Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
By Alex Porter,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Clever role-playing/puzzle hybrid set in outer space.
A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this game.
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What’s It About?
A sequel to last year's Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, PUZZLE QUEST: GALATRIX maintains the series' signature puzzles-meet-role-playing
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Is It Any Good?
It's difficult to do justice in words to just how absorbing this game is. The puzzles are very satisfying, and build in sophistication as the story progresses. Because the hexagonal shapes can be aligned from several angles, they also replenish from multiple directions, a point that factors into strategy. What's more, the type of hexagons matched represent uniquely different point values, so playing involves scanning quickly for patterns.
To add to the experience, leveling up your skills, upgrading your ships, and bartering for deals is all lots of fun. Finally, the story, told in dialogue with talk balloons and still graphics, has far more depth than you'd expect. In fact, a simple image and a bit of text sometimes offers a more compelling narrative than sophisticated computer graphics because the player must imagine the details.These characters and situations evoke Star Wars memories in terms of variety and moral spectrum.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the different challenges your character faces. He or she is a novice pilot who gains skill and experience through trade, scientific skill, and battle. The character is also caught within a realm where warring factions vie for resources and power. Are there real-world situations that mirror this setup? Why are you compelled to keep playing? Is it fighting priates? Selling cargo for ship upgrades? Hacking portals into new star systems where unknown missions await? Or, is it the basic pleasures of the puzzles themselves that drive you to continue the game?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo DS
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: D3Publisher of America
- Release date: February 24, 2009
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- ESRB rating: E10+ for Violent references, Alcohol references
- Last updated: November 4, 2015
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