Puyo Pop Fever [GC]

In the spirit of classics like Tetris and Columns comes Puyo Pop Fever from developer Sonic Team and publisher Sega of America. The title, which debuts exclusively for Nintendo's GameCube console, is more or less an update to previous Puyo games with several added features, most notable a new Fever Mode that ups the intensity of the puzzle-solving experience. The play mechanics remain largely familiar, having been passed down through the generations, but the formula still proves as entertaining and satisfying as ever, which is why Puyo Pop Fever is worth your attention if you're a puzzle fan. That noted, gamers looking for eye-popping graphics or even a slick, modern presentation will not find it here.

The Facts

• Play as any one of 14 kooky new characters
• New puzzle pieces feature triple and quadruple sets
• Animated graphics enhance gameplay
• Practice in the original Puyo Pop game without a time limit, opponent, or Nuisance Puyos
• Jump right into the action or learn advanced techniques in Tutorial Mode
• New Fever Mode heightens the intensity of competitions
• Two-player mode
• Title does not run in progressive scan or Dolby Pro Logic II

Puyo Pop Fever is simply a very solid entry into Sega's puzzler series to date. It is also in many ways the evolution of the franchise. The object of the game remains as simple as ever, which means that anyone - young or old - can pick up and play it. Like Tetris, players manipulate puzzle pieces, called Puyos, to form columns or rows of the same color. Match four or more of the same color and the entire connected row will disappear and any Puyos on top will fall down like a crumbling building. This is where most of the strategy, not to mention challenge and satisfaction, come in. It's easy to match four blocks to eliminate rows, but it's much more difficult to string together a domino effect-like chain where several additional rows are eliminated as blocks topple.

When rows are eliminated, nuisance Puyos are transferred over to the play screen of the challenger - human or artificial intelligence depending on your preference. This mechanic keeps the battles intense and also raises the level of enjoyment for each player. After all, it's fun to win, but it's just as fun to cause your opponent to lose.

In previous Puyo games, each Puyo piece consisted of only two blocks, but in Fever the Puyos come pre-assembled in as many as four pieces, many of them a jigsaw of different colors. This seemingly unimportant change adds a welcomed layer of depth when matching columns, for it makes possible new means of performing chains and combos. The game can be played in this simple fashion and novices will be none the wiser. But pros can try for Fever Mode by stringing together as many chains as possible. Fever Mode is all-new to this year's game and it's intense. Here, rows of Puyos are assembled and waiting for the final couple of puzzle pieces to set off a massive chain reaction. It's up to you to solve the puzzle. If you can fill in the gaps correctly in the time limit allowed, you can inflict massive amounts of nuisance Puyos onto your opponent's screen and usually the damage is irreversible.

Puyo Pop Fever is best played with a friend in two-player mode. In fact, it would have been even better with a four-player mode, which it sorely lacks. But the single-player experience is no slouch either. You can try your hand at the classic Puyo Pop or Fever (both with various degrees of difficulty), and you can practice forever in Endless Puyo Pop. The challenge gets more difficult as you progress.

The game includes a lackluster story mode that doesn't sport much of a tale or a presentation. In it, you play as the character Amitie, a schoolgirl on a quest to discover the wonders of magic. The wacky anime-styled heroine meets up with some 13 other characters of the same style and they compete in bouts of Puyo Pop. The voice acting is surreally over the top to the point that it's laughably bad, and the dialogue is even worse, but we give Sonic Team for trying. What's clear, on the other hand, is that the developer put little effort into the graphic presentation of the game. It looks aged. The story mode unfolds almost completely void of any animation. Instead, sprite-based characters are overlaid onto blurry, static backgrounds. Meanwhile, the in-game battles use similarly unimpressive backdrops. On the other hand, the Puyos themselves do feature solid animation, and switch to a semi-3D presentation after chains are cleared. Easily the most visually appealing aspect of the game, though, is Fever Mode, which looks far more 3D in nature and is filled with particle effects and animation.

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