Puzzle Quest takes to space

I’ve lost more hours to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords than I’m willing to admit. While my wife was in labour for twelve hours, though, the game was a godsend.

It’s a curious blend of puzzle gaming - like Bejeweled - and RPG gaming - like old-skool Final Fantasy - that has really made the most of genre-blending.

I’ve been playing PQ on my PSP - it was also created for the DS - but when the game’s publisher, D3Publisher, realized they had a sleeper hit on their hands, they wisely ported it to PS2 and on Xbox LIVE Arcade, too.

Well, D3 has just announced that the popular game is becoming a franchise with the release of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix.

This new game takes puts the hexagonal puzzle pieces and places them in a science fiction, space-aged context. The board, the publishers said in a release, “heeds to gravity according to a player’s location in the game universe.” Sounds like a new and interesting mechanic to me.

The new game is scheduled for release this fall, and will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PC, and the Nintendo DS.

Handheld Xbox still a possibility?

There've always been rumours floating around that Microsoft had a portable, handheld Xbox in the works, something to compete with the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

For a while, it was thought that the Zune might be this device, but now that we've seen the Zune - most have been unimpressed - we know it is not in the same market segment as the DS or PSP. And, it should be noted, Microsoft has always denied it had a portable game system in the works.

Well, in an on-stage interview with New York Times video game reporter Seth Schiesel, Shane Kim, corporate VP of Microsoft Game Studios added some fuel to the perpetual motion machine that is Xbox Portable.

When Shiesel asked about Microsoft's plans for a portable gaming device, Kim said:
Never say never ... launching a portable device is like launching another Xbox 360 ... you have to really step back and ask, devoting whatever bandwidth and resources you would have to to make the Zune a multifunction device, is that really the best way to go?

So maybe the Zune is going to be a gaming gadget after all. The Zune seems to be having troubles getting traction against the iPod, so maybe this is how Microsoft tries to keep the device relevant.

Anyone out there used a Zune? Let us know what it's like in the comments.

Video game review: Sonic Rush Adventure

Sonic and Tails crash their airplane on an island and are "saved" by the egotistical but charming Marine. She takes the two adventurers in, and explains that, in her environment, pieces of metal and jewels can be combined to create vehicles. This new adventure from Sega gives you the experience of speeding through serpentine levels that you expect from Sonic, but adds some exploring, too. You'll use the DS touch screen to navigate watercraft – from water bikes to sailboats – from one island to another. As you zip through the levels collecting the usual rings, you'll also collect objects that can be used by Tails to construct vehicles. Slip slidin' away? Struth! Rated everyone.

[originally published in the Georgia Straight]