Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords Q&A

Infinite Interactive’s Steve Fawkner chats with GameSpot about the impending launch of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade.

Q: Walk us through the online experience. Will it include more features than the handheld versions? Will there be support for the Vision camera?

A: We’ve got a lot of features in here specifically for multiplayer. To start with, there is the local multiplayer I mentioned earlier. Then, we have player matchmaking and ranked games, which makes it as easy as a few button presses in order to jump into a quick game with either a friend or a stranger and test out your hero’s mettle.

Next, we have our rich presence and invite system to make it really simple to see if your friends are playing the game, see exactly what they’re up to within the game, and to invite them in for a quick multiplayer match.

Leaderboards are implemented, as is voice chat during play. And finally, we’ve allowed players the option to craft powerful multiplayer heroes without doing the story every single time. Once an element from the story is unlocked, such as a rune or a spell, future heroes can either buy it from the shop, or in the case of monsters, capture them in a regular single-player battle.

Anybody give this a whirl on the DS or PSP? It’s actually a great mix of puzzle and RPG elements from the same team that brought us the Warlords games.