"For an on the go puzzle title, it's got all you need."

Game Review: Super Bust-A-Move

Overview:
This is a fairly recent installment in the classic Bust-A-Move series that has been around for many years. While it is not radically different from other Bust-A-Move titles, it is a great deal of fun, and it is a great installment of a puzzle game which is near the top of the list of greatest puzzle games of all time. If you want to waste hours of your life like you may have during your previous puzzle game addictions, this will do your senses justice.

Story: NA
There isn't a story. It's a puzzle game. Seriously, if you were seriously expecting some kind of story... Well, I'm sure you were not. You are all very smart people.

Gameplay: 8/10
Bust-A-Move has been around for a very long time, and the game mechanics from previous games has stayed in tact. There is an arcade mode which can branch off in many directions depending on what paths you choose, where you can take on various puzzles, varying in difficulty and that are a whole lot of fun. You can also take on an opponent using a Gameboy Advance Link, or take on a CPU, which has varying A.I.

As far as the actual puzzles go, you are placed in a large grid with colorful spheres at the top of the screen. You are given a nice little cannon to use so that you can launch a randomly colored sphere up at the spheres at the top. Your job is to get three spheres of the same color to touch one another however you can. Once this happens, the spheres disappear, and you start the process again on other spheres. You can line up more than three spheres as well. Also, if making spheres disappear leaves other spheres with nothing to hang on to, they fall off, giving you a bonus to your score.

But this is thankfully not all there is to the gameplay. On each stage in arcade mode, there may be special spheres that do other various things. They range from changing their color to coorespond to other spheres, to reflecting the sphere you launch at it, to gigantic spheres that change the colors of other spheres, and countless others. This keeps the game fresh to even veteran players in the series, and everyone can enjoy the gameplay with a little bit of practice.

You can choose what character you play in the game as well, and while this does not really matter, it might get a little aggravating if there is a character on the bottom of the screen you do not like for the entire game. However, all of the old characters you may know and love are, well, gone. All of 'em. We now have a bunch of characters reminiscent of Bemani, which may or may not be good. Well, really, it's not good. And it may be a little frustrating to some veteran players that you cannot even play Bub (though you do get to see him). While this does not affect gameplay, it is a little annoying. But if you can remember the old characters, you probably already have an old game that features them, so you are set. Unless you just played the old arcade version.

In the end, the very essence of Bust-A-Move is physics, and if you can get those down, you are good to go. There is always a challenge of some sort waiting for you here.

Graphics: 8/10
Graphics are not really that big of an issue in a puzzle game... If you can see stuff, it does it's job. One very interesting aspect of the graphics are the backgrounds for the stages... They are typically very interesting and well made, at least as much as they can be. Very cool.

But the character designs are a little bit annoying. And they are on the bottom of your screen pretty much all the time. They do get aggravating from time to time, and you might wonder after a while why this annoying little fat dude is farting onto your screen. There are a few less annoying characters though, which you should take advantage of. You will really start to wish you can just get rid of the characters visually after a while though.

That aside, the graphics do their part well enough.

Sound: 8/10
The soundtrack in the game is acceptable enough. Some of the better tracks are actually fairly intricate, and while it does not matter that much, the music gets a tad repetitive after a while. No biggie though. It's not like you can't just put on some other music anyway.

The sound effects are not annoying though, which I am very happy about. Pops, clicks, and such are all very dead on, as much as they can be, and they won't be a liability when you need to concentrate.

Controls: 10/10
The controls are as simple as can be, and the only problem I think could ever even possibly arise in the making of the game is the responsiveness of the reel, and this is very good.

One other thing I noticed is that the physics of things are not quite how you would expect them to be sometimes. But this is good! While the physics are perfect, after a while, you will learn how to squeeze blocks into unlikely places by bouncing spheres off of walls and such.

Difficulty: 9/10
Puzzles range from painfully simple to painfully difficult, and it will keep you busy for a long time. Unfortunately, sometimes even expert players will have a really really hard time on a few levels. But besides the few exceptions, the difficulty curve is good, and it involves getting the physics of it all down.

Replayability: 8/10
There is little to unlock, except two secret characters who can be unlocked by code anyway. And really, how badly do you want two more characters beyond what you have?

But you can keep busy with all of the puzzles for a long time. You can just pick it up at about any time and entertain yourself launching spheres just like you would any other highly addictive puzzle game.

Overall: 8/10
While it is not the best version of the popular puzzle game, the flaws are not crucial, and you can never get tired of the puzzle gameplay. Old fans may be a little upset by the lack of classic characters, but the real fans can find them elsewhere anyway. Bust-A-Move ranks way up there with all of the great puzzle games, like Dr. Mario and Tetris, and if you have never picked up the game before despite enjoying puzzle games, this is a great place to start.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06