Puyo Pop Fever

"Amorphous Puzzling Fun!"

Puyo Pop Fever - Amorphous Fun!

You will find many, many more "puyo pop" games in this world, but let's just talk about this one. SEGA released it in 2004 in the US (which is around the time that I got it) as yet another instalment in the whole puyo pop chain of games. Admittedly, I've never played the other ones, but I've had ample time to get through this one and that's all you're here to read about.

Gameplay: 8/10

What's a puyo? It's a blob with eyes that (for some reason) is falling perilously from the top of your screen. The only solution is to line up 4 of them so that they spontaneously combust and die a very, very sudden death. The whole game is a puzzle game, so this all takes place in a neat little rectangle (one for you and one for your opponent) where you can rotate your Tetris-like blobs and change the colour of certain blobs. The point is to NOT let your puyo touch the top of your screen and to make your opponents screen fill up with a sea of coloured, scornful blobs.

Are you with me so far? Let's go more in-depth.

Puzzle-gamers will know that you can create chains as well. To make a chain just annihilate 4 innocent puyo in one move and have the puyo on top that fall make another quartet that also explodes! Don't just stop there, you can make chains of 3, 4, 5...just go crazy. Making a chain attacks your opponent with clear, ghost-looking blobs that can only be destroyed if your opponent makes a chain or destroys 4 puyo before it falls on them (which is called offsetting) or if they destroy a puyo that is touching the colourless "nuisance puyo." Keep in mind your opponent can attack you with nuisance puyo too.

Now, when you offset you get "fever points." Get enough fever points and you'll go into FEVER MODE! (Think of Star Power Mode for Guitar Hero, only dorkier). This mode boosts a pre-set chain for you. All you have to do is find WHERE the heck to put your puyo so that it makes the nice, long chain that's set up! Do it right and you will build up legions of nuisance puyo to destroy your opponent. After a while it wears off and your normal screen of puyo will come back. Oh, and if you somehow get back into Fever Mode, your chain will continue where you left off. It'd possible to plan your strategy just to get into Fever Mode and rack up enough of a chain to devastate your opponent...unless they get into Fever Mode too.

So, the basic dynamics of the game is pretty darn simple. You make blobs asplode by matching colours. All you do is move the blobs and rotate them with the A button. The hard part is making chains, offsetting, and knowing when to attack and when to bide your time. Things actually get really strategic with timing! I mean, this isn't a revolution for puzzle games or anything, but it's pretty good! It's fun, you can strategize like mad or just go with the flow!

Story: 6/10
Welcome to some generic magical school where you play puyo pop. Your teacher lost her wand and you have to find it. You irritate some students along the way and challenge them to puyo pop fever. That's it. No side-plots, side-quests, hidden areas or exciting climaxes. All you do is find her cane, or try to "improve your puzzle skills" or something. Puzzle games really should be content to just skip the story part and get on with the real stuff - not try to make up some half-baked story, like some sort of cruel joke. Just...ignore the story. It's not even really important or relevant - turn off the cutscenes.

Graphics: 7/10
Most of the graphics are pretty flat and paperlike. It's kind of like a Paper Mario or Parappa the Rapper only stiffer and with only a few poses...If you skip the cutscenes and just go the puzzles, then the graphics are fine. The puyo are in 3D, Fever Mode has a nice little animation sequence, and so on and so on.

Sounds: 8/10
Now, the sounds will depend on whether you play the game in English or in Japanese. Since your character speaks when it attacks, suffers a substantial attack, or starts a chain - you will hear a lot of talking in this game. Each action has a different sound, and if you have a chain that's, say, 5 puyo long...your character will have something new to exclaim for each time a puyo drops in that chain. This can get grating when your character is saying things like "Indeedy!" "Yes, indeedy!" "-random musical terms-" or "meow!". The dubbing is atrocious - mediocre at best. In Japanese, (just go the sound options to change it) you will be free from bad acting, but the repetition may get on your nerves (especially if you're playing with a character than only says "Ribbit"). Personally, I enjoy the Japanese voices a lot and it's strangely satisfying to have your character release a battle cry as your chain gets bigger and bigger! Mwahahaha!

Playtime: 7/10
It may take a while to get the basics under your belt, but from there it's not all too hard t complete the main story mode. After that, all you can really do is try to rack up the highest chain possible in Fever Mode, play Endless Mode (wow...endless...) or play against the computer. Unless you have a friend to play against (and it will take a while for them to get to your level) then you won't have much of a reason to play it again. Upon beating it there's no sense of fulfillment. Yay, you won...Now go kill some more innocent puyo blob things.

Other Nitpicky Things:
A GOOD THING is that there are lots of characters to unlock and they are very cute, colourful and amusing. Different characters have different strengths - and noticeably so - so you can find a character to fit your style.
A BAD THING is that for story mode you can't choose who to play as! They force you to play as Amitie or Raffine! This saddens me greatly...

Final: 7/10
I really do like this game despite its' flaws - the gameplay is fun enough, the voices are so bad it's funny (unless you play in Japanese: you're bombarded by lovely Japanese taunts and grumbles of defeat), and the characters are very nice! It's fun - that's for sure. It's more like a quick burst of excitement and sugar and then you only pick it up to play again when you feel like playing some random puzzle game. Sadly, I'm sure you could find many other puzzle games like this one. I still say this game is worth a go in the end - go pop some puyo!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/08

Game Release: Puyo Pop Fever (US, 07/20/04)