Puzzle Quest XBLA this week?

Puzzle Quest will be this week's release on Xbox Live Arcade. Hopefully.

Or rather, if "all goes well", which is what D3 Publisher of America said in a press release that seems to have gone to IGN and no one else. Not really a press release then, is it?

Rumour has it that you will be asked to pay a whopping 1200 Microsoft points (GBP arm and a leg/10.20 / EUR 13.96) to play it, making it the most expensive game since Lumines Live.

Meanwhile, a post on the developer's website reveals that the PC version is due out in the US on 22nd October.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - to give it its full title - is of course part puzzler, part RPG. In it, you embark on a quest to rid the lands of monsters by duelling them in a game not dissimilar to the legendary Bejeweled.

The idea is to do damage to your enemies by taking it in turns to try and line up skulls in rows or columns or three or more, while completed lines of gems add to your mana, which in turn helps power various spells.

In-between fights you adventure around becoming immersed in the silly story through various cut-scenes, expanding your party of warriors, doing other puzzly mini-games to build up fortifications and occasionally thinking the undead woman's quite fit.

It was hideously addictive on DS and PSP, and the Xbox Live Arcade and PC versions appear to be ports of the latter.

Following its surprise success, D3 went on to confirm the game for Xbox Live Arcade, Wii, PS2 and PC, while the ESRB recently suggested that PS3 and Mac versions are on the cards too.

For more on Puzzle Quest, check out our Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords review, covering both DS and PSP versions.

Or you could splurge a few Microsoft points on a Puzzle Quest theme (150 points) and picture pack (100), which have already gone up on Marketplace - presumably to herald its coming.