Wizdom Review (3DS eShop)

What do you get when you cross Cooking Mama with a match-three puzzle game? Something arguably more fun than either of those, actually. Wizdom is the latest title from publisher Moving Player, and it benefits from a similar presentational charm its last title - Rakoo and Friends - is known for.

The premise of Wizdom is simple: you must make potions for your customers within a set time limit in order to earn enough stars to progress to the next stage. Making potions is simple enough - you'll have red, green and blue materials which you must put into a bottle in order in the order shown by your customer. It's gathering those materials that makes the game truly fun to play, however.

Gathering materials is accomplished by matching three blocks of the same colour in the game's grid; all of your actions are controlled by making use of the 3DS' touchscreen. At any given time the touchscreen displays either the grid or your potion workshop, which will supply a steady stream of customers asking for custom brews.

When you first start Wizdom you'll be prompted to create your character. After doing this you quickly learn that a botched potion-making attempt results in your master being turned into a monster. From there, you pick up a new teacher to show you the ropes and return your master back to his original form.

The story isn't much more than window dressing for the gameplay, which is fine considering the game itself is fun and challenging. The premise of Wizdom's single mode may sound simple but it can get quite tough, as you have no advance notice of what potion customers will be after, and you have to carefully place blocks into the grid from either side to yield the results you want.

To create a usable ingredient in one of the three colours available you must match three blocks of that colour. However, some customers will ask for higher quality potions, which means you must combine three already made ingredients to create a something even better.

Conversely, if you find yourself unable to craft the ingredient you need, or are already full (you can add an ingredient to your inventory by tapping it on the grid), you can combine three high quality ingredients to create a doll. If you have a doll in your inventory you can give it to any customer to make them forget about their potion and go on their way.

While the game is deceptively simple, it's easy to sink a lot of time into and requires a fair amount of thought. If you expect to be able to mindlessly trudge your way through the missions and net the full amount of your stars, you may be in for a rude awakening.

Even with just one mode, Wizdom sports a good amount of replayability thanks to the randomness of the requests you'll encounter, coupled with the the game's ingredient grid being different every time you play. Wizdom doesn't make notable use of many of the 3DS's special features, though - you can post to Miiverse and 3D is enabled, though the latter isn't exactly all that exciting in its implementation.