*Puyo Pop* *Game by SNK* *Reviewed by Akemi* Akemi@dmgice.com *Released: Y2K* *Works with: NeoGeo Pocket Color* *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Opening Snide Remarks:* I love puzzle games. Me and my mom always used to challenge each other in Tetris back in the NES days. (It took me awhile to get good enough to beat her...but I did.) A few years ago I found Puyo Puyo for the SNES and I tried it... That game is pure genius. It's cute, fun, and addicting. Then, one day, I was shopping at my very very very favorite imports & game store, and I saw the box for Puyo Pop... And the pretty shiny Platinum Silver NeoGeo Pocket Color. I had to have it. (And I did, after about 5 hours of begging... yeah.) This game met all my expectations that I had for it. Hooray! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Gameplay Descripion:* If you've ever played Puyo Puyo, you know how it goes. It's basically like Tetris, except you put together the different colored Puyo to get rid of them. If you put together 4 or more, they disappear. Get more than that, or chains, and you'll dump Ojama onto your opponent's playing field. Ojama are Puyos that, even if they're linked together, will not pop unless they are touching other Puyo's that have been popped. You can also dump Ojama on your opponent by getting an "All Clear" on your playing field. The next Puyo you pop will send a downpour of Ojama onto your opponent, basically screwing up their play and frustrating them to the max. There are many different Puyo types in this game, and there is also a few that the English version calls "NostraPuyo," named after Nostradamus, respectively. These show your opponent or yourself how much Ojama will be dumped on your playing field in advance(if you don't offset them with your own being sent to the other side.). Nostradamus, NostraPuyo, get it? You know, they both predict stuff... Ah nevermind... *PuyoRunt - (Looks like a regular Ojama) Shows one incoming Ojama. *PuyoBrat - (Looks like a bigger Ojama, with eyes.) Shows 6 incoming Ojama. *PuyoRock - (Looks like a rock with eyes.) Shows 30 incoming Ojama. *PuyoShroom - (It's a mushroom with eyes. Creepy, huh?) Shows 200 incoming Ojama. Woof. *PuyoStar - (Everything watches you in this game. It's a star with eyes.) Shows 300 incoming Ojama. Bad. *PuyoCrown - (The eyes are following me!) Shows a whopping 400 (!!!!) incoming Ojama! Say goodbye! When you're playing by yourself, you'll have a few different modes of gameplay to choose from. *1P VS COM is exactly what the title says... You challenge the computer in a sort of tournament. In this, there are three modes, Easy, Normal, and Hard. In Easy, there are three levels. This is basically warm-up. In LV1, you challenge 3 PuyoPop lightweights, the easy guys. In LV2, you battle 5 intermediates, a little more challenging than before. And LV3, you go up against 7 pros, but they aren't that hard. In Normal, you're trying to climb to the top of a six-floor tower by defeating opponents on each floor. You choose an opponent by a sort of "Monster Roulette," and you advance to the next floor by getting a certain number of points for each. This can get pretty difficult after the second level. In Hard, you fight a round-robin type tournament against 36 different monsters. Oooh fun. *SELF DEV. is what you play if you want to improve your Puyo skills. There are two modes in this. In Exam, you try to pop the Ojama within the time limit. You get judged by two things: Speed, in which you get judged by the amount of time left on the clock, and Power, by the amount of chains completed during play. In 1P mode, you just see how much Puyo you can pop until you lose control and your screen fills up... It's good practice for beginners, you don't really have to deal with that many Ojama. If you have a friend that also has a NGPC and Puyo Pop, and you just so happen to have a link cable, hook it up and challenge him/her in 2P mode. There are different rules you can choose from. *Normal - Game rules are the same as 1P vs COM. *Point Puyo - You pop Ojama to earn points. Highest score wins. *HARD Puyo - No Ojama, just Hard Puyo. (Think Ojama on steroids.) *6-Puyo Pop - You need to link 6 puyo for them to pop, not just the usual 4. A bit more difficult. *2-Puyo Pop - You only need to link 2 puyo to pop them. Easy cheesy. *Edit - You can create your own game rules. There aren't only bad things that drop on your screen, oh no, not at all. There are two PuyoHelpers. *BigPuyo - When this big guy appears, he'll clear out 2 columns of Puyo as he drops. Wow. *Carbunkle - HOW KAWAII! He's the little yellow bunny thing that hangs out on your screen. He'll walk along the puyo, turning whichever he's touched into one color, thus making them disappear. Kakkoii yo! And finally, in the option section, you can change the shape and color of the Puyo or you can change the field frames, customizing it to your liking. Yay? *Liked:* Fun, addicting, and easy to pick up. *Hated:* You can't play for very long or else your eyes come all funky... Believe me. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Graphics Description:* So.. tiny.. eyes... sore.. No really, if you get really into games like I do, I'd advise you to have someone watching the time for you. The graphics, heck, the screen is really small and they had to cram a good sized playing field onto it so it ended up really really really small. But it's so cute, so I'll let it slide. *Liked:* The colors are pretty, and the characters look good. For a small screen like this, they did good. *Hated:* Not much... Not anything significant, at least. ^_^ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Sound/Music Description:* The music is great, and the sound effects, like Arle saying little bits of Japanese after chains, or the monsters introducing themselves, sound good. If only there were more speakers on the NGPC itself... *Liked:* It's all good! *Hated:* Nothing. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Play Control/Game Design:* Pretty simple. You rotate the puyo and drop them... It's easy. The simplicity of the controls make learning this game fun and easy. Whoever created this game is a genius. And if you like puzzle games, this is definately something you should own. *Liked:* Everything... It's so much fun to play, and you don't have to do much, well, until the game speeds up and your screen is full of Ojama -- Then, you panic. *Hated:* All the people asking me what I'm playing and if they can try... and then when I let them, they don't give me back my NGPC... ~_~ ; *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Improve:* I like Arle and all, but how about a character select? And maybe more helpers? That'd be great. *RIYL:* Tetris. Definately, definately Tetris. ^_^ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Final Words:* This is a great game, and I know if you like puzzle games you'll love Puyo Pop just about as much as I do. I highly advise you try it out. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Score* *Gameplay:* ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) *Graphics:* ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) *Sound/Music:* ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) *Play Control/Game Design:* ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) *My Opinion:* ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) ( ^ ^ ) *Total:* 23 out of 25 happy Puyos! *Final Score:* 92% *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *Currently Known Codes* None that I know of!