Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

In the grand tradition of peanut butter and chocolate, Captain and Tenille, and Davy and Goliath, Capcom gives the world Ryu and falling, shiny charms.

Puzzle games just don?t get much more frantic, addictive, or competitive than the jewel-matching, chain-planning, anxiety-producing, friendship-weakening bliss of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. If you?re not familiar with the PlayStation cult classic, it works like this: Two players each choose a character (big-head versions of Street Fighter and Dark Stalkers cast members) and proceed to ?fight? by lining up colored gems and trying to set up elaborate chains that drop heaps of unwanted gems in your opponent?s area. These ?counter gems? have little digital timers that count down slowly before they can be cleared, which can be a royal pain?or a tremendous advantage, if you play your own gems right.

The colorful graphics, Capcom-tight control, and just-fine sounds have been faithfully ported from the PlayStation original, right down to the weird animated nonsense that occurs in the background as your fighters duke it out, though the GBA version struggles with slowdown as the matches get near the end?which isn?t a bad thing, really, since it gives you ample time to think. While it?s definitely meant to be linked up and played as a two-player game, a weird, nifty-but-awkward two-players-on-one-GBA mode lets player one use the left-side controls while another player uses the buttons on the right?and in lieu of that, the single-player A.I. can be downright ingenious. Super Puzzle Etc. Whatever is as addictive a puzzler as it has ever been wrought, even if the marriage of Chun-Li and jewel-dropping doesn?t make a single lick of sense.

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