Gyromancer

Gyromancer is an addictive puzzle game, yet the setting might feel a little stale.

A shameless clone of role-playing puzzle hybrid Puzzle Quest, but a slick and addictive one all the same.

PopCap and Square-Enix come together to create a successful puzzle-RPG. The well thought out game mechanics ensure that you keep on playing to get another reward. On the other hand, the game costs a lot of time and after a few hours you can’t help but wonder what on earth you’ve been doing for the past couple of hours.

Gyromancer also takes a while to get the hang of thanks to a poorly explained tutorial, and the lack of multiplayer seriously hurts the game's replay value; still, gamers get quite a bit of bang for their buck (it's priced at 1200 MS Points, which is $15), and while it won't win any awards for originality, it's a slick and addictive puzzle experience that's sure to keep Bejeweled and Puzzle Quest fans playing late into the night.

Each ruckus ends by attributing your loyal companion with experience points, and it's this part of the game that really drives you to continue on your journey. [Issue#54, p.105]

It's easy to assume that Gyromancer is a clone of Puzzle Quest...The truth, perhaps, is that it's simply an improvement on the formula. [Jan 2010, p.98]

While most RPG style puzzlers will always be in the shadow of Puzzle Quest; Gyromancer makes a strive to be more, but falls short of that goal. Players will spend hours enjoying the puzzle part of the game, but for 1200 Microsoft points some may feel a bit cheated because of the insipid story.

if you’ve got a PC, and if you’re reading this you obviously do, then you might be better served to just buy Bejeweled 2.

A few hours of Gyromancer and the novelty will wear off, and you will be left bereft, wishing you were playing the original RPG puzzler, not this knock-off with prettier pictures.

For match-three nutters only. [Jan 2010, p.115]