Puzzle Strike

This is a deck building game. But instead of cards and a deck, its poker chips and a bag. So a bag builder styled deck builder. This is also a puzzle fighting game. Think Puzzle League or Tetris Attack or Puyo Puyo. You create attacks with gems by combining them and throwing them at your opponent. First to end their turn with 10 gems in your pile is the loser and the game ends! This game is absolutely fantastic and the game gets harder and harder to survive the longer it goes on. If you like simple deck builders and like vs. style puzzle games. You'll LOVE Puzzle Strike!

This game starts with the concept of classic deckbuilding games (e.g. Dominion), introduces some new concepts, and dispenses with some old ones to raise the formula up to another level. It's far more interesting and fun than it looks, and it's the most well-designed classic deckbuilding game I've ever played. Give it a try; you won't regret it. Do play the tutorial, though, even if you're very familiar with other classic deckbuilders; it's short and very helpful.

An ok deckbuilding game. Physical deckbuilding games are not my favourite due to having to reshuffle a lot. The digital implementation makes it more manageable. I think this is alright, but there are better games.

Great deck-builder that addresses the inherent lack of player interactivity that is common of the genre. Love it.

Great and interactive asymmetric deck builder. However, it is quite complex for new players to learn.
Lots of edge cases, but there is intrinsic beauty to it.

This game is neat, I like the way it plays and the tactics you can develop. Though I think that it is a bit too expensive for the price it asks : There isn't too big of an online community, the assets feel a bit cheap and you have a few DLCs to buy if you want the full rooster.

This is the game that just keeps getting better. The more I play it, the more I want to play it, either on mac, pc, ios, or irl. Highly recommended!

A great deck building game, but like all games of David Carlin a bit overpriced causing the community size to be close to zero. Would be much smarter even for total revenue to offer basic version with only 3 characters for free and charge for full version. Currently there are no online players and bot is too stupid.

Do you remember may 31st, 1996?
Maybe remembering that is a tall order, but at that exact date, one of the best competitive puzzle games ever devised hit the arcades, and later consoles: Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo.

It had intense action, simple, pick up and play gameplay, memorable visuals and music. It had everything to be a hit, but sadly it faded into relative obscurity in the years following its release, but many, including myself wanted for a long time a puzzle game that was as engaging and engrossing as SPF2T had been... until now.

Puzzle Strike delivers that same genuine feeling of "puzzle fighting" with a large, colorful cast of original characters and great, carefully crafted asymmetry that creates a uniqueness that is sure to keep players coming back for more.

There are more layers to this game than SPF2T had, since it is, by design, a board game, but that enriches it instead of making it a slog, and it brings and adapts many of the best traits of its videogame forefather.

Puzzle Strike is the best deckbuilding game I've ever played, and the port is adequate (not to mention way cheaper than a physical copy).

The online community seems to be dead, but it's well worth getting just to play with friends.

I own the tabletop version. This is not a bad port - looks pretty cheap, but works well. It is, unfortunately, double the price it should be.
Probably still worth it if you're planning on spending dozens of hours on the multiplayer, but if you're looking for singleplayer, stay away.

Nice game mechanics, probably one of the best for that type of the game. AI is weak, multiplayer is dead. Kinda fun as a fast solitaire type of thing.

Still, i think Star Realms and Through the Ages are better.

One of the most fun board games on the market, with ridiculous amounts of replay value. Highlly recommended to anyone who likes strategy games!!

If this game didn't have deep systemic problems, more of the reviewers recommending it would be playing it. But the matchmaking is dead, and that speaks volumes.

Here are some reasons why:
Random banks skew matchups far too drastically. It's a shame, because when this game works, in a fair matchup, it can be glorious.

This game either needs a chip drafting stage before the game starts (adding to gameplay length, unfortunately), or it needs to let you see the random bank and then pick your character (this is how the remaining fans currently run tournaments).

Also, the power level spread on the characters is far to wide. There are barely a handful of tournament-viable characters.

There are ample technical glitches, but the UI is totally slick. This IS the best way to play Puzzle Strike, from an interface perspective.

In light of the game's issues, not a lot of people play it, so good luck finding opponents.

As a fan of the tabletop game, I'm really happy with how this turned out. It translates well as a video board game as there's no setup, no need for randomizer apps, etc. Moreover, it lets me play when the mood strikes me rather than trying to get people over to play.

