Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes for iPad

Sometimes it baffles me that it took game designers so many years to put it together. Match 3 puzzlers and RPG's have existed separately and independently for decades now. But when Puzzle Quest came out, it opened gamers eyes and made designers realize it was a match made in heaven. A couple of years later and games like Clash of Heroes and 10,000,000 have really started to refine the genre.

I bought Clash of Heroes last night and immediately proceeded to play it for two straight hours. It scratched that itch that hasn't quite been fulfilled by anything since the original Puzzle Quest. The beauty of Clash of Heroes is the abandonment of abstract crystals, coins, sculls etc.. in favor of actual soldiers, lined up for battle and placed strategically on a battle field. Who then must be matched in color coordinated groups of 3. Okay so it's still a little abstract, but it feels much less so than other games of its type while simultaneously giving a nod to classic Heroes of Might and Magic gameplay.

I'm not totally sold on the art style which seems a little to "generic anime" to me and the touch controls could really use some work. Deleting units in particular is a pain in the butt and must usually be done twice to have the intended effect. The difficulty also seems to spike a bit from time to time. Loosing battles doesn't provide XP or money so grinding isn't really the option it is in many other RPG influenced games. That may be a good thing, but there were battles I couldn't beat on my first, second or third tries.

These are minor concerns though. Might and Magic Clash of Heroes is a great game. The port to mobile devices may have beat it up a little bit, but at the same time, the price is appropriately discounted. I paid $5 for a game that's three times as expensive on PC. It was very worth it in my humble opinion.