Puyo Pop Fever (GameCube) Review

SEGA seem to (perhaps without meaning it) have gone to extraordinary lengths to make this title camp. From introduction sequence to a skeleton thing that gives you fashion advice...or something, this is a game that has so much camp value it will bring a smile to anyone's face. What we love about it is that it is so extrovert and so flamboyant, there is something about it that is massively good fun.

It all starts off so simply, a few jingles, a nice gimpy voice, enough pink to fill up any Barbie section in Woolworths and what is more sheer accessibility. From the menu you have all the gameplay modes lined up for you, select one and you are taken to another menu were you can make further selections as to what you want to play. Be it the normal one player mode, where you can do training, and a number of levels combined into 'worlds', or endless Puyo Pop, or perhaps even a mission based game were you have to achieve certain objectives to progress, there is quite a bit on offer here, at first anyway.

After a bit of training and going over a few of the levels to see what you can do, the game will start to get completed at a quite frantic pace. One section will be finished off, and then another and then another and before you know it half of what is there has seemingly been completed, or has it?

The trick with this title is that you never really complete it, unless the 'kiddy' feel repels you at first contact and you fail to enjoy the simplicity this title offers, you will keep on coming back to beat that score or try that challenge or even play against your mates in the very enjoyable multiplayer section. Indeed, this is a title to be worshiped for its multiplayer options. Due to the fact that it is so easy to pick up the basics almost anyone can have a go at it and seem relatively competent, but put them up against a seasoned professional and the game shows a whole different edge.

Whilst simple on the surface, Puyo Pop Fever is deliciously subtle and clever. The basic aim of the game is that of a glorified Tetris. You have to match up colours to make a row or block of the same colour (be it red, green, yellow, blue, purple or whatever) in order to make them disappear. Fail to do this and your screen will start to fill up, and when you run out of room to put in any new Puyo (the coloured fruit that you have to match up) its Game Over. But it isn't as simple as that, sure you can go about playing it like that all you want, but you will soon bore of the game and miss out on a lot of what it has to offer. Rather than just getting rid of one set of colours at once, why not two, or three, or four, or five at a time? This is the art of creating chains, and a very difficult one it is too. On most of the gameplay sections you will be playing against an opponent, and you have the opportunity to hinder their progress, and visa-versa. By getting enough chains together, clearing you screen or any other clever moves you can drop clear blocks on top of your opponents Puyo, meaning that they have to start all over again higher up the screen, the better you do the more of these clear blocks drop on your opponent, the faster they have to work, the more mistakes they make and the more you will inevitably win. Of course they can do the same to you, so there is a constant battle going on to ensure that you remain on top at all times.

As the title suggests there is more to this title than simply Popping Puyo, there is the Fever element as well. At certain points in any game (with the exception of some of the mission based ones) you will be launched into Fever Mode, and this is when some very quick thinking comes in. All the colours go a bit crazy, the music changes, your character starts to make odd noises and you are given the opportunity to make some serious chains. Everything is laid out in such a way that achieving a chain is quite easy if you put the falling blocks in the right places, you are on a time limit so you have to move quickly, but putting together three of four chains is quite easy most of the time.

Alas, as is the problem with most puzzle game a certain proportion of this title does come down to luck, and blind luck at that. It doesn't always reward skill, and at times the gameplay can be hugely unfair. No matter how hard you work at times, and how well you do, the computer always seems to find a way to get out of it, or to even clear its screen, or get a chain of seven. All of this inevitably leads to frustration and a great deal of fun being taken out of the game.

Other problems come in with the sound, this game, whilst wonderfully camp and enjoyable at first, does have a few annoying factors. The biggest one is the sound; to put it bluntly it is hideous. We lay down the gauntlet to you, if you can say you played this game a lot and have enjoyed the sound you are either very odd or very deaf. As we have recently commented, gaming music and sound is hugely important and Puyo Pop Fever simply, doesn't cut it, and that is being kind.

What we also fail to understand is why this title needs to have a plot. You go about looking for such treasures as a stick (don't ask) and confront cats, skeletons, Frankenstein-esque things and even frogs shaped like balls. Whilst we like odd, we don't like pointless. The voice acting is awful, and the plot is shameful, at first it could be counted as vaguely amusing but when you've seen one funny character and laughed at one cheesy line of poorly delivered dialogue, you have had enough for a lifetime.