GemVenture is puzzle game where you fight against a series of monsters. If you’ve played PuzzleQuest, you’ll feel right at home. You attempt to match colored gems in the playfield, which will give you mana to cast spells, and can heal yourself or hurt your opponent. Your opponent then take a turn matching gems, and you continue back and forth until only one is left standing. GemVenture features 6 character classes, 18 different spells, and 20 monsters, each with their own special characteristics!

You’ll first pick one of the six character classes, which determines which spells you can cast. Then you’ll face your first opponent. Use the direction pad and the A button to select two adjacent gems. The gems will switch places, and any group of 3 more gems will break. Each gem you break will give you one mana of that color. Gems shaped like a heart will heal you, and those with spikes will hurt your opponent. Pressing select will switch you over the spell menu at the bottom of the screen, which you cast when you have enough mana. Each monster has it’s own special powers which use their mana.

If you run out of life points, your game is over. If you defeat your opponent, you’ll get to chose one stat to increase before taking on your next opponent.