I'm really pissed at this game now and since there seems to be this ranting-on-games trend going on, I might just jump join.
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is a very addictive and fun game, and I actually think it beats it's predecessor in many ways, mainly the battlefield, on which you can actually influence where do gems fall from. So, what am I ranting about? Freakin' LeapGate hacking! The game would be so much more fun without those minigames! To explain for people who did not play galactrix: To get into another location, and you will do so often, you have to win a minigame that represents 'repairing' leapgate, a ... jumpgate with a fancy name :D You have to do so only once for each of them, that redeems it a bit, but to get to the point: You have to match certain number of gems in particular order the game tells you, and you have to do it within a time limit. That would be good and all, but it's based on blind luck. Yes, there are ways you can logically approach this damn thing, but that only helps a little: New gems that fall into the field still have random colors, so you're never guaranteed that sufficient number of gems will drop.
That means: When you're lucky, it'll be ridiculously easy, when you're unlucky, well.. You're pretty much screwed. But, to top it off, the whole thing has ridiculously long animations as compared to original Puzzle Quest too. That wouldn't be a problem since they look all shiny and sci-fi, but the time counts down even as those animations are running. Now imagine how angry I am when I pull a long combo. Yes, in a game like this, that actually should be good, but, in reality, that means lots of lost time and since I preserve as much gems as possible to later, one unpredictable gem can cause a cascade that not only takes truckload of time, it also destroys all the gems I was trying to preserve when the game's going to want one of their colors are gone.
There, I'm done, thanks for your attention

I totally agree. Leapgates hacking in this game was a pain. But if I remember correctly I found two mods some time ago on their official forum.
One that removes leapgaates hacking (not my type of thing)
And one that stops countdown during combos when hacking. This helped a lot !

first is not my kind of thing either, and second makes the hacking even somewhat fun, thanks a lot!

You're welcome

I bought it for my DS and sold it again within the month. I hate leapgates. It's like they're designed to frustrate.
However, I might buy it for the pc now that I know there exist leapgate mods. The puzzlequest formula is a lot of fun =)

I first tried Galatrix on a friend's DS and it was shitty ! Touchscreen control was off for this game.

I also bought Galactrix on the DS and I could have suffered the leap gates if it wasn't for the loading times. The game is on a cartridge, what do you need to load!?!? It felt like I was playing a game off a floppy. Seriously, the last time I had loading issues like that was Kings Quest 3! All in all very disappointing especially since I really liked the combat.

I never did end up playing this game. Perhaps the fact that the demo refused to install on a Japanese language OS had something to do with that though. Honestly, ever damn file would throw up an error during the installation of the demo. And there's no way I'd buy a game when the demo does that!

I was a big fan of Puzzle Quest, but I DESPISED Galactrix. Those stupid timed leap gates broke the entire game. Nothing better than watching those last few seconds tick away while a chain of matches is going off on screen, leaving you incapable of doing anything.

Yeah, that is why I stopped playing it in the first place. Then I saw a video on youtube, wanted to give it another try and well... It's really FUN with the mod removing countdown during animations. Well, hacking becomes ridiculously easy because of it, but that's way better than annoying

I like the DS version of Galactrix just fine. It's true that the loading times are annoying, but otherwise I think it's highly enjoyable.
The PC version, however... I was thinking of buying it, since I like the DS version so much, so I tried it at a friend's house. Boy, was I disappointed. Everything is slow, the interface is confusing, and appears to try to hide and obfuscate as much needed info as possible. There is little visual difference between your ship and any other ships, so arriving in a new system is a pain, as you try to figure out which of the ships on the screen is yours.
By contrast, in the DS version, the ships are clearly distinguishable, the interface presents all the information you need in a clear and easily comprehensible manner, and the game flows much faster.

I might have to try again with that mod in place.

I've been wanting Galactrix for quite some time now.
I really enjoyed the demo, and had no problem hacking theses gates, but yeah, most people seem to complain about this.
I'm quite a sucker for these puzzle games, and Galactrix seemed even more interesting (with the space sci-fi theme and all) than the already great Puzzle Quest (which I already have).

Ah yes, the touchscreen was wacky too, at least on the map. I suppose this isn't the case in the pc version?

The PC version controls well with a mouse. I just wish they add xbox 360 controller support like in the first one.