TransGaming has announced the Mac release of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. The company is releasing the game itself after licensing it from D3Publisher of America. It costs $19.99.
Puzzle Quest is, technically, a “casual game,” but it’s been enormously popular since its debut because of its mix of genres — it combines “match three” style puzzle lay with strategy game and RPG elements, as well as a persistent storyline. The game’s also been made available for the PC and various game consoles.
Like other TransGaming titles, Puzzle Quest has come to the Mac thanks to TransGaming’s “Cider” technology. Cider is a translation layer system that enables Windows games to run on Intel-based Mac; it’s this software that has allowed EA to bring six new games to the platform, along with EVE Online and many others. As a result, an Intel-based Mac is required — Puzzle Quest runs on iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Mac minis, Mac Pros and MacBook Airs, according to TransGaming. It’s rated E 10+ for Everyone 10 and older by the ESRB.
Puzzle Quest is one of the first games to debut through a new digital distribution service set up by TransGaming called GameTree Online. The service, which is free to use, offers Mac gamers the ability to buy and download games online that they’d otherwise have to go to retail stores to find.
TransGaming has “soft-launched” GameTree Online as a beta service with two initial releases: Puzzle Quest and The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures, an arcade adventure game that follows a family as they try to go on a road trip to see the Alamo. It features the voice talents of Bob Saget, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ashley Tisdale and others. The game, published for the PC through Legacy Interactive is a fund-raiser for the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation.
TransGaming plans to use GameTree Online as a distribution point for some of the Mac titles it’s working on going forward; the site also highlights links to products owned by TransGaming’s development partners, such as GameTap and EVE Online.