Pocket Puyo Puyon

"Suprisingly, the best of the Puyo~n series!"

Gameplay- 10

For some strange reason, whenever Compile makes a final addition to one series of Puyo
Puyo, they always put it onto Gameboy Color, and they always make it the best one of the
series too! Doesn't matter if the GBC is 8-Bit, and it's competitors are 32-Bit, 64-Bit, and
128-Bit.

The game is VERY fun! It has many different modes to play in, 23 characters with their
own special abilities, a photo gallery (This is sort of like the one in Super Mario Bros.
Deluxe and in Zelda DX, you are able to print the pictures too), and the difficulty can be
adjusted, so the game can't be too easy, or too hard, but even if you've mastered hardest
mode, it is still too much fun to put down! Don't forget, there IS a 2-Player mode! You'll
probably get more challenge out of that if you have a friend who is good enough.

Story-9

Our heroine that we know so well, Arle Nadja, has taken a trip to the Puyo Puyo Circus!
There are many classic Puyo characters doing interesting tricks, but then a mysterious man
in goofy clothing appears, and he is going to do a disappearing trick! Arle's pet, Kaa-Kun,
volunteers for the disappearing trick. The man puts Kaa-Kun into the box, and presto!
Kaa-Kun is gone! Arle goes into panic, wondering where in the world Kaa-Kun ran off
to, but as always, she is going to have to go through a tournament of Puyo Puyo battles to
find out where Kaa-Kun has gone!

Audio/Video-10

This is probably the most unique part about Pocket Puyo Puyo~n! Like I've said earlier,
there are 23 characters in this game. Each character has 8 voice samples for their chain
reactions (Note that Arle has about 10 voice samples unlike the others). So there are 188
total high-quality voice samples! They are very cool sounding, but if it bothers you, you
can turn it off in the options menu. Remember Puyo Pop (Puyo Puyo Tsu) for Neo Geo
Pocket Color? That game has voice samples too, but if you want to hear music, you must
turn off the voices. It is different in this game. The music and voices can be heard at the
same time. Yay!

The way that Compile has put together the music in the game is very neat. In the previous
Gameboy Color Puyo game, Pocket Puyo Puyo Sun, there were music tracks missing
from the game, yet you could hear then in the options menu. In Pocket Puyo Puyo~n, I
believe that all of the Pocket Puyo Puyo Sun music tracks are used. None are missing, but
the original Puyo Puyo~n soundtrack wasn't forgotten! Nope, all of the music from the
original Puyo Puyo~n games are in this one, and it sounds excellent!

Now on to the graphics. The previous Puyo Puyo~n games for N64, Dreamcast, and PSX
have very artistic graphics, and the characters are more serious looking. In this version of
Puyo Puyo~n, it is much more cuter (This is a good or bad thing, but if you like the Puyo
Puyo series, you are used to the cute characters). The character graphics in the GBC
version are also greatly improved, not to mention that just the graphics have greatly
improved from Pocket Puyo Sun as well!

Replay Value-10

The Replay Value is unlimited. I don't see of any way to quit playing. Tons of different
modes, adjustable difficulty, photo capturing option, etc... Even once you've managed to
get all of the photos in the gallery, you'll still want to go back and improve your score in
one of the many modes of the game! Or maybe you'll want to improve your strategy, or
maybe you'll just want to keep playing to go through Story mode! See? The replayability
is unlimited no doubt about it!

Rent or Buy?

You should know what I'm going to say here. BUY IT! It is an import game, so you
might want to look at a few on-line import stores. I'm guessing that the only ones who
won't like this game are the ones who hate puzzle games, but to anyone else who doesn't
hate them, you'll love it! This has to be the best puzzle game out on Gameboy Color so
far!

Oh, one last word.. This game is for Gameboy Color ONLY! It is an excellent reason to
buy a Gameboy Color if you don't have one

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/00, Updated 06/30/02