Puyo Pop Fever

"You need to know someone who has a DS"

I have an import copy, thus the early review.

I must say I feel like I just wasted $60 bucks on this game. Not because the game itself is bad, because it's not. It's the same Puyo Pop the fans love, and probably even slightly better. There are many modes, and multiplayer just has to be amazing (up to eight players! yay!).

But I know absolutely no one with a DS, other than me. Goodbye, multiplayer.

I live in one of those rural towns where I think I might be the only one with a DS. And I love puzzle games -- I've been enjoying Polarium very much lately, as well as Mr. Driller (both for the DS). It's just that while the single player mode is okay, it's the multiplayer mode where Puyo Pop really shines.

Us Puyo Pop fans have (presumably) experienced the multiplayer mayhem of Puyo Pop before, be it on the SNES, the Gamecube, etc. It's challenging, unpredictable, competitive fun.

Without the multiplayer, Puyo Pop isn't quite as good. Playing the one player mode only prompts me to think "yeah, this is pretty fun, but it'd probably be a lot better if I had someone else playing along."

The endless single player modes (there are three) put your screen in the top left corner, so even playing by yourself guarantees you'll have a small playing area. There should have been some tweaking in regards to that.

A mode that could have easily been added would be the Head to Head mode, in which one person controls the D-Pad and another controls the buttons. Since the buttons on the DS are in the exact position of a D-Pad, it's a shame it wasn't added. (Then again, the DS is a rather small system.)

Bottom line: good game by yourself, GREAT game with someone else (plus a few others!). If you don't know anyone with a DS and like puzzle games, pick up Polarium or Mr. Driller instead, and wait until a friend gets a DS.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/05