It sounds like a jewel-matching RPG made in heaven. Players taken on the role of Rivel, a summoner traveling through the Aldemona Wood who becomes embroiled in an evil plot that could change the face of the world forever. Instead of charging into battle himself, Rivel takes on the creatures of the woods by summoning mythical beasts to fight in his stead in battles that combine the gameplay of Bejeweled Twist with hit point meters and damaging special abilities.

Did the combined effort of two developers are at the top of their games result in a stronger whole, or does all of that spinning throw Gyromancer off-balance?

Loved
Spinning Your Fate: Gyromancer's core game mechanic is a highly satisfying melding of Bejeweled Twist's gameplay with RPG conventions such as hit points and special powers. You choose one of three monsters in your party, each with a color affinity that has strength and weaknesses depending on the color of the monster you are fighting. Both creatures have a number of powers that activate via gauges that steadily fill with each turn of the focus wheel. Making a match with your creature's colors speeds up power activation, while matching your opponent's colors halts the progress of their gauge. Activating a power places special gems on the game board that must be matched to set off damaging effects.

It starts off simply enough, ramping up as new creatures with new abilities join the fray. Soon a penalty is applied for twists that don't result in a match, ramping up the pressure significantly by lowering the amount of time it takes for your opponent's spells to go off. It's all timed well enough that once this limitation is imposed you're already thinking ahead to ensure you've got a match lined up. While luck does play a role in Gyromancer, pulling off a big win still takes a certain amount of skill. There are few feelings as satisfying as taking out a powerful foe with a creature that started the round on its last sliver of health. It's a feeling of accomplishment that can be quite intoxicating.

Gotta Catch Em' All: While the puzzle battles are the main draw of Gyromancer, you're only as good as the monsters you collect. Throughout the game you'll discover new, color-coded creatures to add to your collection, spending points earned in battle to upgrade them to their more evolved forms. You can only take three creatures into battle at a time, and with color affinities weakening or strengthening your pets depending on the foes they face, knowing which three to take into which level is a key element of the game's strategy.

While initially it seems as if the only difference between creatures is hit points and color, you'll soon discover differences in powers and behaviors that will have you mulling over your lineup for minutes at a time, trying to form a winning team. Some creatures offer greater power at a price, such as one gnat that locks pieces in place on a regular basis, making it difficult to activate the strong magic it possesses, while others carry a wealth of hit points but are slow to accumulate the power necessary to damage enemies. You'll develop favorites, and certain enemies will make you groan when their portrait appears on the versus screen. That kind of involvement and recognition is the hallmark of a good game, especially in this genre.

Hated
Spinning Around And Around: While battles in Gyromancer are involving and satisfying and the odd challenge levels you'll encounter will test your skills, there really isn't all that much to the game. It's an endless string of battles without any of the extra activities like spell research, crafting, and mount leveling that made Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords so very addictive.

Despite obvious influence from both both developers, Gyromancer comes across as more of a PopCap game than a Square Enix title. There's a heavy emphasis on the puzzle aspect of the game, while the roleplaying elements are limited to gaining levels and just a hint of exploration and problem-solving. What's missing is the depth that Square Enix normally brings to its RPG titles. There are no side quests or mini-games here; just 15-20 hours worth of fights with a little story drizzled over top.

Gyromancer will certainly satisfy a puzzle gamer and might even win over the odd Pokemon player, but RPG fans lured in by the Square Enix name will find themselves somewhat puzzled.

Gyromancer was developed by Square Enix and PopCap Games and published by Square Enix for Xbox Live Arcade and Windows PC on November 18th, 2009. Retails for 1200 Microsoft Points or $15. A copy of the game was procured via Steam for reviewing purposes. Completed PC version of the game's main story and dabbled a bit in the additional content.
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Bejeweled Blitz is the Facebook version of PopCap's popular jewel-twisting puzzle game, which gives players a minute to rack up the highest score humanly possible in order to brag to their friends. Now PopCap brings that functionality to the iPhone version of the game, allowing players to try and beat their Facebook friends anywhere in the bathroom world.

"Ultimately, social gaming is about being able to play games with and against your friends, and the new Blitz update for Bejeweled 2 on iPhone lets you play against your friends anywhere," explained John Vechey, co-founder and director of PopCap's social gaming initiative. "This is a natural next stage in our multi-platform and social strategies. Blending the Facebook and iPhone Bejeweled communities should prove very compelling for players."

For those of you who've never played Bejeweled, it's basically Puzzle Quest without the RPG elements. Captain Backwards Description strikes again!

Mark November 18th on your calendar, and then set the rest of the week busy. That's the date that Square Enix and Popcap bring the blend of puzzle game and RPG pioneered by Puzzle Quest to the next level, adding collectible monsters to the mix. Gyromancer has you summoning monsters to fight other monsters in Bejeweled Twist flavored puzzle battles. As if that weren't bad enough, your monsters also gain levels as you fight with them, much like they do in Pokémon, and they come on pretty little cards that you'll want to collect until you pass out dead on your couch or in your computer chair.

Maybe it's just me, shaking with anticipation here. If I disappear after November 18th, call the police. Better yet, call Dominos and have them deliver cheesy bread.

