I've played the original Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords on every possible platform, and even today it will keep me occupied for hours at a time. After the relatively disappointing Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, I was sure I would be playing the original until I died, but there is hope on the horizon. Puzzle Quest 2 is coming.

The true sequel to the original game features the same puzzle plus RPG gameplay that many imitators have tried to reproduce with results that generally fell short, with a selection of new classes and the introduction of weapons and armor that have a more pronounced effect of battles. Characters take on the role of a War Mage, Inquisitor, Barbarian or Assassin, on a quest to rid the village of Verloren of the demon Gorgon. Along with the story mode, there's Instant Action, Multiplayer, and a Tournament Mode to keep players occupied long after Gorgon has snuffed it.

"Puzzle Quest is an award winning franchise with numerous accolades including an Interactive Achievement Award for "Best Downloadable Game of the Year" for Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords," said Peter Andrew, vice president of product development, D3P. "Puzzle Quest 2 returns with a captivating, rewarding, and accessible journey for gamers of all levels as the ultimate delivery system for the mental release puzzle gamers seek."

With original developer Infinite Interactive on board, I sense the loss of much free time in my future. Then again, Infinite also did Galactrix, so there's still room for failure.

And...there's nothing more to add at this point. It's Puzzle Quest 2, it's on the way, it's coming to at least the 360, and we'll hear more about it later. For now, soak up the above screenshot from the game, and see if you can find anything different about it.

New Puzzle Quest revealed in January GamePro! [GamePro]

That's exactly how the Konami representative described the game to me at E3 last week. Puzzle Quest meets Puzzle Fighter. The game tells the story of the lone survivor of a barbarian tribe, rescued by a mysterious benefactor and set on a path of revenge on against the Empire for killing your people. Not the most original storyline, sure, but it gets the job done. Besides, games like these are all about the puzzles.

While there are several mini-game puzzles in the game that let you tame pets or unlock randomized dungeons, the main puzzle battles are a sort of a sideways take on Capcom's Puzzle Fighter, with skills thrown in. Players match gems and skulls of similar colors, playing tug of war with a line in the middle of the screen. As you play you accrue colored mana pools which can be used to execute special attacks, which are earned by leveling up and applying points to a skill tree.

I played a quick round with the Nintendo DS version of the game, and while the game mechanics are intriguing, the graphics leave much to be desired. I'm looking forward to seeing a more polished of the game for the PSP, Xbox Live Arcade, PC, and PlayStation Network, as the DS version is just a bit too ugly for my tastes. My love affair with the puzzle RPG isn't over; I just expect a bit more polish than this.

The follow up to 2007's smash hit Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Galactrix takes the blend of role-playing mechanics and puzzle game to a whole new frontier, replacing the fantasy role-playing adventure of the first title with a galaxy-spanning space epic. With the new story and setting comes an entirely new hexagonal game board channeling Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov's Hexic rather than Popcap's Bejeweled.

So can a game that replaces the story, setting, and core gameplay of the first title maintain its addictive charm? Or has Puzzle Quest: Galactrix's galactic journey strayed too far off course?

Loved
Rules Of Engagement: In general, the new hexagonal game board in Galactrix is a refreshing change from the simple dropping down mechanic from the original Puzzle Quest, and the shift from fantasy archetype to spaceship has been handled quite well. New additions to the winning formula, like the ability to recharge your shields and having multiple ships with different configurations at your command, further distance Galactrix from its predecessor. This isn't simply Puzzle Quest in space.

Strategic Choices: As mentioned above, the player can have multiple ships outfitted with different devices and weapons, allowing them to have a ship on hand that's suited for any enemy you may encounter. You might stumble over the first few fights with the Keck, for instance, until you realize that outfitting your ship with a shield disrupter disables their ships' frustrating shield regenration, making combat a breeze. It takes skill and reasoning to navigate this sometimes hostile galaxy.

Buy, Sell, And Trade: Trading is a big part of any good space game, from Origin's classic Privateer to CCP's massively multiplayer EVE Online. Once the Galactrix universe opens up a bit, a player can make a tidy sum by determining which cargo sells best in which port. If you want the best ships and equipment, mining and working the market are essential. It's just a simple little feature, but it adds a great deal to the overall experience.