The Shadows expansion looks like fun - I'll buy the DLC later on, and will easily be buying the physical version later as well. Well done, very enjoyable, and I've already bought five more copies to gift to friends :)

Puzzle Strike is a video game adaptation of a board game that's an adaptation of a video game called Super Puzzle Fighter. Yes, that weird Street Fighter spin-off game that plays like Tetris, but isn't quite Tetris. So how does it work? This game is actually a deck-builder similar to games like Dominion. Unlike most deck-builder, this one has a lot more interaction between players and the ultimate goal is to defeat your opponent by crashing Gems into your opponent's gem pile (similiar to filling up your screen in Tetris or Super Puzzle Fighter). The game is also a bit assymetric compared to other deck-builder games in which each player selects a character. Each character has 3 special ability "chips" (cards) that makes them different from other characters changing up how a person plays the game and the strategy they employ. There is more to the game but this, like Yomi, is easy to learn but challenging to master. The PC adaptation is solid, and I think it plays better than the physical boardgame counter-part due to everything being automated.

For more information, check out Watch It Played's Puzzle Strike Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og01q5_zbD8

Another tabletop adaption makes it's way to my channel this week, and it comes from the minds behind the old Puzzle Fighter HD. The mechanics are solid as the game is known for it's deck building elements, but can that do enough despite an interface that's lacking in several areas? Will the chips fall into place in terms of the multiplayer and the challenge that it gives? Will you go all in on aggro, or will stay back and build up your resources? Will I ask more silly questions in the description of the video? Come find out!


Summary:
It's nice that there's a virtual version of the famous tabletop game, and the strategy element here has a core RPS element to it, but it's much more complicated then that. Granted, I wish the interface was a lot better: it's servicable, but it shows its browser based routes and some elements of it are particularly ugly. However, I found it to work a lot better then it's browser based counterpart, as online matches were easy to find with no connectivity issues that I could see. If you can stand that, there's a fun core game experience here that will keep your attention in the multiplayer seen, as the different characters do play reasonably different despite only having differences in the character chips. Good deck building mechanics that punish being too aggressive and not thinking about your next move, while giving you reasons to not just horde buying chips. It's fun, I just wish it was better in the end, but you can find out via the browser based version if the game is right for you (if it works).

Gameplay Footage and Video Review: https://youtu.be/w_E828NWyxc

Lists:
+:

• Great strategy elements that work on a couple of levels. Good back and forth strategy that has you trying to get two steps ahead of your opponent.
  
• Characters being the only unique chip aspect makes it feel like you've got a reasonable chance against anyone, despite maybe having a strong weakness against them.
  
• Deck building element does a good job of punishing negative moves but also making sure that you don't go to heavy on one strategy that can't be countered. Good Balance.
  
• Network elements work, matchmaking was quick and there's cross-platform which helps things out. No major lag or latency issues as well.
  
• Like the Challenge mode that helps bring a little bit of thought and understanding of mechanics, even if it can be a little confusing at times on what it truly wants you to do.
  
  

• The interface and application implementation is ugly. Elements feel tacked on in terms of the interface, and some of the text and color choices are down right bleh.
  
• Could have had some animations, some things to help the presentation elements of the game, as again, it's implementation is pretty ugly.
  
• Doesn't save information. Even after playing a match, simple choices like who's going first reset to their default, or the chips you've chosen reset on exiting the game. Annoying.
  
• Tutorial could be implemented better.
  
[*] Do wish there was some options in terms of gameplay regarding the choosing of chips in the bank, because it would have helped some interesting issues of siding the bank to the host players advantage.

Looks like each player starts with the same 7 chips (cards), plus three character-specific special move chips. At the beginning of your turn an ante gem is added to your pool. At the end of your turn you buy a chip from a custom or random bank that is shared by all players. Use the chips you buy to keep your gem pool the lowest and then KO someone else at 10+. I'm having fun with the 4-player AI battles. Thanks for the Linux version!

Very nice PC version of a fantastic boardgame. The interface is easy to use, and as a plus, the game comes with puzzles to test your Puzzle Strike skills.

A really fun deckbuilder with a nice video game interface. I actually prefer playing this version than the boardgame as it's easier to see what's going on with action arrows, pigs etc. I've generally played this game in 4 player free-for-alls, but it's got some really great even-playfield, no grind-to-win, no pay-to-win PROPER competitive 1v1 modes too.