Welcome to Modojo, 
Puzzle Quest Galactrix Review
Written by Robert Falcon on Friday, February 27, 2009
Nice twist on the Puzzle Quest formula, terrific presentation and lots of puzzles to solve, superb multiplayer.
Multiplayer requires two copies of the game, tedious missions (like opening LeapGates), constant loading.
When Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords arrived on the Nintendo DS last year, we were amazed at how Infinite Interactive effectively combined the fun of Bejeweled with role-playing elements. Its sequel, Puzzle Quest Galactrix, offers a new way to play. You control a brave space pilot who, along with her cohorts, battles a vicious alien race that wants to wipe out mankind. You traverse the galaxy, completing missions and battling aliens through skill-based puzzle play.
The puzzle grid is a combination of Bejeweled and Hexic. It resembles Hexic's hexagon-style playfield, but you still match up three or more pieces in a row to remove them. Each individually colored piece serves a purpose, letting you power up special attacks or snap together mines to damage your enemy. There's also precious Intel that gives you better experience points on the battlefield, and currency you can use to upgrade your ships. The potential of upgrading is immense, as you can choose what needs improving and watch it head into battle.
Not everything runs smoothly. As Darth Vader once said, "There's a disturbance in the force." That disturbance is the flow of the missions. Some of them are great, pitting you head to head against space pirates. Others, however, require you to activate LeapGates, portals that take you to other sections of the universe. There are way more LeapGates here than we would've liked to open, and completing the mini-tasks over and over again (matching up certain colors within a limited amount of time) isn't nearly as much fun as a battle. The game also has too much loading. (This is a cartridge, right?)
Presentation-wise, Puzzle Quest Galactrix looks and sounds tremendous. There are lots of places to explore and the characters sport impressive detail. There's not much in the way of sound effects, aside from brief space effects and weapon noises, but they work efficiently enough, and the epic music perfectly fits the mood.
There's a lot to do in Galactrix's single player mode, but the real fun comes from challenging a friend. The game supports two-player versus action through local competition, so you and a buddy can go back and forth mashing each other with mine attacks and special moves. It's great fun, but it would've been nice for D3 Publisher to include a download play option. You need two copies of the game.
Aside from the strict multiplayer set-up and smaller issues, Puzzle Quest Galactrix is a top-notch sequel. If you need a solid portable puzzler or just want a little something different, head to Galactrix's final frontier.