Popcap Games is an official sponsor of this year's Village Halloween Parade, and they're not content to be represented by a lousy street sign. No, they're forming a Plants vs. Zombies troupe to march in the parade, inviting fans of the game, zombie groupies, and "macabre gardening types" to come celebrate with them on October 31st. The company is attempting to make this year's event the largest zombie gathering in parade history, going as far as to extending special invitations to zombie enthusiast organizations such as NYC Zombie Crawl and ZombieCon.

If I were in New York City, I would totally go as a plant.

"Plants vs. Zombies seems to inspire people to new heights of zaniness, and we have the photos to prove it," laughed Garth Chouteau, vice president of public relations at PopCap. "We wanted to give those rabid PvZ fans a fun time and place to gather and celebrate their passion for the game. What better way than marching up 6th Avenue in New York's historic Halloween parade!"

The parade kicks off at 7PM on Halloween night. If you're in the area, you probably won't want to miss it. And hey, bring the kids! It's an excellent alternative to keeping them locked in the closet all night for their own safety.

Puzzle Quest showed us that the puzzle game and the RPG could be successfully married into an entertaining and highly-addictive product. Now it's the big guys' turn. Combining the unique puzzle gameplay from PopCap's Bejeweled Twist and Square Enix's mastery of things involving experience points gives us Gyromancer, a game about a guy who really loves Greek Food.

No! It isn't about Greek food at all. Gyromancer sees players assuming the role of the deadly mage Rivel on a quest to rid Aldemona Wood of "a brooding darkness." Through 10 stages he will capture and collect powerful monsters to aid him in Bejeweled Twist battles against the forces of evil; search for hidden treasures; and strive for the highest score in the online ranking system.

"We've always enjoyed a strong partnership with PopCap Games and Gyromancer represents our goal of developing unique gaming experiences, " said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. "We believe that Gyromancer will appeal not only to core gamers, but will further introduce the RPG genre to casual gamers as well."

While I can't see the casual audience easily making the leap to the 40-hour RPG, I welcome any game that tries.

Check out the TGS trailer for Gyromancer below.

Popcap will be offering Bookworm (September) and Bejeweled Twist (October), while EA will be bringing four games: Scrabble, MySims Camera, Littlest Pet Shop, Sudoku. MySims and Sudoku came out yesterday, while the others will be released later in the Fall.

It'll hit the 360 in the form of downloadable content, and includes everything you'd find in the PC/Mac version of Peggle Nights. Which means 60 new MP levels, 60 new campaign levels and 60 new challenges, along with more achievements.

It'll be out sometime this Fall. It's Peggle. More Peggle. You know what to do.

Peggle XBLA Getting 'Nights' Expansion [Shacknews]

The game will, as you read this, already be sitting on store shelves across America, for the reasonable price of $20. And if you likes things a little more portable? PopCap also confirmed that an iPhone version of the game is on its way, and should be on the App Store in "late 2009."

Finally, as a bonus: here's a couple of Plants vs Zombies shirts, newly-available from PopCap's store. Moustache mode? Yes, please.

PopCap's Garth Chouteau has confirmed with WorthPlaying that the game is coming to Microsoft's online platform, but couldn't provide any further details on things like price, release date, that kind of thing.

Which is OK. So long as it's coming. It's really quite good, you know.

'Plants vs. Zombies' Coming to Xbox Live Arcade [WorthPlaying]

Which means, yes, there's some horrible titles in there. But there are also many games that aren't horrible. The opposite of horrible. Excellent titles.

Games like Peggle. And Plants vs Zombies. And some other games, many of which have been discounted (some by up to 50%) to celebrate the section's opening.

[Family Games @ Steam]

In an interview with Kombo, PopCap's senior director of public relations Garth Chouteau talks about migrating the company's more popular games to other platforms, and PC title Plants VS Zombies, which Luke absolutely adored, certainly seems to fit the bill.

Peggle for XBLA is a good example of a game that we took that was popular on the PC and we spent probably twice as long as anyone else would have figuring how to make that game really good for Xbox and Xbox Live Arcade, and I think you will see that with Plants Vs. Zombies—I don't know the exact order in which that game will make its way onto other platforms, but it's certainly been successful enough, quickly enough, that we're looking at other platforms and deciding where we'll take that game next...

Garth didn't elaborate on where the plant on zombie action would go next, but it's the kind of game that would fit well no matter what size of gaming platform you try to cram it on.

PopCap Games' Garth Chouteau Confirms Plants vs. Zombies to Other Platforms and Future Wii Support [Kombo]

See, dropping the game's price to $1 can be seen as part-experiment, part-protest on the part of developers PopCap. As any iPhone owner will know, the device's App Store charts are skewed heavily towards cheap, disposable apps; you'll often see $1 games clogging them up while better, more expensive games (with lower sales) languish unseen.

Case in point: before the sale, Peggle was sitting at around #60 on the App Store game charts. And after the sale? Peggle was sitting pretty at #1, having sold "nearly as many units in those four days as they had in the 3 weeks afters the game's launch".

