G.G Series HERO PUZZLE Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

The G.G Series aims to provide players with quick arcade experiences on their DS systems at a low price point, and it experiments with a wide variety of genres to achieve this goal. Some of these genres are a better fit than others and this results in a somewhat unpredictable line of games that's a collection of highs and lows. Unfortunately, G.G Series HERO PUZZLE is one of the lows. While it does its best to sell a unique idea of blending RPG and puzzle elements together, it's ultimately held back by its failure to develop this concept any further, and is extremely repetitive as a result.

The premise sees players take control of a "Hero" on a fantasy quest to fight evil monsters. While it would be nice if a bit more story context was given, the overall theme is conveyed well by the types of monsters you face and the environments that you travel through. Icons and enemies are well detailed and use plenty of colour, it's just a shame that there's not a whole lot of variety to them. The barebones approach really shows its cracks when you're in situations where you fight a "ghost" for the twentieth time and the same four icons are falling from the screen in slightly differing pairs.

Gameplay progresses in a smooth and somewhat predictable fashion, but it ultimately falls short by its repetitiveness. Different types of blocks fall from the top in pairs of two and when any three of a kind are matched up, the "Hero" performs an action against the enemy. Each defeated enemy bestows EXP that levels the player up, though there isn't much of a sense of progression here. Every once in a great while a new weapon type is added to the rotation and a boss fight is engaged every time the player's level passes a multiple of ten, but otherwise nothing happens when one levels up. This makes the whole level system feel like more of an afterthought, as it ultimately defeats the purpose entirely if there isn't a measurable increase from level to level.

G.G Series HERO PUZZLE Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

While it is initially fun to fight monsters by lining up icons, the novelty wears off when the game fails to offer anything new to the player. Sure, there's the occasional status effect thrown in like "Blind" or "Paralyze" that help shake up gameplay by limiting or altering the player's inputs, but it's mostly just lining up the same icons and killing the same monsters over and over again. All the while, the same upbeat music track loops over and over in the background.

Conclusion

G.G Series HERO PUZZLE is a good example of what happens when a game introduces a central gameplay idea and never builds upon it in any noticeable or meaningful way. It's fun for the first half hour at most, but then the player grows bored and uninterested when nothing new or challenging materializes. While it's a decent enough block puzzler in its own right and it has an interesting idea by trying to merge this particular brand of puzzle action with RPG mechanics, it's not one we'd suggest unless you absolutely need another puzzle game that loosely follows in the vein of Dr. Mario or Tetris.