First off, when it comes to game play, things have been tweaked a bit for the better. Those evil skull blocks from the original Puzzle Quest are no more. Instead, numbered attack tiles replace them - chaining them together will result in an attack whose power is determined by the sum of the numbers you just chained together. In other words, if your chain has blocks with 4, 3 and 10 on them, you will attack for 17 damage. Colored tiles are back and have similar purposes, except this time, they will do things like recharge your ship’s shields, engines or weapons.
Another big change involves the playing field. When you are fighting over a planet’s surface, blocks will drop down like normal. However, in open space, blocks will fall from the direction you made your previous move from. If you make a move on the right side of the board, for example, blocks will fall not from the top, but from the right side. It’s a neat little tweak that adds a bit more strategy to a game that was already full of strategy.
In addition to these core game play changes, new features - like the ability to travel to different planets and establish diplomatic relationships or the ability to collect, customize and build ships - are added to this title. Currently, the game is planned for release on Xbox Live Arcade, PC and the Nintendo DS, but other versions may not be too far behind.
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