Puzzle Quest is back and it's mostly okay

I mentioned that I went snowboarding for a week recently and I got a chance to spend a lot of time with Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. In fact, I think it might have been the only game I played. My wife played a bit as well, but she was having a bit more trouble with it than the previous one, which she loved. In fact, there were a few times when we were both playing it on our DS's and I'd think, wow, we're super nerdy. Super nerdy and awesome!
Anyway, this one seems to be a bit more difficult since it's less linear. You can basically go anywhere you want and buy anything you want from the start. Which means you have several moments of "uh...where do I go?"
The familiar Puzzle Quest addiction is still there though. My wife and I seem to be in perpetual competition on what level our character is. There are lots (maybe too many) ways to upgrade your arsenal and customize your character. I've bought several items that sounded like a good idea but I quickly realized they weren't that helpful in an actual battle. So the game is deep and I feel like I'm just getting the hang of it after several hours.
The DS version, it seems, is not the one you really want if you have a choice. Load times are ridiculous, the touch screen sensitivity is a bit off, and you're frequently running into situations where you can't see all the information you want to even with two screens. So I may pick it up when it comes out on Xbox to see if that one's better.