''Jewel Quest'' is a

tile-matching A tile-matching video game is a type of puzzle video game where the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. In many tile-matching games, that criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the ...

puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, Sequence, sequence solving, Spatial ability, spatial recognition, ...

created and published by iWin. First released for

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, it has been redeveloped for

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, the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

(as ''Jewel Quest: Expeditions''), the Xbox 360's

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

and other platforms. iWin also released a series of

sequels A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

and

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games.

Gameplay

''Jewel Quest'' is a "match 3" puzzle played on a grid filled with various tokens, such as diamonds, gold nuggets, coins, and skulls. The player may swap any two adjacent tiles, as long as the swap results in a horizontal or vertical line of three or more matching tokens. The matched set disappears, allowing tokens to drop into the gaps from above; if more matched sets form as a result, they disappear as well. Whenever tiles disappear, the background grid positions turn gold. The player must turn every square on the board to gold in order to complete the level. Failing to do so within the given time limit, or reaching a situation in which no more swaps are possible, costs one

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

and sends the player back to the start of that level. As the game progresses, new variations are introduced to make gameplay increasingly difficult: irregularly-shaped grids, squares in hard-to-reach places, tokens that must be matched multiple times to clear them from the board, etc.

Jewel Quest

''Jewel Quest'' has 180 levels and is set within the

Mayan culture The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing ...

. There are 36 grids and they are played through, in succession, five times, with each play-through adding a new level of difficulty. During the first run-through, "Explorer," the player is given pieces of storyline in the form of "journal entries" to read after completing each grid, with an additional snippet before the beginning of each level. After playing the 36th grid, the totem "speaks" in addition to there being a written blurb. After the "Explorer" level, new information is given only at the end of the 36th level, and once after playing the 1-2 grid during the second run-through. All other "journal entries" are quotes or sayings to encourage the player. Likewise, if the player fails to complete a level within the time frame, encouraging quotes will be used.

Jewel Quest II

''Jewel Quest II'' has 180 levels. After each level, the player advances along a map representing a journey in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Additional jewels are added. Again, there are 36 boards to play, with each play-through increasing in difficulty. For ''Jewel Quest II'', the boards are not necessarily the same as in the previous play-through. Also, while in the original ''Jewel Quest'', blank squares are obstacles, the player is allowed to move jewels into empty squares in the grid in ''Jewel Quest II'', introducing new strategy. The player's character is revealed to be named Rupert Pack, and the story revolves around him searching for a "Legendary Jewel Board" in Africa, as well as a romantic subplot with a woman named "Emma Swimmingly" and a villain named "Sebastian Grenard." Emma and Sebastian each receive their own first-person text entries for an entire play-through, though the final play-through is given by Rupert. The background reflects the location of the characters within the story.

Jewel Quest III

Set in 1952, ''Jewel Quest III'' revolves around Rupert and his now-wife Emma traveling the world in order to find a cure for their daughter Natalie, who was afflicted by blindness. ''Jewel Quest III's'' levels range throughout the world. The new globe interface allows the player to select from different regions to play.

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Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

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, and The Hawaiian Islands are the regions. In each region, there are several locations to choose from and each level has multiple passes. Unlike in the first 2 ''Jewel Quest'' games, ''Jewel Quest III'' has neither a life nor scoring system. New to ''Jewel Quest III'' is that some of the jewels have special properties.

Jewel Quest: Heritage

The story of ''Jewel Quest: Heritage'' takes place in 20th century, one year after the events of ''Jewel Quest III'', narrated by Rupert Pack. In this game, Rupert set his goal to recover the Golden Jewel Board against the scoundrel Sebastian Grenard, who is a descendant of Hernan Cortes, by proving that he is the direct descendant of Emperor Moctezuma by blood. The gameplay follows Rupert Pack's family tree ranging from Natalie Pack being the tutorial stage of the game to Rupert's ancestors - the Moctezuma family being the final stages. Like in ''Jewel Quest III'', this game has no life system. Furthermore, two new game modes are available in this game: Swaps Mode (where the player needs to complete a board within the number of allowed swaps given) and Limited Jewels Mode (where the player needs to complete a board with a finite number of jewels).

Jewel Quest: The Sleepless Star

''Jewel Quest: The Sleepless Star's'' story takes place in 1901, when the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

starts to take itself in full swing. The story follows the main protagonist Percy Pack (Rupert Pack's uncle) traveling across the world with Yellow Feather (aka Pattawaset) in search of the Phoenix Jewel, whom the locals call it the Sleepless Star. The Sleepless Star was stolen by "men in uniforms" as stated by Yellow Feather, with Anton Golchev (the game's main antagonist and a native from

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

) being the main culprit behind the story. The game is divided into 6 chapters - the first being "The Sleepless Star" where Percy meets Yellow Feather, the second being "Castaways" where Percy and Yellow Feather are secluded in an Antlanic island while protecting themselves against Golchev's dogs, the third being "Secrets" where Percy and Yellow Feather land themselves in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

where they meet up with Lord Ronald and escape the country from Golchev's men, the fourth being "The Cloud Crystal" where Percy and Yellow Feather land themselves in

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

in search of the Cloud Crystal before being captured by Golchev's men, the fifth being "Ymir's Ember" where Percy and Golchev's men travel to the lost city of Estgard to retrieve a jewel by the name of Ymir's Ember while Yellow Feather escapes from Golchev's airship before meeting up with Percy and Golchev inside of Estgard before escaping and sneaking inside of the airship's cargo hold back into Scotland, which is where the final chapter of the game "Maxwell's Demon" begins. In that chapter, Percy and Yellow Feather sneak into Lord Ronald's laboratory before being surrounded by Golchev's men. After the battle which paralyzed Golchev himself, Percy and Yellow Feather escape the crumbling castle where they have a few jewels at their hands, ending the story. Gameplay-wise, ''Jewel Quest: The Sleepless Star'' offers a lot of mechanics, ranging from uncovering buried tiles, lighting up the fire, trapping the mischievous monkeys, preventing Enemy Jewels from reaching the top of the board, dodging falling obstacles, stopping the Sleepless Star Jewel from exploding and much more.

Scoring and lives

When a set of tiles are matched, points are gained based on the number of tiles matched and the number of "cascaded" matches that have occurred. "Cursed" black tiles appear in later levels; directly matching a set of these deducts points and erases the gold behind them. However, the cursed tiles can be safely removed through a "cascaded" match. If the player runs out of time on a level, or reaches a point where there are no moves possible, they lose a life and must start the level over. An additional life is granted for every 50,000 points earned.

Games

The ''Jewel Quest'' series has evolved since its beginnings starting with Match 3 games, and later including playing card games and hidden object games, starting on PC and later porting to consoles and mobile devices.

Windows

Match 3

Playing card

Hidden object

Consoles

Mobile

External links

Official iWin website

VGT review of Nintendo DS version of Jewel Quest: Expeditions

Website of the game itself

References

{{Reflist 2004 video games Android (operating system) games Casual games IOS games IWin games MacOS games Nintendo DS games Tile-matching video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games