E3 2012: Puzzle Chasers hunts down a new kind of Facebook game

No one ever said that it was hard to try new things in the social gaming world--it's just that not many have tried. Puzzle Chasers, a new Facebook game from Konami that's a brand new property, gives it the old college try. What's even better is that, on some levels, it succeeds, but more importantly where it counts: the play hook.

It goes without saying that Puzzle Chasers is a puzzle game, but what doesn't is the fact that it is a jigsaw puzzle game. Players are tasked with completing various jigsaw puzzles in two different game modes: Story and Blitz, both of which approach the method of completing these puzzles differently.

The Story mode, for one, allows players to choose the empty puzzle pieces that they'd like to fill, presenting them with a few options. Of course, players are timed and rewarded for successfully matching puzzle pieces to the correct open shapes. With that comes the supposed motivation for completing said puzzles: a "romantic comedy" storyline surrounding two love birds on the run to stop an evil threat from stealing the world's artifacts ... or something like that.

Frankly, story in social games is a novel idea, but it's terribly difficult to deliver a compelling or even entertaining story in a social game. Few Facebook games, in any, have come close to gripping me with the story they're trying to tell, and based on a brief introduction to Puzzle Chasers, this puzzler falls into that group as well.

Then again, do players really come to Facebook games to be told a story, anyway? No, they're there to be entertained through play, and that is something Puzzle Chasers does surprisingly well. Take Blitz mode, for instance, which is a more challenging take on what's established in story mode. Instead of choosing which space to fill next, the game tells the player which space to fill. This serves to keep players on their toes, as do power-ups and rewards for streaks of successful matches.

Not only is Puzzle Chasers a pleasure to play, it's not hard on the eyes either. It's a shame that engaging, gripping story is so tough to create on Facebook, because the character art in Puzzle Chasers is just dying to be given a voice. Regardless, Puzzle Chasers is, at the very least, shaping up to be a refreshing addition to the stable of puzzle games on Facebook, something we'll make sure of when the game launches later this month.

Are you excited for Puzzle Chasers on Facebook? Are you a fan of jigsaw puzzles? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.