When Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords debuted for PSP and Nintendo DS earlier this year, it introduced an inventive new twist on the typical puzzle game. It plays similar to Bejeweled, having you switch gems around to line them up and remove them from a playfield. However, it includes numerous role-playing elements. You'll cast spells and dish out damage to enemies throughout each match, making it far more competitive. D3 Publisher tried to repeat this success with a Wii version, but a clearly rushed presentation and lackluster controls make it a lesser product.

Quest's gameplay remains intact. Through each round of battle, you'll build up mana for your spells (through variously colored pieces), collect gold coins and eliminate skulls from a playfield, which in turn damages your opponent. The last man (or thing) standing wins the battle. The single-player game involves an illustrious quest mode. Here, you can take your hard-earned gold and buy armor, weapons, power-ups and more. If you're not up for that kind of depth, however, you can simply leap into instant action or take on a friend in multiplayer.

Rather than borrow the control scheme that the PS2 and Xbox Live versions use, Puzzle Quest for the Wii forces you to use an on-screen cursor controlled by your remote. It's not unresponsive, but it's more trouble than it's worth. In the heat of combat, you could accidentally click on the wrong piece, losing your turn (and mana points) as a result. Against a skilled opponent, this makes all the difference between life and death. The option to use the Nunchuk helps a little bit, but D3 would've been better off incorporating a classic control set-up.

Gameplay isn't Puzzle Quest's only problem, however. It's visual presentation feels slapped together. The playfield appears shrunken down on the screen, due to the game's lack of widescreen support. There's simply no reason for this, especially when you need all the room you can get for the quirky Wii remote functionality. The characters and stages don't look any better, consisting of still images with very little movement.

While the epic soundtrack is very good, it cuts off after the conclusion of a stage, crudely skipping to the next tune. The dialogue isn't any better, particularly from the woman who attempts to lend you a hand. "You are victorious!" Wow, really? The Win screen didn't tell us that already. Thanks a lot, darlin'.

In spite of these problems, Puzzle Quest is still somewhat fun. The quest mode has hundreds of missions and plenty of customization options. The local multiplayer is good for a few battles, although D3 could've done something remarkable with the Wi-Fi Connection. Going against a friend in online multiplayer would have been great -- not to mention fair. Your friend would make the same amount of mistakes with the game's controls as you do.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for the Wii is the weakest version available – and, ironically, the most expensive, sitting at $30. It's still a somewhat entertaining game, but the irksome controls and shoddy presentation will force you to think twice about enduring this Quest.