Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes Preview

Eurogamer brings us their own hands-on preview of Ubisoft’s puzzle/RPG crossbreed for the Nintendo DS, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes.

But the shift in artistic direction isn’t the seachange here, nor what’s most likely to raise the odd hardcore eyebrow – Clash of Heroes forgoes the usual strategic, chess-like battle system in favour of a puzzle RPG mechanic. Sure, you’ll still be traipsing around woods, mountains and plains of the netherworld, gathering troops and taking on enemies to progress, but the rank and file of your army has been replaced by, well, rows and columns.

Battles take place on a grid, with the top screen occupied by enemy soldiers and the touch-screen by your own. There are three basic categories of troops: regular, elite and champion. Regular troops take up one square of the combat grid, whilst elites occupy two in a column and champions a square four. When each battle begins, troops are randomly dropped into the grid and a number of action points are allocated to each player. Units at the near end of a stack can be picked up and dropped into a new column, or specific units can be removed, letting those above them ‘fall’ towards the centre line, each action costing a point each.