Puyo Pop Fever

"Sega's Classic Puzzle Catches a New Fever!"

At long last, a sequel to Puyo Pop from the GBA has arrived onto the GCN. It's still the puzzle we all know and love, but with the addition of the Fever Mode, the gameplay between you and your opponent will rage on even longer!

First up, Puyo Pop Fever continues the same gameplay as before: connect four matching color blobs in order to get rid of it of your screen. Every time you remove them, Nuisance or Garbage Puyos will fall onto your opponent's screen. You can also create a chain of combos by skillfully placing them in a certain order so that the popping continues on. The bigger the chain, the larger the amount of Nuisance Puyos will drop on your opponent. But watch it as your opponent will be busy doing the same thing to you. If Nuisance Puyos are about to be dropped on to you, you can cancel them off by popping out the Puyos. This is called Offsetting. So basically all you have to do is drown your opponent with Puyos in order to win.

But here's where it gets interesting: A new feature is added called Fever mode (Hence the title Puyo Pop FEVER. hehe). Fever mode is triggered when ever you offset Nuisance Puyos a certain number of times. After it's triggered, you have the chance to solve some already made chains. Clearing out these chains will result in an extremely large number of Nuisance Puyos to fall onto your opponent. Everytime you clear a chain, another set falls. IT continues on until the Fever time limit finishes. Afterwards, you'll be returned to your regular set. Watch out, as your only limited to ONE pop in each puzzle in Fever Mode, so make it count. It takes time to get used to this but once you get it, you'll catch it's fever (Pun intended)

As for sounds, those classic "blob" sounds make the faithful return. The English voices are...O...K.. but the Japanese shines more. The music is pretty psychedelic, but cool. Even a song from Puyo Pop of GBA returns remixed. Pretty cool.

The graphics aren't exactly far out, but seeing this game in full 3-D is worth it. Some blobs have a cool slime effect if you take the time to notice, and the particle effects seen when shooting attacks at your opponent looks pretty decent. Also, whenever you trigger a chain, the camera rolls close to each chain in a cool yet annoying 3-D way, which can be removed in the options if you feel nostalgic. The characters each are drawn in the typical Sonic Team Style drawings, which IMO is really cool. Each has their own attitude and "attacks" like Amite's Lightning bolt, which doesn't exactly do anything, it's just eye candy.

Playing alone is a bit boring, but the multiplayer is where it's at. Between you and your friend, you get to play the Fever Mode, the Trap Mode (Meaning going fever is bad) and for those with Nostalgia, it even brings the classic mode from the GBA version. And what's more, you can even edit the rules to your likings, so that's a big thumbs up there. And if your looking to learn some skills, you can even save replays from your best matches so you can study for your next game.

All in all, this game will bring the fans some big smiles, and it may even create new fans. The Fever mode is perfectly welcomed to the classic puzzle, but the only complain I have is that playing classic mode is only available with Multi-player, so if your alone, you're stuck with the Fever against the COM.

Graphics: 7 (it's a puzzle game, so not much there)
Control: 9 (Solid. Whether your good with the D-pad or the control stick it's up to you)
Sound: 9 (Sound Effects Nostalgic, Music Psychedelic but not sure if it's a good or bad thing)
Replayability: 10 (In other words, forever, if you got a friend who knows that is)

Go out and get it now!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/04