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GameCube | Puzzle | Puyo Pop Fever

Boxart for Puyo Pop Fever
Puyo Pop Fever 18 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 5.0
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.0
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Puyo Pop Fever

Review by Rice Burner | 07/15/2004 | 12:37:20 PM PST

Nothing like annoying characters and the ability to bury them with tons of objects

Puyo Pop Fever is the latest installment of the Puyo Puyo puzzler series and has been revamped with an enhanced game engine that includes the new Fever mode, a larger assortment of characters, and additional modes.

The Puyo Puyo series has a long and cryptic history here in the States. While a mainstay for the puzzler genre in Japan, Puyo Puyo has been released in many alternate forms, masking its origins over here. Veteran puzzler gamers will recognize the game engine as the same exact one from the Genesis and Game Gear?s Dr. Robotnik?s Mean Bean Machine and the SNES?s Kirby?s Avalanche.

Fever shares a lot with many other puzzler games; Puyo blocks drop down from the screen, and players try to combine four in a row to send a nuisance Puyo over to their opponent until their screen fills up?you can also unleash chain combos for devastating effects. But the new Fever mode adds a definite frantic dimension to the game.

During a match, you build up your Fever gauge by eliminating Puyos, and when it?s full, you?ll enter Fever mode, which gives you a screen full of triple Puyo sets?one well-placed Puyo can set off a unstoppable chain saving you from the brink of disaster or unleashing a fatal blow to your opponent. The only limitation Fever has is that it supports only two players.

Additional enhancements in Fever included larger quadruple Puyo clusters, a 16-character lineup (two of which are unlockable), four courses, Free Battle mode in single player, three default rule settings, the ability to edit rules for versus mode, and three Endless Puyo Pop ?classic? games.

While single-player and Endless Puyo Pop modes are engaging, they can only really be considered training for the Versus mode. When you play against an actual person, the gameplay becomes faster paced and furious. Players must learn to adapt and process enormous amounts of information in a split second, paying attention to their current Puyo pile, the next Puyo piece, their Fever gauge, and their nuisance Puyo bank on the top of the screen. If you don?t have any triple Puyo sets on your screen, the nuisance Puyo bank will unleash its contents. This will screw up your screen, and you?ll hear the annoying chants of your opponent?s character as he buries you.

The characters are all well balanced and have varying styles and strategies, and they seem to be well designed to annoy the heck out of you while you play. There?s nothing like the feeling of doom as you?re fixated on your screen while you here the chants of the opposing character making chain after chain combos.

With single, versus, and three endless modes, and 16 available characters, Fever is as addictive as it gets