Keeper

"cute - adj. : Obviously contrived to charm; precious"

'Keeper' is a puzzle game that was released by ASCII, Success, and Datam Polystar in 1993. While some may call it just TOO cute, other's who can look past it's excessively cute shell (or look at it, if you're into cute stuff) will find an extremely enjoyable puzzle game that focuses more on good old simple puzzle-action than anything else.

When you first start, you can choose either 'Game' mode or 'Puzzle' mode. You can select to start at Level 0, Level 10, or Level 20 on each of these modes.

The game takes place on a small, 5 by 5 grid.

During Game mode, different blocks appear on the grid. The time it takes for each one to appear on the map depends on which level you're on. These blocks each have a different color and symbol on them. By placing 3 or more blocks that share a color or symbol right next to each other, you make them disappear. To complete a level on Game mode, you need to make the blocks disappear quick enough and get so many points so that they don't build up and leave you with a full grid. If you end up with a full grid without getting you're needed amount of points, it's game over, and you have to re-try from the beginning.

In Puzzle mode, you are given a set number of blocks and given infinite time to solve the puzzle. However, these puzzles are all quite a challenge, and you are given a limited number of moves(leaving you with usually only one way of solving each puzzle). Thankfully, as in Game mode, you can retry each level if you mess up (which you will a lot, because this game can get VERY tricky later on, when you get a lot of blocks with a lot of different colors and symbols). After each level, you are given a password, so if you quit, you can return to the last level you were at. Further adding to the games cute factor are the names of the passwords, such as 'Apple', or 'Peach'.. or Seven. You won't be seeing any 'TR0990LM6J42212's here, folks.

There are also 2-player versions of each of the modes. Both versions are basically a race to either get the most points first(Game mode) or get rid of the most blocks first(Puzzle mode), with the occasional fruit or beach-ball sitting at the side for you to pick up to get extra points.

The music is best describe as.. cute. There is only one different song that plays while you're playing the game, and it does get a little repetitive after you've been playing for a while (and may actually add to your anger as you become more and more frustrated in the further levels). The song at the title screen is actually pretty good(and may actually have you doing that head-bobbing thingy) but you're only going to be on the title screen for about a second every time you play, so it's pretty much a lost cause. The other mildly-good song is when you're choosing which mode to play. Again, you're only going to be here for about 2 seconds, so you won't be hearing it for long. It's too bad, too. I can see why Datam Polystar/Success didn't use the title screen's music for the actual puzzle playing part (it's a little too slow-paced, even for a puzzler), but it's still too bad they couldn't get a better song for the actual game-playing.

The sound effects are pretty few and far between. Usually it's just you completing a level and your character squealing in delight, or your character making some other noise/saying something. Not much here.

The graphics and the character design.. Say it with me now.... Wait.....CUTE!!! Your character is basically a little bunny foo-foo with a big-round tail, big eyes, big pointy ears, , a small hat with a pink pom-pom ball on the top, and a little tiny green jacket. If you let the game sit idle for a while, he takes a little nap. Pushing around blocks as big as you can be tiring, you know. The basic art design of the whole game is based around cuteness. The little sea-related patterns on the blocks, the pastel-ish color scheme, and the game board were made to make you say ''Aww...''. There really isn’t anything especially flashy in the graphics of the game, but for ‘93, the graphics were good.

Your character moves around the game board with relative ease. He also has no problem moving countless boxes very quickly and never needs to rest (unless you let him nap for a while by leaving the game idle). All of the controls are, overall, very responsive.

My guess is that it’s impossible to rent an old SNES game at any retailer these days, so it’s your best bet to get it somewhere like eBay. Keeper keeps the game where most puzzle games should stay; centered around the puzzles.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/03, Updated 06/28/03