Hated
Space, The Tedious Frontier: The entire Puzzle Quest: Galactrix galaxy is connected together by devices called leap gates, and in order to get anywhere in the game you're going to have to hack them...over and over again. Hacking them consists of completing a series of color matches within a time limit, and they honestly wouldn't be so bad if not for two factors. First, there is no reward at all for opening leap gates, other than simply opening up a new area. No experience, no cash, nothing. Second, the timer doesn't stop when you are matching colors, so creating long chains of matching colors, an activity that generally helps you during the main game, becomes a huge hindrance, eating your time and causing you to start the whole process over again.

The Luck of the Draw: While a certain amount of luck was present in the original Puzzle Quest, Galactrix's game board refills in the direction you moved your last gem to complete a grouping, which could be any direction whatsoever. While this is an enjoyable mechanic during solo activities like mining, bartering, and crafting, during actual combat it replaces a large chunk of the skill element with sheer luck. You could be the best strategist in the world, and you'd still find yourself randomly losing battles due to a random lucky series of drops for your opponent. It's extremely frustrating to be sitting there with full hull and shields with your opponent on their last legs, only to suddenly find yourself defeated thanks to a ridiculous stream of randomly generated exploding mines.

Stale Tales of Space Adventure: The bland storyline of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix could have been saved by a colorful cast of characters and some witty dialogue, but instead we are presented with a series of outer space stereotypes; cardboard cutouts who seem to serve no more purpose than to unlock the various side-games and occasionally deliver the odd bit of exposition. The original Puzzle Quest was no fantasy epic, but it was certainly more entertaining that this.

Can I Have Your IP Address?: If you're looking for online multiplayer in Galactrix, you're probably better off waiting on the Xbox Live Arcade version, as the PC version only supports two types of multiplayer: LAN and direct connection via IP address. It's essentially the PC equivalent of having to exchange Wii Friend Codes.

Where the original Puzzle Quests was a sublime symphony of balance in which the player could chose to play the game as they liked, Galactrix tends to be a bit more loose with the balance and heavy on guiding you on your path. Battles are often won by luck rather than any amount of skill, creating more moments of frustration than giddy triumph over impossible odds. Whereas the original game allowed you to pick and choose which mini-games you participated in, Galactrix throws countless gate hacking obstacles in your way, offering little reward other than letting you move to the next section of the map. Add to that the lack of distinct character classes, an uninteresting story, and the fact that leveling provides so little in the way of character customization that players have already created their own mods to fix it, and you've got a game that falls well short of the original's greatness.

I played through the original Puzzle Quest on four different platforms, and loved every minute. This will more than likely be my only play through of Galactrix. There's plenty of enjoyment to be had, but frustrating design and an overall lack of choice means this star trek is a one-way trip.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix was developed by Infinite Interactive and published by D3 Publisher, released on PC on February 24th. Retails for $19.99. Also available on Nintendo DS for $29.99. Played single player story to completion, could not participate in multiplayer.

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Two PCs and four DS stations were set up for gamers to go head-to-head in multiplayer or take a stab at story mode.

The PC demo had already dropped earlier that day, so I went straight to the DS and loaded up story mode. I’m not sure how I feel about the “two-faced bad guy calling himself a god” plot, but the cut scenes were at least rendered decently on the DS – and I didn’t even have to strain to read the text.

The way Galactrix works is like an adventure game where you go around the galaxy completing quests for different factions. Of course each “quest” is really a game of Bejeweled, just like Challenge of the Warlords. What’s different here is that the board is a funky hexagon shape and pieces fall in the direction you move a gem. It’s not like Hexic – where you can score by connecting a cluster of gems from any side – because you’re still trying to make linear strings of gems.

This adds a whole degree of difficulty to the game because the board is bigger and the gems don’t fall straight down. Among other things, this means four of a kind doesn’t cut it for a free turn anymore – you need five of a kind – and it’s way harder to get crazy XP-earning chains called Novas or Supernovas. It also means things can go way wrong or incredibly well very quickly.

