When creating the follow-up to a critically beloved game, it's rare for a developer to lose sight of just about every aspect of what made the original so great. That was the unfortunate case with Puzzle Quest: Galactrix -- a title so disappointing, it led many fans to worry that the franchise's maiden voyage was merely a fluke. A really entertaining, addictive-as-all-get-out fluke, but a fluke nonetheless.

Where Galactrix represented an attempt at innovation by first throwing out baby, bathwater and tub, Puzzle Quest 2 is a love letter to the jilted fans of Challenge of the Warlords. It not only recalls the prodigal formula of the series' first iteration -- it improves on that formula in countless clever ways.