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Definitely a 10. Graphics are
colorful, and the characters are very
cute! I never thought a skeleton could
be cute before Skeleton T! Although
this game was released amidst a flurry of
tetris-style games, the gameplay is far
different from tetris, or anything else.
Before Puyo Puyo, all puzzle games were
designed to have a 1-player mode, and
they were designed so that it was
impossible to live forever - The blocks
were the player's primary enemy. Tetris
was the only game in which two players
sent garbage to eachother. In Puyo Puyo,
it's pretty easy to live forever (the
puyos are your friend!) and the emphasis
is on the multiplayer mode.
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The control is outstanding,
especially in Puyo Puyo 2 and up. The pieces
rotate very freely, they will rise and fall to
fit into nearby crevices. If you're dropping a
piece into a very narrow column, too narrow to
rotate, you can hit either rotate button twice,
and the piece will flip upside-down.
The Computer AI is pretty good. During the
beginning of a match, it tries to build up its
field, and after it's done, it starts trying to
set off combos. It is restricted to building up
its pieces randomly, for the most part... It
won't deliberately set up 5 rensa combos, but
they still happen accidentally sometimes.
Well, we're almost at the end of the
review/info for Puyo Puyo. I could talk for hours
and hours about little facets of this game, so if
you have any questions or just want to talk
puyos, please e-mail
me. Now a quick run-through of the games, and
their differences....
Puyo Puyo - Very basic.
Garbage does not counter, and the vs. com mode is
very linear. Was ported over to the U.S twice,
once by Sega and once by Nintendo. Sega's Puyo
Puyo clone, "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean
Machine" flopped, due to lack of cuteness.
Nintendo made "Kirby's Avalanche",
which did pretty well, and was pretty cute. Kirby
himself sounded much too feminine, but the enemy
voices were very fitting and funny.
"Squishaaaay"
Puyo Puyo Tsu - Improvements
everywhere. Now in the 1-player mode, there are
35 or so characters instead of 12, and your
opponent is chosen via roulette. Garbage
countering is introduced, so now there's a point
to 5+ rensa combos (In the original, a 4 rensa
combo would kill your opponent always, now they
can counter it and survive. Oh-ho!)
Puyo Puyo Sun - Sun Puyos!
Interesting. Now whenever anything is countered,
both players get a Sun Puyo, which sends between
3 and 104 puyos when eliminated, depending on how
cleverly it is used! Also, characters now have
different attack animations and voices! Harpy
sings scales, Arle tosses ice and fire, Skeleton
T drinks tea. When your character receives large
amounts of garbage, they scream at you in
Japanese.
Puyo Puyo ~n - Special
Abilities! I haven't actually played the game so
I can't say for sure whether these help or hinder
the gameplay. Each character now has a unique
ability which matches their playing style. Nohoho
has the Nohoho Slot, which randomly flips the
columns of your well vertically. Skeleton T has
the Super Dynamic Ocha Bomber, which increases
the amount of garbage you send, as long as you
don't rotate your pieces.
Puyo Puyo is an extremely difficult
game to find in the states. If you've got
a PC, there is a PC version of Puyo Puyo
Sun out in Japan, which is absolutely
great. You can save your favorite
matches, and it's got HTML and bios on
each character. There's even an extra
"Puyolympics" bonus game thrown
in which is good for a few laughs. If
you're going to emulate it, go get Puyo
Puyo Tsu for SNES or Genesis. The voices
and animations are much better for SNES.
Both versions have the two-player
functionality and garbage-countering and
cuteness which make Puyo Puyo fun to
play.
Click on the gorging Nohoho to head
back to my main puzzle fighting page.
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