Puzzle Quest 3

The Puzzle Quest games are a hybrid of a tile-matching puzzle game with role-playing game elements. In nearly all games, players play with an avatar character against a computer opponent using a shared board of colored gems, and alternate turns matching gems on the board. By swapping two adjacent gems to match at least three gems of the same color in a row, a player can clear those gems and gain some benefit, such as directly damaging the opponent, earning colored mana to cast spells or use abilities, or gain gold or experience. Clearing matches allows other gems to fall into place, which can potentially create further matches and combos which also can be more valuable.

Matches of four or five gems may also lead to additional turns. The goal in a match is to bring the opponent avatar's health to zero before one's own. Between matches, the player may then have the opportunity to improve their avatar such as using gold to buy equipment, learn new spells or skills, or otherwise prepare for more powerful opponents through the game's mechanics.

Mike Fahey of Kotaku praised the first Puzzle Quest in its Nintendo Switch re-release as Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns, saying that the series "fell off a cliff" after that installment. He stated that "2010’s Puzzle Quest 2 added a layer of complexity with attack and defense and statistics that, while not entirely unwelcome, muddled the successful formula of its predecessor". Calling 2009's sci-fi Puzzle Quest: Galactrix "super-challenging and incredibly dense", he also called Marvel Puzzle Quest, Magic the Gathering – Puzzle Quest, and Adventure Time Puzzle Quest "free-to-play games that are hollow licensed shells, lacking the depth of story and strategy established in the original".

Fahey called the series "one of those rare instances where going back to the first game in a relatively long-running series isn’t a matter of rolling back years of innovation and improvement".