Return To A Game No One Heard Of, Now With Fever Mode!

Nintendo DS is at the end of its first year in the market, and already it has a gain a healthy collection of puzzle games; so far six in all. I guess they thought it would be best to include a rehash of the great puzzle game PuyoPop. PuyoPop was a game invented by the creators of Atlus and was a game that played like Columns, but looked like the beans off of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. I haven't seen a copy of this game, which is as old as the NES, since having played it on the NES when I was a kid. I vaguely remember the game enough for it to deserve to be recreated, but the designing team at Atlas and SonicTeam considered it would be a great time to put the game on the Nintendo DS so that they can strengthen their handheld market. Although I assume the move was risky and both industries probably lost some money from lack of sales, it was well worth it.

Gameplay: 4 (out of 5)

PuyoPop Fever is basically a game where you have you rack up four jelly-like balls (puyo) in accordance to their colors. The puyos drop in five different shapes (the first shape is in the form of a multicolored pill where (say red) is on top of (blue), the second shape is a full colored pill that looks like a Mike and Ike, then you have an odd-shaped pill that is a full-colored capsule with a different colored puyo (say red) is attached to the capsule's side, a full colored (cashew shaped) puyo, and finally a huge jelly ball (the size of four jellies combined; that of which you can change its color by tapping either (a) or the opposite (b) buttons). With the puyos, you can move them clockwise or counterclockwise and match the colors of the puyos until you get a sequence of 4 puyos - of the same color - in a row. It may sound a bit monotonous, but it isn't, considering that most of the time there's a challenging computer opponent who races you. You are given a time limit to gain the highest score until you win the game. That's basically the object of the game. But it's the modes that saves this game from mediocrity.

Here are the complete schematics on what you will find in PuyoPop Fever and the Modes that follow.

On the Main Menu:

+ Single Player Puyo Pop (Play on your own)
+ Everybody PupyoPop (Go against other players or the CPU)
+ Endless PuyoPop (Survive the game as long as you can)
+ Options (You can configure the game)

* Single Player PuyoPop

This plays as an adventure mode where you get to select one of the following:

RunRun Course (a fairly easy course where you go against opponents for a total of 3 stages; this is not a story mode though but plays instead as a training course)
WakuWaku Course (An intermediate mode where you contend against characters through a total of eight stages)
HaraHara Course (An extremely difficult and crazy mode where you go against eight more 'tougher' opponents.)
Free Battle (You can choose of one against 16 characters from the game to both play as and compete against; used also as training).

The adventure courses (WakuWaku or HaraHara) play out as a story, where it begins with your character at the bottom of the screen going into conversation against the opponent, and then the round begins. At the end of each level, you see your character automatically walking a across map (which looks the same as the world map on Super Mario World) to his next opponent.

During the battles, you must successfully win by not only coordination but with a very quick mentality as you strategically have to get ahead of their score. You do this by not only matching up four puyos, but by making up combos (a chain of moves that, after the puyos on top of the ones that got eliminated, the beans drop in a chain reaction that makes a sequence eliminating a series of beans during the descent until no further beans can match.) Most combos take anywhere between two through four matches, but sometimes you can build up a chain that goes well beyond the ten-move combos; a strategy that is well worth practicing out.

If you get all of your puyos eliminated before the other person, and if the timer is still counting down, you gain Fever Mode; a frantic mode where you have to do the right combos by dropping one puyo to take out every bean in a chain reaction, when done you are given another set of beans to match until the mini-timer runs out - ending the mode but giving you even more points.

But what makes the game difficult is that the CPU will, at one time in some rounds, drop a cluster of nearly twenty clear beans. You aren't given clear puyos (no puyo you use is clear) to match with the barricade, so you have to race and make combos (which destroy sections of the clear barricade) before your own beans run up to the wall (as like Tetris) and get a Game Over. When you lose, you can choose to continue on the stage you lost on; however your score will get erased.

The game is hard in the sense that it is psychotic. On Normal difficulty, and when playing WakuWaku mode, you start off kind of in a laid-back state as the beans drop at a gradual pace. It is very easy to win the first level, but gets harder as you progress through the story. By the time your at the fifth contender, the game gets tough as the opponent makes combos left-and-right and gains Fever Mode constantly.

HaraHara mode is just about the most demented thing I have ever seen in video games. After the first stage, which is as hard as the sixth stage in WakuWaku mode, the computer races and forms combo after combo and Fever Mode after Fever Mode until you get a game over. Yes, it's that hard. But it is intimidating and very, very addictive.

When you get your first Game Over or beat the game, and if your score is high enough, you can put a three-initial name to send to the roster of Top 9 in either categories.

