Video game number three hundred and forty eight: Puzzle Quest Galactrix

Video game review number three hundred and forty eight in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "Puzzle Quest Galactrix".

I was up early again this morning, and instead of firing up the 360 or the PS3 right away, I decided to pop on some headphones and listen to a few Kevin Smith podcasts while playing something relaxing. I went with Puzzle Quest, because it's always entertaining (and you don't have to concentrate terribly hard on it). This is the second Puzzle Quest game I've played for the challenge this year, and the third DS game from the case of games I borrowed from Rachel. It's pretty cool to have these games on hand, as it's giving me a larger variety of options to choose from when I feel like playing. Thanks Rachel!

Like all Puzzle Quest games, this one has a campaign, and just like the others, I could really give a rat's ass about the story. When I played the original Puzzle Quest, it was for the jewel matching, and all the monster hunts, leveling up and treasure crap that they threw in was just sort of a bonus. I'm not going to say that I particularly hate the story...but let's just say I hit the "A" button to skip the cinemas a lot.

Galactrix is set in space, so right off the bat, I was more interested than I was in some of the earlier Puzzle Quest games. Instead of wandering around medieval towns and forests, you start out at a space station and you venture to different planets and asteroids. You pick your own character (I named mine "Sir Toad") and instead of just leveling him up, you also power up your ship.

Of course...none of this TRULY matters...and it's all just a footnote to the actual game itself, which is matching jewels. I like to think of the plot of Puzzle Quest games somewhere along the lines of the cut scenes in Guitar Hero. Sure, your character is actually doing something, but do you really care...or do you just want to sing that Van Halen song again?

The jewel matching game this time around is very different from the ones before it. First of all, it's not the standard rectangle screen, it's a circle, and depending on which way you match the gems, more fall in from that direction. If the third gem in your match is at the top of the screen, things will cascade down from there. If you've matched your last gem to the right, things fall in from the right...and well, you get the idea. It makes the entire game infinitely more challenging, and I must say...more interesting as well. Unlike Puzzle Quest 2, this one really changes the mechanics up, and while I'm not going to say it's "better", it's definitely a welcome change.

Along your quest, you have come to these warp gates where you have to play a little timed game to "hack" it. This is basically just more puzzle quest, except it's under the gun, and you have to match certain colors of gems as the game calls them out for you. I liked these. You can also mine for minerals, which is another matching game that involves matching only specific little gems. Once you've found enough, you can craft something new. This is also a pretty cool mini-game, and I'll admit that I watched the story to understand why I was doing all this.

Overall Score? 7.75/10. I like this a little better than the last puzzle quest. Hell, I even watched a few cinematics. This is one I wouldn't mind having in my little game case, but there are plenty of other DS games I want to own first before I'd buy this one. I played for about 2 hours...and in that amount of time, I was able to get Sir Toad up to a level 6. For reference, Rachel's saved character on the cartridge was over 30....so apparently, I am not that good just yet.