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Two of D3's games that they were showing off at this year's PAX are sure to cause even more commotion before they ship, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix and Bangai-O Spirits.
The new Puzzle Quest takes the series out of the fantastical setting it has enjoyed so far. Instead, the series zooms off to the future where your character has to deal with spaceships instead of monsters, he rides other ships (like the mounts of the past games), you have a fleet of ships instead of a party of characters and spells are replaced with weapons. Besides those changes in themes, the biggest difference comes in the fact that Puzzle Quest: Galactrix shapes itself into a hex board with hex tiles instead of the standard grid-based structure it had known previously.
With that simple change, a few other gameplay differences arise. For one, four-in-a-row no longer grants you an extra turn. According to the person demoing the game at PAX, fours are too easy to get with the hex-based system. Instead, you must clear five tiles before earning the free turn. But there are also a few new ways to collapse tiles, like “roses” and “arrows.”
The other change this brings about is the fact that tiles can slide onto the screen in different angles (based on the tiles that you removed). This means you can add a bit more strategy to your moves and also try and keep your opponents from getting any big combos.
There are a few other changes install for this new version of Puzzle Quest, like clearing blue tiles to increase your shields in-game, but one thing that is pretty obvious already, this game is fun and possibly more addictive than the original. Look for Galactrix to come out on the DS and Xbox Live Arcade this Fall.
The other interesting title that D3 had at their booth has been getting a lot of press lately, and from what I saw, it is well deserved. Bangai-O Spirits, from the people who brought us Ikaruga, at first glance seems like your typical top-down bullet-hell shooter, but there is quite a bit more to it. For one, “bullet-hell” typically refers to the number of bullets flying at you, here you are the one throwing the massive amounts of ballistics all over the screen.
With a high level of modability, not only will you have a wide array of weapons, but with a simple push of the button, you can edit the level on the fly. So, if you don't like a level because it is too straightforward or doesn't have enough villains, simply tap the (Select) button on your DS, pull up a small menu and add/remove walls, drop in enemies with varying HPs, sizes, and other attributes. You can even drop down tons of pickups and other goodies for the level.
So, not only can you edit any of the 160 existing levels, or create new ones, but you can even take ones that others have made, import them into your DS and play those as well. If you've been following this game, then you already know about this system, but for those of you have haven't had the chance to pay hear about it yet, Bangai-O Spirits will have Sound Load Technology. Basically, to transfer levels, one DS plays a song (think modem sounds), while the other one listens to it and translates it back into the level.
This system works so well, that in the three months that the game has been out in Japan, users have already posted hundreds of music files on YouTube to generate new levels. Bangai-O Spirits is scheduled to come out in Q3. |
