Welcome to my new addiction, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes. Set in the Might and Magic Universe, Clash of Heroes is spread across five different regions of Ashan and brings a whole new game style to the Might and Magic franchise thanks to Cabybara Games. Clash of Heroes incorporates role playing elements and an inventive combat system based on match-three puzzle mechanics that will leave you wanting more. Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is by far one of the best DS games of 2009!

The storyline is pretty basic and familiar with a demonic plot to gain possession of a powerful tool that would allow them to take over the world and the five heroes; Anwen, Godric, Fiona, Aidan, and Nadia, fight against the demons to prevent this from happening. The vibrant art style brings the story to life with highly detailed maps filled with knights, elves, wizards, necromancers, and demons. The game is set up sort of like a board game making navigation to your next quest very simple. You will play all five Heroes throughout the campaign, each set in different regions of Ashan where they will face different challenges that arise. Challenges will range from standard battles to Boss fights to puzzle battles where you have a limited number of turns to wipe out the entire enemy’s army.

The combat setup is perfect as it incorporates both the top screen (enemy’s units) and the bottom screen (player’s units) of the DS giving the player a clear view of its own units as well as the enemies units. The Heroes fight in a turn based, strategic, match-three puzzle combat system similar to Puzzle Quest or Bejeweled but instead of matching up gems or jewels, you match soldiers with the same abilities and qualities to create either an offensive or defensive move.  You line up three of the same units vertically to create an offensive attack and line up three or more units horizontally to create a wall used as a defense mechanism to block your enemy’s attacks.  As you progress, you will be introduced to a number of specialty units who are stronger and more powerful which adds to the strategic element of the game as these units can be lost during battle. For each fight you win, you will gain XP and money that can be used to buy more specialty units.

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is close to perfect. The only minor drawback in Clash of Heroes is that after you have completed the first Heroes quest and have leveled up your character, you switch to the next Hero that is basically like starting the game over again. With each new Hero, the units and levels reset making it a little annoying but you soon get over it as you become engulfed in your new Hero.

If you are looking for a beautiful, strategic RPG style puzzle game, look no further than Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes! You will be dawn in immediately and before you know it, hours will have passed you by!