N-Philes :: News

Viewing Entry

Gunpey

Posted February 5th 2007 by Stephanie DeSiena.

Could you imagine being the person that hit and killed Gunpei Yokoi in your car? Think about that for a second. You killed the man who invented the Game Boy. That's something you're going to have to live with for the rest of your life. And while Ol' Yokes (that's what I call him, because we were tight) is upstairs chillin' with Jesus and Ghandi, you're going to be burning in hell for killing such a beautiful man. Not even Satan is going to give you a high five. He'll be all like, "Dude, that's not cool. That's not cool at all." It's going to be hard to get back on Satan's good side, too.

I'm sure in Yokoi's last dying breath he said something like, "I only wanted to make people happy," so years later we finally get to play a remake of a Wonderswan game that was originally dedicated to him. Thanks to the fine folk over at Namco Bandai and Q Entertainment, this game is realized on the Nintendo DS. Gunpey DS is a puzzle game which originally appeared on Bandai's ill-fated single-screened handheld back in 1999. It's played by sliding lined tiles up and down a series of five columns in an effort to link a single line from one end of the playing field to the other. Linking lines together clears the entire row and makes way for more linking action. When you successfully link a row together you're given about three seconds to build upon it, and the challenge comes in attempting to create combos and clearing more than one chain at once. The tiles creep up the stage as you're doing this, so the game's main focus is to clear as many rows as possible before a tile reaches the top and the round is over.

The learning curve for Gunpey can be steep, but thankfully there are several helpful modes which should aid you in developing your own way to master it. Since the tile placement in Gunpey is completely random, it might take the player days before he or she is able to find a groove and "correctly" play the game. But once the game clicks, it becomes far more enjoyable than perhaps most of the DS's best puzzle games. The first mode that you will want to jump into is the game's ladder mode. It's called "Frontier Mode" in here but there doesn't seem to be any type of rhyme or reason to be playing against the computer-controlled characters you face, which is disappointing, because if there's anything I've learned from Puyo Pop and Columns it's that puzzle games with stories strewn in between its matches always equals pure hilarity. You're able to choose between three levels of difficulty, so if you find yourself struggling on one setting you can tone it down and teach yourself how to suck less on another.

There's also a traditional "Endless Mode" present, as well as "Time Attack"mode, which will have you clearing as many lines as you can in a set time limit, and "Stage Attack", which will have you clearing a set number of lines as fast as you can. To make things more interesting, Q Entertainment has included a number of new features which mix the gameplay up if you're tired of the original formula. For starters (and perhaps most significantly), they've developed "Break" mode, which can be selected within each mode before you begin a match. In Break mode, tiles that are in higher positions on the map than the line that you are currently clearing will descend once you complete a link. This is as opposed to Original mode, which does not feature descending blocks. Break mode tends to make the game a bit more manageable, especially if you're looking for a quick match that won't require too many reflexes or too much thinking. In addition to that, the Endless and Time Attack modes feature "Double Screen", which is a mode that has the player switching between two active fields at once for some added mayhem. All of these extra features add to the game's replayability by offering more choices for the player, even if he or she just wants to play their own mode of preference.

Like Q Entertainment's own Meteos before it, Gunpey DS features a clean and fun presentation. It contains numerous different playing fields that are accompanied by some clever in-game characters. Since it's a puzzle game which only mainly focuses on connecting lines, the sharp graphics and distinct playing pieces are perhaps excessive to the game's style, but that certainly isn't a bad thing. As you progress through the game, more and more tables become unlocked for play, and you will begin to favor some over others based on that stage's own unique presentation, much like how many people play Meteos.

The game exceeds in the audio department, which is expected from the studio headed by a guy who is nuts about sound in games. Each stage features music that builds upon itself as you get closer and farther from losing, and after an extended session on the same board the music arranges slightly to a whole new song. It's entirely welcome and a great accompaniment to the gameplay itself, especially in a few choice stages, such as Planet D.O.G., which features driving hip-hop beats and tongue-in-cheek vocal samples.

The controls are tight and key in developing your own style of playing Gunpey DS. Teaching yourself to be aware of what is happening on the screen at all times is perhaps why I regard the game so highly. It's a game that demands focus, which the player can continually improve at, just as the best puzzle games should be. It really is a shame that it isn't more popular than it is, because as a puzzle fanatic, this would have to be close to the top of my DS puzzle game collection.

Heartstopper - Yokoi would be proud.

So, that's it. I'm actually going to give it a blue line, despite the fact that I absolutely hate giving perfect scores. It's a fantastic game with virtually unlimited replay value, extremely well-balanced computers, plenty of fun for multiplayer matches (it has single card play!), and it is as deep as you want it to be. These are the types of puzzle games that matter. Pick it up if you love your DS.

Posted in: Reviews