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• Puzzle Quest 2 (DS)

  

  When creating the follow-up to a critically beloved game, it's rare for a developer to lose sight of just about every aspect of what made the original so great. That was the unfortunate case with Puzzle Quest: Galactrix -- a title so disappointing, it led many fans to worry that the franchise's maiden voyage was merely a fluke. A really entertaining, addictive-as-all-get-out fluke, but a fluke nonetheless.

  Where Galactrix represented an attempt at innovation by first throwing out baby, bathwater and tub, Puzzle Quest 2 is a love letter to the jilted fans of Challenge of the Warlords. It not only recalls the prodigal formula of the series' first iteration -- it improves on that formula in countless clever ways.

  The core gameplay mechanics from the original Puzzle Quest have returned in all their glory -- players swap gems on a square eight-by-eight grid, collecting multicolored mana they can spend on class-specific abilities. Also present on the field are skulls, which can be matched up to deal instant damage, as well as a brand new gauntlet-shaped tile. When these are matched, players gain "action points," which they can then spend to use a held item, which include weapons, potions, poisons and shields.

  This one little change adds a whole new layer of depth to the original game's already addictive combat -- provided you've got the persistence to keep your equipment top-of-the-line. That's not as arduous a task as you might think; loot flows pretty freely in Puzzle Quest 2, whether from quest rewards, random chests, merchants or by upgrading your old, busted junk. Between the plethora of gear and an all-new set of unlockable abilities, there's a lot of character customization to go around.

  One of the most noticeable changes made to the game is its isometric, tightly-framed perspective. Rather than bouncing between faceless cities and dungeons on an overworld map, players will spend most of their time traveling from room to room with a close-up view of their character, nearby adversaries and other notable interactive items. These miscellanea include pickable locks, lootable chests, disarmable traps and so on, each requiring their own gem-swapping mini-game to successfully use.