While Galactrix does a lot of things right, it has some problems. The way new gems shift onto the grid can cause massive, unintended combos from even the most simple of moves; the AI has on one occasion done a basic three gem match, and the new arrivals caused a string of extra matches, leading into more matches, and killing me in a single turn from full health. I’ve done things nearly as bad back to the AI by random chance as well, so it balances out in an odd way but it’s still annoying. The controls are also very odd, sometimes requiring a button on-screen to be touched three or four times before it registers. And finally, the leapgate hacking segments in the story mode are just not fun; you have a limited time to make each of the necessary gem combos, and luck frankly plays too big a part in whether you’ll be able to do this. Leapgate hacking isn’t optional, so you could spend a good fifteen minutes or more on them.

That said, the rest of the story mode is enjoyable and even with the occasional huge flukes in play, the overall game is pretty solid. It retains a lot of the depth of the original Puzzle Quest, and tries new things; some work, some don’t, but even the bad things aren’t crippling flaws. It remains a pretty interesting and well designed competitive puzzle game, and is worth checking out. The only caveat I have at all is that the Xbox 360 and PC versions should be out soon, and they’ll likely offer online multiplayer. Given that the competitive aspect of this game is its main appeal, it might be better to wait for those so you have more people to play with. But if you don’t have access to a gaming PC or a 360, then this DS version would be a great choice.