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| Holiday 2227th Post
 
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
    
    
    
|  "Puyopuyo Fever review (long)"
, posted Tue 17 Feb 06:14
A long review because I felt like writing stuff!
A lot of you might rue the absence of almost all of the classic Puyo Puyo universe characters which we’ve all come to know and love (and hate!) in this new installment. The only returning characters are Arle and Carbuncle, and replaced with a motley bunch of pop art style characters. If I recall the previous posts correctly, not many have taken warmly to this decision. Even Arle looks a bit curious in this new style.
When I first played this game a week ago, my reaction to the missing characters replaced by these new upstarts was like some sort of videogame culture shock. Kinda like the time I experienced Super Mario II(US) after too much Super Mario Bros.
(And the similarity doesn’t end here; Amite (the new star of Puyo Puyo Fever) looks like a moemoe female Toad with that red and white Puyo hat of hers).
But once that shock has worn off, everything just feels right somehow. I've pretty much warmed up to the new characters, bizzare looking as they may be. But still lovable. Err, maybe except for the HowHow Bird.
The whole game feels very pop art-ish with pleasing light pastel hues, from the very simple intro and cut scenes which consists of motion graphics and stills of the characters being moved around (a bit low-budget, but it’s still nice), to the menus which feature among other things falling asterisk snow in the sidebar and lots and lots of curves. Personally I like it. It’s like Sega took some lessons from the Wallpaper magazine for interface design.
While the presentation and characters are so different this time round, the gameplay hasn’t deviated too far from the original game. There is no more special Ojyama Puyos, and we only have the regular clear Ojyamas to shower out opponents with. An “all clear” will reward you with a drop of Puyos that are already set up for an easy chain. There’s also the addition of a slightly distracting “3d effect” which occurs whenever you perform a 2+ chain. What happens is the camera pulls back and tilts slightly so you get to see your chain in all its glorious 3d depth. No worries as it can be turned off in the options menu if you don’t like it.
As for the new Fever Mode, its mechanics takes a bit of explaining, so bear with me!
First off you have a Fever counter which you fill up by clearing Puyos and only if there are Ojyama Puyos waiting to be dropped on you. The counter fills up by one unit for a basic 1 chain, and much more if you perform bigger chains. Filling the counter also delays any Ojyamas from dropping on you, and they’ll only drop at very moment you place a Puyo which doesn’t clear anything on your side.
This system either encourages you to perform huge chains and send them over for an instant kill instead of sending over small fry which will be Fever Meter fodder, or encourages weaker players to delay their attacks (turtle?) and build up their Fever Meter.
When you enter Fever Mode, your side is cleared temporarily, a countdown timer is started, and a bunch of Puyos drop down ala puzzle mode. The objective is to clear as many or all of them if possible in a continuous chain. You are allowed to place Puyos which don’t contribute to clearing anything, and sometimes you need careful pre-placement in order to get an “all clear” bonus. Do well, and time will be added to the countdown timer, the board is cleared, and a harder puzzle pattern is dropped. Do badly and no time will be added, plus a puzzle of lesser difficulty will be presented to you.
Fever mode sounds overpowered, but you’re not totally invincible; your opponent can still drop Puyos on your Fever Board and kill you. Also, if you didn’t manage to clear off all the Ojyamas waiting to be dropped on you before and/or during Fever Mode, any remaining ones will still be dumped on you once your Fever Mode is over. Your also have to adjust quickly to your previous board, which will pop back in screen the moment you exit Fever Mode.
I’ve managed to get up to a 13 chain in Fever mode, whereby I progressed up from a 4 chain puzzle right up to a 13 chain, and the attack power from the Puyos generated this way is quite strong. A 10+ chain is enough to remove a lot of Ojyamas waiting to be dropped on you *and* kill your opponent outright.
The game is divided into three parts: story modes, solo play, and 2 player modes.
Story mode pits you up against beginner, medium (WakuWaku) and hard (HaraHara) courses. There are some cutscenes which progress the, um, weird story for you to enjoy, complete with both English or Japanese voices, and plenty of language choices for subtitles. Good luck with hard difficulty HaraHara course because the AI is very brutal.
In solo modes, you can practice your Fever Mode (endless Fever with the usual rules), mission mode whereby you have to accomplish certain objectives (clear 7 Puyos of the same colour, perform a 5 chain etc), and classic Endless Puyo mode where you just play with the falling Puyos by yourself. I’ve always called this Puyo Masturbation mode…
In 2 player modes, you can fight it out with normal rules, classic rules (no Fever Mode), reduced Fever Mode strength rules (I haven’t tried this one out yet), and custom rules whereby you can make your own rules with the options provided. Too bad there isn’t a 4 player mode this time round, but I’ve always thought that it was very cramped to play in. Still, I miss the mania a bit, but my eyesight thanks the omission!
There aren’t any extras that I know of except for 2 unlockable characters and a “Gallery” mode whereby you can replay any cutscenes which you have encountered in the game. There’s also the usual sound test and voice test in the options menu for those of you who want to rip err… enjoy yourself some Puyo Puyo Fever music. Some of the tracks are quite nice and maniacal. Really helps to get you in the chaining Fever mood.
To me, it’s a great game and I still play it regularly. My only gripe which I’ve mentioned in my previous post is the lack of an autosave feature. It’s still annoying to go back to the option screen and save before I exit the game. Other than that, even a Puyo Puyo oldtimer like me can still manage to find much enjoyment in this new installment, and I don’t think I’ll be putting it away anytime soon. Fevah!
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