The two adventure modes are probably the best first player experience in the game, not like that's a bad thing…

* Everybody PuyoPop

The Multiplayer options are as is:

Create a Room (You can create a game against others who own a copy of the game for wireless play)
Enter a Room (You can wirelessly join a game others have hosted)
Player Vs. Com (You can choose from 1, 4, or 7 computer opponents to go against at once)
DS Download Play (You can play against other friends who don't have a copy of the game by hosting a game and send it wirelessly to their DS's.)

Note* I have yet to try this game against other people through multi-card play, but single-card play is excellent.

In Player Vs. Com, you are given the options to play with one of three game rules (Normal, Classic, or Trap) and you can Edit you own rules. Normal plays like the normal game, with you gaining Fever mode and dropping clear puyos. Classic rules take away the fever mode and allow you and your character to gain the same sets of puyos to drop, instead of different sets. Trap rule puts your opponents fever mode at a lower level, so you must raise it and trap them and win the match. With Edit, you can configure the time the matches last, control the amount of chains you need to have many puyos drop upon your opponent, switch Fever mode on or off, the amount of points needed to be reached to drop puyos on your opponent, how many fever modes are allowed in the match, or how often Fever mode comes.

When you go against opponents, you can select any of the characters from the character selection screen as well as the difficulty of the opponent (very easy through very hard) and your own characters difficulty (very easy through very hard); so, for instance, if you want to make the match easy as cake, the your character to 'very hard' and enemy to 'very easy' and if you want the match to be the most impossible game you have every played, vice versa.

Now, here is the best mode in the game, "DS Download Play". Here, you can allow up to seven other friends join the game wirelessly, allow four CPU's to go against you and your friend, go against three other friends who own a DS, or play one-on-one against your friend. You are given the character selection screen as well as the character difficulty (you can choose to be very easy and your character can choose to be very hard) which is need; but requires a lot of compromising and bribery… Rats! there went my five bucks… But anyways, two player mode is very enjoyable and can last hours on end upon each battle; mainly because of the chains and Fever mode allowed in multiplayer. Eight player mode is rigorously frantic. You see a screen of eight opponents battling all at the same time (Tetris-style!) with no slow-down. It is awesome, but the screens are miniature; therefore making a microscopic experience out of the game. All-in-all it is a blessing that single-card playability is included in the game because most people enjoy puzzles but won't pay a dime to pay them and PuyoPop Fever is pretty hard to find.


*Endless PuyoPop (Each have three difficulty options to choose from; Easy, Normal, and Hard).
- Fever (You can play in Fever Mode for a given time and try to rank up as much points as you can).
- Mission (The computer will give you a bunch of tasks you must clear)
- Original (Play the original version, NES, of PuyoPop)

Fever gives you a constant Fever Mode. You have the choice of either Easy (starting you at level 0), Normal (starting you at level 6) and Hard (starting you at Level 10). You are given 55 seconds to reach the highest level you can while making the most combos, but I didn't find any differences between the three difficulties.

Mission works much like fever in terms of the difficulty (which brings you to either level 0, 5, or 10). The differences are that you are given 99.99 seconds to get through the most missions. The missions are commands given to you by the main character found on the right side of the game screen, where they call out commands for you to fulfill (make 5 chains (combos), make a blue chain, erase 5 puyos (beans), etc.). Mission mode is pretty challenging and the commands are random, which gives the mode a healthy amount of replay.

Finally, there's original. With the difficulty options you are given you can start at stage 0, 5, or 10. It is here where you rank up scores and go to the next level by eliminating all puyos. The mode has no time limit, and the game ends when your puyos reach beyond the rim of the screen. It is pretty fun if you have ten minutes to spare and want to pass up the time playing something quick.


*Options
- Button Configuration (4 types of controls)
- Difficulty (Exclusively used for Single PuyoPop mode; difficulties are very easy, easy, normal, hard, very hard)
- Cut Scenes (Turn them off or on)
- Animation for Chains (Turn off or on)
- Language (English or Japanese)
- Gallery (Can listen to the games soundtracks, voices and sound effects; view cut scenes unlocked; and check out the ranking - records of the top 9 players in all modes found in Single PuryoPop (except for Free Battle) and Endless PuyoPop

I can't say much about the options except for the fact that PuyoPop fever hosts a heck of a lot of them; if not in the option menu, then in various menu screens found in game modes. If every game had the depth of options as this game has, I'd be a very happy gamer who can be a godly player one minute to a god-awful player the next - depending on how I adjust the game.

Concluding my review on the Puyopop's game play, I have to say it has a lot of depth. The game is quick when it wants to be, and frantic as it desires. The difficulty is comfortably adjustable, the record system is pretty good, and the puzzle itself is addictive. All together a great experience, especially in multiplayer.


