Puyo Puyo Da!

"Dance with Satan himself...! No, I'm not joking!"

People familiar with the Puyo Puyo series know what the games are all about. The Puyogames are traditional puzzle games where you are supposed to group falling blocks of various colors together. Match four blocks of the same color together and they vanish, just like getting a complete line in Tetris. The difference with Puyo Puyo is however that you are not only fighting against yourself, but also against an opponent in a separate chamber. By getting chain-reactions, you can sabotage and turn things into a real mess for your opponent. The goal, needless to say, is to make him lose by having his chamber filled with blocks, as in Tetris.

But, this game is different. Very different. Compile, the producers of the Puyo series came up with an interesting idea to gather eight main characters from the previous Puyo Puyo games into a DANCING game. As always, we have Arle Nadja, and also Schezo, Suke-T, Minotaur, Rulue, Fish, and of course, as always, Satan himself. But do not fear, Satan in the Puyo series hardly has anything to do with Satan from christianity or islam or any other religion. Of course he looks a bit of devil, but this can hardly be taken seriously. Except for these characters, we also have a new girl called Elena (who plays no particular role in the game).

Anyways, a dancing game as I said. In the game, you are supposed to dance as the game instruct you to do, and the instructions are giving by telling how to press on the control pad. You see a row of symbols scrolling in the game, and you have to type in the commands at the exact moment to perform the dancing steps correctly. If you manage to follow the instructions overall better than the opponent, either 2P or the computer, you win the game and continue to the next opponent. Even though the game was released in Japan only, and I personally hardly speak any Japanese at all, I can say for sure that getting into the game is simple. Needless to say, I lost the game first time I played it, but I won the second time. And then, I was hooked on.

You can chose to play various game levels, easy 3 opponents, normal 5 opponents, or hard all 8 opponents, so there are challenging levels for everyone. Clear and simple.

Graphics - 9
Clear and smooth graphic, no blocks visible anywhere. The characters are dancing with full enthusiasm and look very funny when the screw up. The backgrounds are nicely done as well and are also very funny (you can see snakes, cats, and non-living objects dancing in the background). Every character has his own background, so that every opponent is unique. Nothing to complain about, really. Well, maybe the characters could have some more moves, but that would be the only flaw.

Sound - 10
Every character has his own song, so the music is hardly repeating. All songs are sung by a Japanese singer (produced by a Japanese popband that produced the music for the earlier Puyo games as well). They are all very very nice made, very touchy, you could actually find yourself beating the time with your foot while playing. There are some really nice songs, such a remix of Rulues ''Memories of Puyo Puyo''. I get goosebumps when I hear that song. It is a wonderful song, indeed bringing up old memories. Elena's theme ''I sing'' and Schezo's ''Toy of Puyo Puyo'' are also very nice.

Control - 10
The control is completely up to you, your timing to input the ommands, up, down, left, right and special button. Timing absolutely perfect is sometimes a bit tricky (the difference between a complete successful move and a complete failure is less than a half second!). But again, it is all up to you. If you make mistakes - don't blame the game.

Challenge - 10
Difficulty levels for everyone, for beginner and for real experts. It is perfect for everyone.

Fun Factor - 10
The game is overall of very much fun to play, and the humorous backgrounds make the game even more enjoyable. And things could turn very quickly, from a huge lead to a major loss. The game is not over before the music stops...!

Repeat value - 7
This is the major problem with Puyo Da! The game is way too short, and offer no special options. When all opponents are beaten, the game is over, and that's it. If you play the normal 5 opponents mode and complete the game without any continues, the game is over already in 15 minutes. And that's waaay too short. Of course you would like to play the game more than once, but in one afternoon, you could easily play it through 10 times and then...there is simply not much left.

And yes, and there is a big flaw in the game. It is NOT possible to pause the game! So make sure you have gone to the restroom and hang off the phone before you start playing...!

A really, really nice game with wonderful graphics and music, and very funny to play. But, too short. Much too short. But any fan of Puyo Puyo should get this game right on!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/04