Harsh, but surprisingly quick review. Yeah, the game sucks, but at least it's free and honestly didn't feel any more sucky than that NYC hoverboard game that they charge 800 points for.

So I tried Puzzle Quest. Quick question...is that same puzzle that you do (matching the three shapes) the only puzzle in the game. I know you are "fighting" a different person in this puzzle but was curious if there is more variety once you get further in the game.

The only variety is the type of enemies you face and your spells/abilities that allow you to manipulate the pieces on the board in other ways.

There isn't much more to it than that.

Wow, if that's true then $15 seems really steep for that game. $5 dollars would be fine but even $10 is pushing it.

To be fair, there's a ton of play time in the game. I don't know that you can judge it on how similar it is to Bejeweled or anything.

You'll easily spend 40+ hours going through the game in single player mode. Not to mention trying different classes later or battling online.

This same game sells for $30 on the DS and has less features.

KBToys and Costco are selling the DS version of PQ for $15.

Anyone want or need a 48 hr free trial Xbox Live gold code?

Bahgee and GarorDeb

You got PM

Awesome, thanks Elementz! :D

I'm sooooo addicted to Astropop. Got to the level 24-6 checkpoint (can't remember which level exactly off the top of my head) with all 4. But it says none of my friends are rated on that board :( Anyone else play it? Give it a try!

I'm level 11 on PQ... have to play by myself for a while before I can battle others, since people are like level 27 and crazy stuff like that. Crazy that the single player game affects the multiplayer game. To the person asking if that was it, well no, for example if your opponent uses blue mana to heal, you'd take blue mana even if you didn't need it, and the money can get you swords (attack goes up), shields (defense goes up) and all kinds of upgrades. It is a very deep game.

And the obligatory PQ picture......

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20070328.jpg

I never did secure a proper code for Joust so if anyone still gets a copy of it and already has it, I wouldn't mind taking it off your hands. Thanks.

I saw your score on Astropop and was pretty impressed. I got this one free with that clearance joystick from Target and tried it for the first time today.

I just want to throw some love out to the person who decided to do a color-blindness fix for games such as Astropop and Hexic. Putting a symbol in the middle really helps people like me play the game decently. I am not fully color blind but have problems with various shades of colors (like purple/blue, yellow/green...all depends on the exact shade of them). Seeing these colors all bunched up and so close together can cause havoc on my eyes and playing ability for games like this.

Thanks to whoever you are out there for including this fix! :up:

I've always wanted to get Astropop but the price has held me back. I'm holding out for another price drop at Target on the controller. Mine still has a few so I think I have a good chance for $15.

Two of my guys are at level 20 and 2 at level 24.

Tip for Astropop: You can hit the left or right bumper in order to travel to that edge of the screen. This is not one of the on-screen tips and I only found out about it by scavenging the menus because I wanted to get better at it :D

I've heard that Madcatz joystick stinks... but for 20 bucks and including 20 bucks worth of XBLA games, is it ok?

It's okay. It seems a little loose feeling to me. What I hate is it is wired and the cord is a little too short for my liking. I have a 65" HD and sit pretty far back when playing so I have to move up to use it. i was thinking about returning it but I went ahead and broke into Time Pilot to test it out and then eventually used the codes for Frogger & Astropop so I may as well keep it now.

I will say that after using is just a couple of times, my Pac-Man CE score was a little better so I may just need more practice on it. I haven't used a joystick for playing home games since my Atari 7800 so I am a little out of practice. :)

I read some decent reviews on the stick before I bought it (mostly with an average of an 8 out of 10 rating).

I'm only like lvl 11...add me on Live and we'll play sometime. :D

I picked up Puzzle Quest as well, but am disappointed that they tweaked a lot of the gameplay from the DS/PSP versions. Most of the good spells and items have been toned down quite a bit, making them not as useful and in some cases, totally worthless.

They should have done like Puzzle Fighter and included both methods and if you wanted to play it old-school, you could.

THANKS!!

I really like the changes made to puzzle quest. Theres more of an even playing field now, at least I think.

I played a few matches online last night and won every one. Two words : Mana Drain :D

XBLA Game of the Year (second place):
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/9...92/vids_1.html

This also looks decent:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/1...27/vids_1.html

second only to? ...
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/996...ivearcawy6.jpg

You got that right.

Damn I played way too much PQ last night. Started about 6:30 or so and played nonstop (give or take giving the kid a bath and putting the girls to bed) until 12:30. Around 10, I kept saying "one more match" and "this is the last one".

I love it. And I sort of like the new spell timing rules.

Puzzle Quest is awesome. I had no idea what the game was about and d/l the demo and loved the single player.

Before I drop 1200 points, is the single player long, good, fun as the demo?

Any quick general tips.

When I was reviewing PQ yesterday, I kept having to force myself to stop playing. It really does eat the hours away.