Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

For Those Of you who don't remember the original Puzzle Quest, it involved a story mode which progressed by means of a gemmatching game mechanic. When you wanted to advance the story, you'd complete a mission by beating the Al at a Bejewelled-sty\e game, where you'd match three or more gems of the same colour. In Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, this takes place in a world of lasers, spaceships and aliens.

I'll admit to not being a fan of Match-3 games, but Galactrix has grown on me by injecting just enough in the way of features to keep things interesting. For a start, there's the fact you are fighting against an enemy. As well as gems, there are mines which, when matched, cause damage to the opponent's ship's shields. When the shields are depleted, the hull of the enemy vessel is damaged. Remove all the hull points and you win. Blue gems restore your shields when matched, while red, yellow and green ones increase your three abilities, which include weapons and engineering. As you progress, you gain more potent skills to use, which require certain prerequisite scores in these three categories. Early on in the game, you'll be wondering why you would ever need to bother matching these gems, but in the latter stages, they become vital.

The story mode also allows you to mine asteroids, craft items, haggle over trade (you sell things taken from defeated enemies or mining operations) and then there's the multiplayer. This will be where the longevity of the game lies, but the interface provided is clumsy and doesn't make looking for matches easy at all. All in all, though, this is a worthy follow-up and well worth your time if you are an enthusiast of the gemmatching genre.