For example, I won one battle with two moves. The first was to connect four mines together to deliver a blow to the opponent (like connecting skulls in Warlords, having four of a kind awards an additional damage bonus to to the base multiplier). As it happened, the mines had all gained multipliers by sitting on the board for a turn – jumping from one damage point to three. So I did a much larger amount of damage than I expected, taking out the enemy’s shield in just that first move.

Shields are a big deal in Galactrix. The shield is a separate health bar that can be replenished by connecting blue games. Having a shield up even when you’re down to single-digit hit points can save you from some of the worst attacks in the game – up to and including cheap shots from the computer where five of a kind mines drop randomly.

Which is exactly what happened on my next turn. The AI tried to shore up its shields by using a Shield Matrix “item” (read: spell) to generate a few points worth of protection and then connected some blue gems for a little more. Then it was my go and I swapped a red gem leftwards for a three of a kind that turned into first a Nova chain – where you generate a x2 multiplier for all the gems you collected – and then into a Supernova chain which actually got me an extra turn and an x3 multiplier.*

*If you look at that screen, the Nova seems to say “extra turn awarded” – but I’m pretty sure that’s just for the five of a kind and not for the Nova. Every time I scored Nova I was not awarded an extra turn.

This long chain spawned like several three of a kind mine connections and dropped a five of a kind, which totally destroyed my opponent’s remaining shields and his hit points. I left the battle with some acquired cargo (used in crafting), a minus 10 faction score for the guys I’d just pwned and the sincere hope that the game is still being tweaked for balance. I can't imagine how high my blood pressure would be if that kind of thing kept happening to me instead of the AI.

I messed around a little more on the DS, noting how hard it is to catch up with some of those ships using the stylus. I’m to understand that plenty of battles come from just clicking on planets and selecting the “Fight the pirates” option, but if you actually want to run down a ship cruising the galaxy, you need to build yourself a fast engine or figure out how to intercept them on their flight pattern.

At last I was ready for the PC multiplayer. I’d been avoiding it because Carolyn Gudmundson over at GamesRadar was dominating the table and she eats Puzzle Quest for breakfast. But, lucky me, she decided she’d be on my side and coach me through two battles against another games journalist. I won the first one in a pretty evenly matched battle. That second one was going well until the other guy figured out how to use the Dark Laser – a.k.a. cheapest item in the game.

I don’t have much else to say for the multiplayer besides I think it’s strange that I can see what gem my opponent has selected before he’s moved it. Doesn’t that take some of the fun away, if I have an idea of what he’s going to do before he does it?

The DS version of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix ships February 24. The PC demo is out now and – like all the other platform releases – is slated for a “Spring 2009” ship date.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is coming out on PC, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Nintendo DS. GameStop tells me the DS version ships February 24th and I am so pre-ordering it. DS and PC screens below.

We all know the world can't get enough Puzzle Quest... well, at least I can't get enough of it. And the thought of being able to play the very touch-perfect puzzle RPG on my iPhone gives me goosebumps. So after my little hint didn't result in any immediate announcement of an iPhone Puzzle Quest or Galaxtrix, I took matters into my own hands and emailed Infinite Interactive to see what was up.

Janeen Fawkner, producer on the game was quick to respond:

Hi Brian, We would love to do a game on the iPhone, but we'll have to see what our publisher D3P has in mind... We'll suggest it to them :)

Sounds good, but I'm impatient, so I went to D3 next, asking when we could hope to see a Puzzle Quest on the iPhone and pointing out that Inifinite was gung-ho. Their spokesperson's response?

They're looking into details now and will get back to me soon.

Now, now, I want it now! I even made this handy-dandy screenshot for them. You can imagine what a pain I was to my parents when I was a kid.

Update: D3 just got back to me with this: "D3Publisher of America is exploring opportunities to bring Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords to a variety of mobile carriers."

That doesn't sound like a "Yes we're making it and you'll have it next week" to me at all. Not at all.

ESRB Game Ratings