I'm more of a hardcore gamer than a casual gamer by nature, but I do enjoy indulging in the pleasures of casual games from time to time. I often find casual games to be a nice break from the intense commitments I make to my usual 50-hour RPGs. Like a summer fling, good casual gaming experiences can inspire a sense of fun and freedom that only comes from a short-term, minimal commitment.

I recently tried out the casual game Ikibago: The Caribbean Jewel. Ikibago is not your run-of-the-mill casual game. It takes the usual match three mechanics to another level, much like Puzzle Quest. The game is loosely centered around a the story of a lost jewel. However, the only way to get the jewel is to journey across the high seas and puzzle your way through each level.

The basic mechanics of Ikibago are familiar. The core match three principle is expanded through several variations, such as keys, locks, empty spaces, pattern-making, multiple combos, a moving board, and the unusually flexible piece-switching options. Instead of games like Bejeweled, where only corresponding pieces can be switched, Ikibago allows any piece on the board to switch places with the others. This creates a fun dynamic which allows for a wider variety of play styles. I found that my love of organizing and sorting motivated me to arrange rows of one color each. However, there were many other ways to create combos and get just as many (or more) points.

The overall style of Ikibago was well-suited to the game. The pirates looked cartoonish but not childish, and the bright colors created an upbeat mood. The music was fun and definitely set a nice pirate mood. I enjoyed the aesthetic experience and the cute cutscenes.

Ikibago displays one of the most important traits of good casual games: it is easy to learn, but difficult to master. While I found myself breezing through the opening puzzles, I soon faced a welcome challenge. Ikibago is a polished game experience, with fresh variations on a simple mechanic. I had fun solving the puzzles and I'm looking forward to playing more soon.  

When my sister, who doesn’t play a lot of games, tells me I should get a game, I tend to believe her. She had tried out Puzzle Quest on her boyfriend’s PSP and had fallen in love with it. She told me I would love it because it was like Bejeweled crossed with an RPG. I was sold. I picked up a copy shortly thereafter.

As I have been actively avoiding Chocobo Tales, I needed something new to play, so I finally opened up Puzzle Quest. I wasn’t impressed by the opening credits (in place of fancy cutscenes), but the game itself was incredibly addicting. I was going to play it as I got my lunch ready, which turned into playing during lunch and for most of the afternoon. Surprisingly, one of my most difficult moments was trying to get past the training level, but I shortly developed a strategy for battles and beat it.

Strategy is a large part of the battles, which are basically puzzles like in Bejeweled. You take turns moving pieces in the puzzle, so you always have to think one or two moves ahead. For example, matching three skulls causes damage, so you have to be careful not to create a match that would allow your enemy to match three skulls on his or her next turn.

However, even the most sophisticated battle strategy can be ruined in an instant due to the large influence of chance in any battle. There are a large number of pieces above the board that fall in as other pieces are matched and removed from the game. These can be in any order, and your enemy can suddenly do massive amounts of damage or get three extra turns in a row despite your best intentions. More clever strategists plan with this sense of chance, such as matching pieces only in certain rows where it is highly unlikely for a large number of skulls to fall into place and harm you.

Puzzle Quest is very engaging and seems well-designed. It is a pared-down RPG that makes a great game for a portable system like the PSP and Nintendo DS. I can pick it up for five minutes and solve a puzzle. Unlike normal RPGs where it’s a hack-and-slash battle, the fighting system is good for my brain. I play Puzzle Quest to relax and take a break. I really enjoy it and I’m excited to see how it progresses as I continue to level up.  

Today in class we talked about genres and game sales. It made me wonder about what type of genre player I am. Although I know that I have always loved RPGs, what other games are marketed toward people like me? If I pick up an occasional platformer, am I a part of a different market as well? What about online games?

Fortunately, I was able to gain a partial understanding through the games I played in class. I began with Bejeweled, which I had become quite familiar with over the summer. I worked at a library, and we were given hour-long shifts at the front desk. I would play Bejeweled (since someone coming to the desk was a rare sight). Playing in class again was fun, as I began to get faster and faster at the pattern recognition. Puzzle games are really fun for me, and I do think that is because, as discussed in lecture, people enjoy them who want something that is intelligent but does not require competition. I hate competition because I strive to do well at whatever I do, and I hate it if people have to start comparing each other. I have been a winner and a loser before, and both are not entirely perfect. Losing is sad and can be made much worse if the winner boasts. As a winner, I feel bad for the other people that wanted to win. I also loathe anyone who is full of themselves, and I feel as if I can never be entirely happy in my pride as a winner since it was at the expense of other people.

This is probably why I enjoy RPGs. They allow me to have a sense of achievement without it being at someone else’s expense. However, I do not find myself drawn to all RPGs. I have played Earthbound on and off in the past and had the chance to play Ultima for about half an hour today. I found the early RPG format easy to understand but I was not particularly captivated by the game. I was annoyed with the simplistic graphics and basic story. The concept of the avatar was interesting, especially as two of my peers had begun the game and found different scenarios. I was confused by the controls (sometimes the emulators’ controls aren’t always the most logical). For this reason, I couldn’t figure out how to save, but I didn’t mind much when it was time to go. Unlike Final Fantasy X or even Bejeweled, I wanted to stop because food seemed like a bigger priority.

The other game that I checked out today was the demo for Deus Ex: Invisible War. I gave it a genuine effort, trying to understand all the controls and making sure that I would be able to progress forward in the game. I read all the hints and talked to everyone that I could, exploring and getting chastised by the guards for wandering around. I was disappointed when the one person I was officially going to talk to seemed to lead to a dead end, so did the other thing I had heard about: going toward the landing pad. The guards had all explicitly told me not to do this, and, at this point, I still had not figured out how to fire my weapon. I pressed all the buttons and couldn’t get anything to work, so I assumed that it would come out later. I ended up being shot at, so I escaped and ran away into some dead-end alley. I heard voices nearing, and, when I discovered that I couldn’t hide behind the dumpster like the weaponless weakling I was, looked for other desperate options. I found a grate which led to a darkened area with a bunch of pipes and I was suddenly shot with some sort of green plasma. I looked up to see an odd green alien thing (in what I mistakenly thought was a somewhat realistic game) and was soon killed by said green alien thing. After this confusing, bumbling episode, I had absolutely no motivation to go back and try again.

After today’s games, I have realized a few things: (1) I probably will never really enjoy games that involve physical darkness, shooting, and suspense; (2) I like RPGs, but only if they are artistically beautiful and allow me to achieve to reach a narrative goal; and (3) puzzle games, especially the free, repetitive online type, are very addicting for me. I will still play games such as Deus Ex for at least a few minutes so that I can understand the basic mechanics, which I consider to be important as a game designer. I may always like puzzles because I feel smart for recognizing patterns. As far as what I actually buy (or rent, for that matter), I think that RPGs will still remain my favorite. Even if I do play platformers once in a while, the RPGs are really the only ones that that have been able to capture my heart.