Graphics 3.5 (out of 5)

I will not hold back from saying this game is colorful in the most boastful way I have ever seen since Parapa the Rapper. The game has a variety of bright colors that truly bring out an 'anime' feeling PuroPop tries to deliver upon the player. Everything in the game looks like a 2-dimensional cartoons. The animations come alive as the characters change their facial expression when a character makes the wrong move and cheer you on when you play the game right. When the game gets into its 'frantic mode' everything moves at such a frantic pace, that its surprising there is no slowdown. There is no shadowing in the game (why should there be shadowing in a puzzle game?) and nothing in the 3rd-dimension is found here. No CGI's also hurt the score and gives it a 3.5. Surely not the best (or worst) graphics I have seen in DS games, but everything works great and the game looks like a cartoon if cartoons were interacting comic books.

The game uses both screens. During battle, the upper screen shows the rivals, while the upper screen is shows the game in action (basically you will be looking up the whole time you are playing single player). On the menu screens, a reverse effect happens and when you have to look town to see your options on the touch-screen while the upper window shows your character giving you a description of the mode option (or customization option) in a message bubble.

Controls 3.75 (out of 5)

The buttons serve your average controls found in other DS games where you moves your puyo left and right with the cross-pad and hold down to make the drop. (A) turns your puyo clockwise (also makes selections), while (B) turns your puyo counter-clockwise (gets out of menus). (Start) pauses the game. Select, X, Y, and both L and R triggers do not work.

The touch-screen is effective. You can make your selections by tapping on the screen and turn your puyos around also by tapping the screen. While playing you can drag your puyos from left to right or drop them by dragging your finger (or stylus) across the screen. Just remember to assemble a screen protector to avoid causing accidental scratches.

The microphone located under the left side of the touch-screen window is only use to blow bubbles that ascend the main menu; making the option bubbles bounce and jiggle. It also allows your character to cheer you on. Either than as a novelty used for amusement, the microphone gives no other benefits to PuyoPop.

Although the controls are very responsive and comfortable, the lack of extra controls puts a damper on the overall score.

Sound 4 (out of 5)

Right when the game begins, a burst of loud and cheery background music springs up as an excited girl shouts "PuyoPop Fever!" That moment demonstrates how loud the sound is. The music is very upbeat and fit’s the game perfectly. The sound effects are typical sounds you would hear in your average puzzle game, (except for fever mode, which clashes like thunder and you hear flames as you race to defeat the Fever mode). Most of the time, the voices you here will be taunts, cheers, and "oh no!" from your character who roots you on. Each of the eighteen characters have 19 different "one line" voices; some of which you can understand while others are of a foreign language that lack understanding by my competence. All in all, the sounds are great for a DS game, even for a puzzle game for that matter…

Replay 4.5 (out of 5)

From the nearly unlimited and adjustable options, game modes (especially adventure), opponent vs. modes, records, and much challenge to back it up, the single player experience will keep you pretty busy for a long time (especially if you try to become an expert at making large chains). Most of this score is gained from the replay value. The replay is very high due to the fact of not only it's addiction, but as well that is it one-card play (you don't have to look for seven others with the same game). The game is simple to pick up, easy to learn how to play, battles can last from 1-5 minutes and the difficulty is adjustable; making the game a exceptional purchase for people who love puzzle or party games.

Overall 4 (out of 5)

What more can I say about this game? It's great! From the depth of options and the simple functions of this game, anyone can play it and you don't need much practice (or play time) to get hooked. The replay value is high, the graphics aren't sub-par, and the sound comes alive. PuyoPop Fever may not be the ultimate puzzle game ever made, but on the DS it fits in just right.


FINAL SUMMARY


Gameplay 4 (out of 5)
With craziness left and right and fever mode to add to it, challenging battle modes, and a pretty healthy abundance of characters to choose from… Who can ask for more?

Graphics 3.5
Though I have seen better in the DS apartment, the colorization is lively and looks like a cartoon. Expect no CGI movies or 3-d animations and you have yourself a comfortable game free of slowdown, glitches, and pop-ups.

Control 3.75
Touch screen works pretty good. The other controls work great if it the DS was a classic Gameboy. Either than that, half the buttons serve no function. For some strange reason the microphone is only used to blow bubbles and allows your character to cheer you on.


Sound 4
Enthusiastic, cheerful, and loud - every fundamental element required to either sully intimidate, inspire, or annoy you; sometimes all three.

Replay Value 4.5
Single player can be played off and on whenever and wherever you please. Each time through offers a new experience. Find one through seven friends who own a DS and have yourself a party. Multiplayer is engaging, addictive, and will last fours hours on end. No Wi-Fi internet hurts the score. But 4.5 for an offline game is still rewarding enough.

Overall 4 (out of 5)
Although this game is not the definitive must-own title of 2005, it is still fun and well worth the $30. It is a good game to have just for the heck of it and a good game to bring with you at a friend gathering if everyone wants something new to play during their 30-minute stretch from Mario Kart DS. A good time-filler for any occasion.