Good Knight Story
Coming in at over half a million installs is a Match-3 app called Good Knight Story. Follow the link here to download. At first I thought this was the perfect match-3 dungeon game, but alas . . .
Possibly the biggest sin of Good Knight Story is that it makes a really bad joke.
Yup, that's a M. I. L. Fight
The second greatest sin of Good Knight Story is the difficulty pay wall found on Level 40.
The third greatest sin of Good Knight is that it looks to only have 125 levels.
However, outside of those three sins, I kind of liked this match-3 game, mainly because of the theme, and the interesting board mechanics like stone blocks that break after three matches have been made next to it.
It also uses a battle mechanic where you strike at the enemy and a counter ticks down on their portrait. When that counter reaches zero, they strike back.
To combat this you either have to have enough hearts to survive the blow or have connected at least three shield pieces to block the attack (and those shield pieces are few and far between). Or use a third method where you cast a spell to block damage at the cost of 2000+ coins. Or use a fourth method where you let the monster knock you out and then resurrect to half health by watching an advertisement. Or use a fifth method where you let the monster knock you out and you resurrect to full health by paying a lot of coins.
Every 24 hours, you're given a gift of 2000 coins, so to continue playing without paying you just need to claim that gift every day and buy a bunch of protection scrolls over the period of a month or so would be my guess?
I *would* do this (because as we clarified in the last post, I'm a glutton for punishment), but they took me out of the dungeon I was so desperately wanting to journey through after the first five levels or so. *sigh* I want to be IN the dungeon exploring, not out of the dungeon! (admittedly, I'm probably in the minority)
I'm also looking for a slightly different dungeon exploration style, and this doesn't really fit the bill there either.
It was chock full of dad puns though, so you may enjoy it!
Adventure Quest Battle Gems
Another app with over half a million installs . . . Adventure Quest Battle Gems is a match-3 game based around the free flash-based PC game (you guessed it) Adventure Quest. That said, you definitely don't need to have played Adventure Quest to enjoy this game. Although you can link your Adventure Quest game to get a few extra bennies.
Battles in this game are relatively quick and painless. I'm on quest 34 (out of what appears to be hundreds of quests) and have yet to be defeated. As long as you keep buying clothes, weapons, and pets, there seems to be no problem with keeping up with the power curve.
The one place you might be defeated is within PvP. I'm actually super surprised they didn't make the PvP in this game more prominent! You find it within a sub menu and have to connect your account to your Facebook page. Unfortunately it uses the same energy to PvP as it does to quest, so, while it was kind of fun taking down "The Incredible Magicsparkle," I don't know if I'll be doing more of that for a while when I have LOADS, and I mean LOADS, of PvE content to explore.
There are some pretty cool battle mechanics in this game such as "skull pieces." The more matches you make adjacent to the skull, the more powerful your critical attack becomes. It also uses things like chains and slimes to cover pieces where you have to break them free to do more damage.
You also get to take down Dragons who have special conditions to them such as being immune to weapon attacks. Thank goodness you can also attack them with your pet or magic.
So far I really like this game, and while it really scratches my RPG itch, it doesn't do much in the way of dungeon delving, which is ultimately what I'm looking for (while keeping to the match-3 theme).
OH . . . btw . . . the best thing about this game was that it had me take down forum trolls. Thank you Adventure Quest Battle Gems.
I feel you Omni . . . I feel you.
Forge of Glory
I found this game after watching an advertisement in Good Knight Story. This game has over a million installs and can be downloaded here.
At first what I thought from the ads I had seen was that this game was possibly a Diablo-esque dungeon crawl mixed with a match-3?!? I was instantly like . . . HOLY CRAP THIS COULD BE THE HOLY GRAIL! I was wrong, of course, but that said, this was a pretty good distraction for an afternoon and will be on my phone for a bit as I explore it more.
The Match-3 board on Forge of Glory is a basic four-color board in about a 5-by-6 hex style grid that during combat fills with "combat seals." These seals affect your gameplay in a variety of ways based on the type of creature you're facing.
Basically, the seals make combat more difficult, and it's your job to try to get rid of them before the bonuses they give the enemy make you lose the level. To do this, you need to make matches that are five in a row or more to create powerups on the board that can be used to explode or zap the seals away. Sounds easy, right? Not really. It can be quite difficult.
Mixed into this game is a builder, an evolver, and a social guild structure. You gain heroes that you "feed" to your best heroes to level them up and upgrade them.
You create guards to your castle and build buildings to amp your rewards. You join guilds to go on guild raids for big rewards. So, this game definitely has a ton more depth than say the previously two mentioned games because of all those systems being added on.
I really wish they hadn't given me an auto-play button for the match 3. As soon as a game gives me an auto-play button, I instantly tap it and check out. That said, the AI doesn't exactly play like I would, and if a level is more difficult, I'd probably rather have full control.
Because of the depth of this game, it feels like I'm going to need a few days of playing it before I can really see its extents, but I've played it enough to know . . . it's not what I'm looking for. Pretty good, but not the "Holy Grail."
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I'm on the hunt still and will continue to look for great Dungeon-themed Match-3 games. Again, if you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments, and I'll be sure to check it out.
Happy Dueling!
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