While it makes for a poignant statement on the way the App Store is structured, doesn't it also make a good argument for pricing the game at $1 permanently?

‘Peggle' iPhone's Meteoric AppStore Boost [MTV]

Kotaku has learned that Greg Canessa, the man who ran Xbox Live Arcade at the Xbox 360's launch for Microsoft and has since served as vice president of game platforms at PopCap is joining the team at World of Warcraft and Diablo studio Blizzard.

Blizzard has shown an interest in casual gaming recently, weaving PopCap's popular Peggle game into WoW earlier this year and Bejeweled before it.

Peggle, like PopCap's other popular games, was primarily played as a downloadable PC title, lumping it into the casual gaming category with the company's other hits Zuma and Bejeweled.

But in an interview with me earlier this year, Canessa said that Peggle proved its hit potential with a more hardcore crowd and that PopCap seized upon its success with the Half-Life-oriented version of Peggle offered on Steam. (It was also on Canessa's watch overseeing XBLA that the Geometry Wars became a hit also with hardcore gamers).

What Canessa seemed proud of in that context was merging casual game design with hardcore appetites.

And now WoW's got Peggle. And Blizzard now has Canessa.

Blizzard did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

WoW Insider has first details on the addition of the peg-smashing game, which has already begun raiding its way into World of Warcraft. Peggle for World of Warcraft runs within the Blizzard game itself, letting players go head-to-head to while away boredom, as well as helping to decide who gets dropped loot. (That's /peggleloot if you're wondering.)

But the game within a game also mixes up standard Peggle play.

While the WoW version comes with just two "Peggle Masters," players can earn "talent points" that will affect the way the game is played. Like World of Warcraft, the new version of Peggle features a skill tree, letting players modify their shots with higher points, a chance for "critical hits" and increased fever scores.

It's like a video game equivalent of an eightball, one administered right through the retina.

WoW Insider has more extensive details on the Peggle add-on, but if you'd prefer to play it instead of read about it, it's now available for download.

WoW Insider exclusive: PopCap releases Peggle for WoW [WoW Insider]
Peggle Add-on For WoW [PopCap]

Forbes writes of PopCap's plans for 2009, some aspects of which we're already aware of. It's bringing Peggle to the Nintendo DS and Xbox Live Arcade this year, as well as dropping more guaranteed cash cows like Bejeweled Twist on portables.

But its nefarious plans don't stop there.

It also plans to ship Plants vs. Zombies, described by the publisher's VP as a real-time strategy game with notes of "tower defense games and collectible card games—but in a casual context." Sounds like heroin.

Also en route are more time wasters, like Bejeweled Blitz for Facebook, the ultimate in shirking.

Considering PopCap is one of the few publishers thriving so expertly right now, we'd think they have a pretty healthy year of domination ahead of them.

'Peggle' Publisher Expands [Forbes]

The developers of Peggle and Bejeweled, having picked up some sales data from the NPD Group, announced today that retail revenues were up 85% in 2008 over the 2007 numbers.

Impressive! Even more so when you remember that the NPD Group don't track digital downloads, so sales were in all likelihood even higher.

Goes to show, even in tough times, you make good games, people will buy them.

PopCap Retail Sales Up 85% [Edge]

Evil puzzle scientists PopCap - makers of Bejewelled, Bejewelled-Twist and Bejewelled-Just-One-More-Go-HAHAHAHA-We-Own-Your-Soul-Now - have decided that what the Zombie world needs is a dose of good old fashioned family values. And probably puzzles.

Quoth PR rep, Garth Chouteau:

It’ll be a few months, but our next new game will be worth the wait… “zombie apocalypse,” the PopCap way: no blood, no gore, but blood-curdlingly fun and addictive just the same.

PopCap’s next game to be a family friendly zombie apocalypse? [The BBPS]

What's interesting on top of packing one world-class timesuck inside of another (in real world terms, this would be like snorting bacon-flavored meth), is how it all came to pass. Michael Fromwiller, a student at San Jose State, wrote an add-on he called Besharded, which came reasonably close to mimicking PopCap's hit. But it didn't come close enough for PopCap, which instead of sending out a C&D letter, reached out to Fromwiller and hired him to do a version of the real thing. Next week it's available for WoW, with no opposition from Blizzard. Wired has the word straight from PopCap itself, but a no-comment from Blizzard.

Bejeweled, Warcraft Combine to Form World's Most Addictive Game [Wired]

It is very much a multiplatform, multichannel, multipartner business where our goal is to get our games anywhere they're going to be great, anywhere we can. If your fridge can make a great Bejeweled experience, by god, we'd have your fridge playing Bejeweled.

Zuma and Bejeweled had big game followings, but Peggle has overtaken the gaming community in a way that none of our games have ever really done that. It was dramatically sped up by Peggle Extreme, and we're trying to think of other things as well with Peggle and seeing if that works with other things. Some games... you couldn't do a mash-up of Bejeweled and Half-Life. That would only suck.

There's lots of talk about expansion into other marekts (mobile, console, etc.) and where PopCap is headed next. It's an engaging interview on the subject of one of casual gaming's biggest forces.

PopCap: The Complexity Of Being Casual [Gamasutra]