N-Philes

I guess I was just too lazy the first time around to do this. Puyo Pop Fever was released back in June of last year, and boy did I prep myself up for it. Having imported the Dreamcast version all the way from the land of the rising sun earlier in that year, I pretty much knew what to expect from the Gamecube version. It's one of those games that I have to own twice, though. I won't even mind picking it up on the Nintendo DS when it comes out next month, because it'll be portable. Puyo Pop Fever seems to be the ultimate companion for someone with ADD because it's just so distracting that you won't even remember where you are – the perfect compliment to owning it on a handheld. I don't have ADD, but you wouldn't know that from talking to some of my teachers.

In the sport of Puyo Pop you match up colored blobs in an effort to clear them off your screen and fill up your opponent's screen. It's a classic formula with a rule set that has changed frequently throughout its many iterations. The game's name has been thrown around so much by now that the people who have wanted to play it probably already have, especially any self-respecting puzzle enthusiast, and they most likely have thoroughly enjoyed it. I personally haven't met too many people in real life who say, "Man, you play the new Puyo Pop? That's some crazy [expletive deleted] right there!" I don't know many people in person who talk like that at all. Puyo Pop is one of those entities that really should be a household name. I could imagine families bringing it up at the dinner table, saying "Honey, I read in the news today the new Puyo Pop is coming out soon. Will you buy it?" The rugged, muscle-laden father would reply, "Yes dear. Ha ha ha, we should invite over the Warrens to play it with us!" I say this because Puyo Pop is not an acquired taste. It's hard to resist its charm.

When we're talking about the latest Puyo Pop, the one that came after Puyo Puyo 4, Puyo Puyo~N and the likes, the first Puyo Pop game to even be produced since Compile went under in 2003, we're talking about genuine Sonic Team property right here. I don't see how slapping a big sign on it that says "From the makers of Sonic the Hedgehog" would have any affect on the sales. And apparently, it had no affect, as the game moved about three thousand copies since launch, give or take a few. That's about three thousand more than Virtua Quest sold, though, so it's not all that bad.

The Japanese love Puyo Puyo. I think they're born with it in their blood. I believe the 23rd (or 24th?) of every month is a national day dedicated to Puyo Pop. That's not a lie. Even Europe got more Puyo Pop Fever love than Americans did, as they saw releases for Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, and Game Boy Advance. We here in the States saw it come out for Gamecube and soon the Nintendo DS. Puyo Pop cannot move copies in the American market. I read in Scientific Proof Magazine that Americans do not like Sega.

But I digress. It is an arcade game, and in fact was released in Arcades in Japan. Not many puzzle games find their way into the arcades these days, save a few notables like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo , and there hasn't even been a Puzzle Fighter game in a while. Sega held a few tournaments in Japan last year so all the pros could meet up and face each other. When we're talking about a property where people who play the game at home have just as good of a chance as the people who stick to the arcades then we're talking about some serious bouts. Puyo Pop Fever is especially applicable because now we have the famous Fever mode. Fever mode could be used to anyone's advantage if they played strategically enough because it has the opponent scrambling to get into Fever mode before they're buried. It's kind of cheap at first because it seems as if the second someone gets it, the other player just stops trying. Fever mode sets up Puyos in chains so you can easily make some massive combos, and how well you do determines how well the chain is going to turn out. What makes it especially worthwhile is listening to your character scream when they make a combo. I've started doing this in real life whenever something happens in succession. In fact, I pick Arle in two-player mode just so I can scream "Ice-u Storm" when she does. I'm a cool guy; I can really dig cool things like that.

Puzzle games with stories crack me up, and that's how it's been since the first Puyo Pop came out. The characters would talk smack back and forth, and you figure they might settle their dispute by throwing down in fisticuffs or having a high-speed race. In games like Puyo Pop and Columns, the two characters would play a puzzle game as if that's really going to solve anything. When your opponent is beaten, they honorably admit defeat - just like in real life. In Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, you were physically the protagonist. You'd play Puyo against these multicolored robots whose most aggressive move was to flail their arms in the air as if they were on fire. When you think about it that way you really can't blame them for fighting you in a puzzle game, as they probably couldn't do anything else. Half of them probably couldn't even see the screen over the arcade cabinet.

For me, half the fun of playing Puyo Pop for so long was developing a strategy and using it for over ten years before realizing that it's absolutely useless in Puyo Pop Fever. I had to change a strategy that I've used for a decade because I couldn't win with it, probably because the same friends with whom I've been playing it aren't eight years old anymore and know how to match identically colored blobs together. In fact, they even know how to do combos now. It's turning into the war of the worlds when we play Puyo Pop together. The fact that this formula has been able to keep my attention for this long is astounding, though, which is probably the whole point of this article. I don't need to tell anyone that Puyo Pop Fever is a great game. You should know it's a good game based on the notion that you either like puzzle games or you don't.

This isn't really to let you in on some big secret that N-Philes has been sitting on for months. This feature wasn't about telling you about the mechanics of the game, because then it'd just sound like a generic puzzle game. This is all about its quirks, its history and its value as a Sega franchise. It's worth the twenty dollar price of admission, but you should seriously wait until May if you have a Nintendo DS. Atlus is bringing over Puyo Pop Fever that month for the system, something you'd probably know if you check the front page frequently. Buy it and show the world that Tetris isn't the only thing out there. You'll impress all of your friends, I promise.