dragging out if several players are all able to build decks that consist of only Combines and Crashes.

Overall, I give Puzzle Strike a 9.0/10. I was quite pleasantly surprised by this game, and I'd recommend that anyone that likes vintage puzzle games or deck building games should "hit start" on this one.  (Whoa!  Vintage Game reference!!!  If only anybody else thought I was nearly as funny as I did!)

And, if you like deck building games, you might also want to read my reviews about Thunderstone or Dominion; or if you like the Fantasy Strike world that Puzzle Strike is set in, check out Yomi.  Or, for a complete change of pace, you might check out Glory to Rome.

I would like to thank Sirlin Games for providing me with a review copy of Puzzle Strike via Game Salute.