Dungeon Raid

I'm so very resistant to new things.  Mark will encourage me to try something, and I will avoid doing so.  On Sunday, while Mark was away, he encouraged me to download Dungeon Raid for my phone.  I made excuses and did not do so.  Tonight, Wednesday, when I got home from work, he was playing it.  Being five years old, I immediately claimed his phone to play his new game, not realizing what it was.  It was Dungeon Raid, and it was glorious.

The game is a lot like Bejeweled, in that you match like objects to make them go away, hence changing the game board.  The difference is that items on the screen impact your stats.  For example, you have health, shields, experience, and gold.  If you chain three of something or more together, your stat will reflect appropriately.  If I clear out some potions, my health increases.  When there are skulls on the field, they represent monsters and do damage to you on each turn.  When you link skulls, they take damage.  Link them with swords, and you get a bonus to your damage.

As you advance through the game, your stats permanently increase, and you are given additional spells or stat modifiers, like armor.  To keep it fair, the monsters also increase in strength, with the occasional boss monster showing up to wreak havoc on you.  You can see what special abilities boss monsters have by holding your finger down on them.  This is the same way you can check your spells if you don't recall what they do.  Just be sure to slide your finger off of the icons first, or they will activate.

The graphics are about what you would expect from this type of game.  They're not amazing, but they're clear and colorful.  The only confusion comes when you try to recall what each of your special abilities does.  The icons are not overly indicative of their purpose.

The sounds that accompany the game are fun and add a lot to the game play. As Mark and I were watching Family Guy, I had my game muted for a while, and it wasn't quite as fun.  The screen responds to you quite accurately, but when you accidentally click a coin, rather than a skull, it makes a different noise, so you know you need to restart your line.  The low health warning noise is great too, as sometimes boss monsters show up unnoticed.  Multiple times, I didn't realize they were in play until my low health triggered the sound effect.

Unlike a lot of puzzle games that require you to link things together, Dungeon Raid allows you to move at an angle.  Instead of only being able to go north, south, east, and west, I can go north-west if it makes me happy.*  I didn't realize that at first, and it would have helped had I known.  Of course, I didn't take the time to read anything about how to play.  I just started messing with it.  Since the game is easy to pick up, it's good for anyone.

There is a free version of Dungeon Raid, but since I liked it so much when I played the full version on Mark's phone, he just downloaded the full version for me.  Frankly, the game is so much fun that I didn't want to stop playing and write my review.  I hear Mark playing behind me, and it's driving me nuts.

In short, go get this game.  I'm gonna go play some more now...

*And it does.