A tacky, plastic, flashing scepter? Count me in
PUZZLE STRIKE II
Designer: David Sirlin | Publisher: Sirlin Games
Try to think of the best first-player tokens you’ve encountered over the years. Now forget them all and clasp your hands around Puzzle Strike II’s ‘Scepter of Power’.
This incredible piece of tabletop engineering features not one, but two pulsing crystals set within its silver specked purple plastic staff, activated by the press of a button and the eldritch power of three LR44 alkaline batteries. I shouldn’t need to say much more really, but I will, as the game responsible for this unashamedly gaudy curio is actually rather good.
The original Puzzle Strike appeared in 2010. Its novel (at the time) ‘chip’/bag-building shook up the growing deck-building genre and kicked off Sirlin Games’ Fantasy Strike family of games, whilst the tetris-esque tension of stacking and ‘crashing’ gems captured an audience that endures to this day. But, novel as it was, Sirlin Games have now done away with tactile chips in favour of something approaching more traditional deck-building.
I use the word traditional loosely though, as Puzzle Strike II is a curious specimen.
Like its predecessor, the theming here involves a tournament of battling beasts, humans, and talking pandas. It’s not really important. Similarly, Puzzle Strike II also takes the original’s concept of cautiously stacking gems before blasting them towards opponents, but enlivens it with a colourful twist. Essentially, players will be facing an onslaught of different coloured gems dropping into their ‘gem pile’, which can only be depleted by ‘crashing’ consecutive strings of matching colours. A somewhat reductive comparison would perhaps be the popular Bejeweled mobile games, or, for those who remember, SEGA’s Columns. Through cardplay, gems can be switched around, destroyed, and generally manipulated before a ‘crash’ sends them straight over for your opponent to deal with next turn. If there is ever more than ten gems in the gem pile at the end of a players turn they are eliminated.
Amidst this, players will be purchasing cards for their decks and powering up their Super Moves; game-changing abilities associated with each of the four gem colours, activated when their respective rows are filled. Despite being gamechanging, these abilities will be triggering frequently, enhancing the overall kinetic volatility of the game.
Making everything feel slightly less abstract and considerably more tactile are the chunky gems themselves. These lovingly overproduced components are constantly coming in and out of their dedicated trays and shifting around on player boards. Lining up a huge shimmering string of spiky purple crystals before ‘crashing’ them all away feels good, and having them hop across to the corresponding Super Move row, filling it up and firing it off before refilling the remainder is genuinely exciting.
With ten quirky characters to choose from, each with their own trio of unique starting cards, and two included main decks, Puzzle Strike II has a generous amount of replayability. Whilst players can build any kind of deck they want during the game, the characters nonetheless impart a touch of identity upon play styles, and building towards them is fun to experiment with. Of the two main decks, Birthday Bash shines the most, with its ‘present’ keyword triggering all kinds of mechanical silliness and offering the most theme.
Despite my opening words, the sceptre isn’t the best part of the game. Mechanically, it enables the bearer to add one of each gem to the Super Move pool and attack all players simultaneously, albeit at the cost of less flexibility when defending themselves from incoming gems. It’s powerful, but often the wise thing to do is shift it upon someone else. If I’m honest, I played with it more between games than during, and that says something about the strength of Sirlin Games’ design.
CHAD WILKINSON
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗ The Scepter
◗ 123 gems
◗ Bank Board
◗ 8 Player Boards
◗ 40 Tokens
◗ 198 Cards
WE SAY
A potential must-play hampered by occasionally lengthy turns and a high price.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED PUZZLE STRIKE...
A refreshing revision of an already fun formula.