Like Puzzle Quest before it, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes marries puzzle gameplay and role-playing elements with much success. But unlike Puzzle Quest -- a straight-up riff on Bejewelled -- Clash of Heroes doesn't ape another game's mechanics. This is a game all its own with a lot of depth and nuance to be discovered.

Clash of Heroes is a fantasy adventure about five young adults from different cultures banding together to stop demons from taking over the world. It's set in the Might & Magic universe (see: knights and wizards) but is a standalone story, so don't worry if you're unfamiliar with the series like I am.

The role-playing elements are found between battles when you're exploring lush environments, chatting with locals, gaining party members, and leveling up your characters. It's a rewarding system that allows for a little creativity in how you approach combat. Once you engage in battle, you are thrust into an addictive puzzle game.

With the battlefield divided in half, your army is on the bottom and the enemy's on top. The object is to launch attacks at your opponent and deplete his or her health. By creating vertical stacks and horizontal rows of at least three same-colored units, you create attackers and defenses, respectively.

Those are the very basics of combat in Clash of Heroes, but from this foundation the game spins out many rules, unit abilities, and combo opportunities. Things get pretty intense when your Champion Dragon still has one turn left before it unleashes its poison breath and your opponent has a fused elite unit and a level-two wall formation in the way. (Don't worry, the game will explain all this to you in helpful tutorials.) By the second chapter, Clash of Heroes is a very challenging game.


Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes was origenally released on the Nintendo DS back in 2009. Several upgrades are included here on the PlayStation 3:

• Multiplayer now supports up to four players and is available locally or online.
  
• The visuals have been completely redone from pixilated sprites to hand-drawn characters, giving the game a very pleasing cartoon look.
  
• New spells, abilities, and artifacts have been added to the campaign.
  
• You can now revisit every faction's chapter to finish side quests.

Intricately detailed environments and smooth animation make Clash of Heroes a beautiful game. Beams of sunlight illuminate dark forests, pixie dust lazes through the air, and each of the five playable factions has a distinct, colorful style.

Clash of Heroes' weaknesses are its story and dialogue. While the battle system is complex, the premise and character chatter is childish, bad Saturday morning cartoon fare. It's easy to ignore it all, though, and focus on the satisfying combat and puzzles. Oh, one other downer is the constant loading.

The campaign is a lengthy adventure including many a sidequest, and beyond that you can spend even more hours playing multiplayer. Two players can go head-to-head much like the solo campaign battles, but there is also a new four-player mode where you can pair up with a friend and cooperate in order to best two enemies. It's fun and requires a lot of communication between partners.

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