MTV's Totilo: DS version of Galactrix plagued by load times
by Griffin McElroy 
{ Feb 27th 2009 at 4:30PM }
Totilo said that the four to five-second load times occur before each puzzle, during mission selection and when checking inventory. Doesn't sound like much, but as he assures us, "it adds up." Anyone else notice their precious seconds being squandered whilst participating in some interplanetary gem-swapping?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dswill79 @ Feb 27th 2009 6:06PM
I'd noticed the load times, but for the most part, I don't find them too obnoxious yet. However, I've only completed a handful of missions, and after just playing through "Challenge of the Warlords" again that doesn't have the load times, it is something that is definitely bound to get old. It slightly reminded me of the old PS1 days...
Josh @ Feb 27th 2009 6:14PM
This is... really weird.
I'd like to know why this happens.
TurboFool @ Feb 27th 2009 6:22PM
I've definitely noticed it, but it's not a deal-breaker. The game's so good, I'm willing to put up with it. It's annoying, and strange for a cartridge-based system, but honestly if I had a choice between improving the load times or somehow making it look more like the beautiful PC version, I'd keep the load times. After having played the PC demo, the appearance of the DS version was a slight shock.
SiK99 @ Feb 27th 2009 6:34PM
I was very disappointed after how great the previous Puzzle Quest game was on the DS. I can understand having load times before battles but load times for other things as well? The game has expanded/slowed down in such a way that between load times, flying in your ship, then having to circle back (both for missions and when it doesn't register your stylus input and you actually go flying off instead of selecting something in the menu), it has become tedious at best. The puzzle-battles themselves are still fun at least.
I've already put this game down and I don't know if I'll be coming back to it.
David Rosen @ Feb 27th 2009 8:08PM
yea... it's really really really annoying. and i LOVE puzzle quest. and i love galactrix too... but I really can't wait to get the XBLA version because these load times and stylus glitches are really getting annoying. at least I got mine free at the Galactrix launch party... so I can't really complain too much :-)
Doug @ Feb 28th 2009 12:02AM
I've put about 3 hours into the DS version of this game ... and that's about it for me. I think there's a good game underneath there somewhere, and I'm debating buying the XBLA version when it comes out, but the DS version has several flaws that ruin the experince, including long load times even before the inventory screen, questionable UI elements such as the sliding game board, imprecise touch screen controls, and fuzzy sound that breaks up everytime it saves (which is often and disrupting). They developed this in Lua, which is cross platform, but evidently not optimized for the DS. It's a shame. I enjoyed the last one so much, and I've been looking forward to this one since it was announced.
PestName @ Feb 28th 2009 3:28AM
I was greatly disappointed by the many flaws this game has that the first PuzzleQuest doesn't, besides the questionable "hero" is very off-putting for me.
Canned Pasta @ Mar 1st 2009 9:41PM
Yeah, the DS version of the game is horrible. It's a 3 out of 10: http://www.digitalsomething.com/news/1967.html
karagh @ Mar 2nd 2009 6:43AM
For me it's more like 5 out of 10. It's enjoyable, but with all those glitches (all true) and the amount of good games available for DS, isn't worth buying.
HappyFunBall @ Mar 2nd 2009 1:21PM
Load times in a cart game? Unreasonable.
Sounds like the DS port got the short end of the dev stick.
Jack Tretton @ Mar 3rd 2009 12:18PM
Yep, crummy load times and lackluster graphics. Plus, some of the touch functionality is wonky, like the calibration is off or something (this is very apparent on the galaxy map screens).
And on an unrelated note, hacking Jumpgates gets oooold. 1) It's pretty easy to waste twenty or more seconds before getting and match, and 2) if you manage a long chain reaction the clock keeps ticking -- this is especially annoying when you're not making any matches in the meantime.