Did somebody say match-3 puzzle game with experience points and magic spells?
No? Nobody? Then I guess Dungeon Raid wouldn’t interest you.
Dungeon Raid is a relatively new game for the iOS platform (that would be the iPhone, iPad and their ilk) that is exactly that, a match-three puzzler with a twist. Pull a line (going any of the eight directions, which can also bend) over three or more matching icons to make them vanish, and new random ones will fall from the sky. Only after a short time, you’ll begin to see a new type of symbol drop down…skulls. These skulls will attack you every turn and hurt you until you match them with an appropriate number of swords to punch through their armor and remove them from the board. 
Oh, and then boss monsters with special abilities will also begin dropping from the sky to cause you more trouble.
But for every skull you remove, you will gain experience points which will let you learn spells to give you certain advantages. For every shield you remove you will get points toward improving your armor (adding more defense, adding spikes to return damage, adding regeneration every turn, etc) and for Coins removed you can buy newer, stronger equipment.
This game is a blast to play, and is ideal for the person who only has a few minutes at a time to play something, and can come back to it over and over.
Basically you are playing for a high score. You keep going until you are inevitably overwhelmed, and how many turns you lasted and levels you achieved determines your score. There is a leaderboard and the game is openfeint enabled though. It’s the best game you are guaranteed to lose, every single time you play.
To improve this game, I would probably add some kind of tooltip object that tells you more about how each attribute affects the game, because when you get the opportunity to upgrade “Coin 20% >> 25%” doesn’t really give me a lot of explanation. Also, some kind of game mode that allowed you to earn skills or advantages over time that carry on to new games instead of just having the start over every single time, I think it would make the game even more popular and addictive.
I can’t get enough of this game and I think there should be more like it.
At this very moment, the game appears to be only 99 cents, which is a steal. I would expect it difficult to be disappointed with this one, no matter who you are.
Go check it out!
Class dismissed.
