There was a time when it felt like you couldn't move for arcade titles eager to scoot you from one allegedly real-world location to the next, each stage set against a backdrop showing a famous landmark or some focal point that suggests a tourist's idea of the region: Bomb Jack, City Connection, Street Fighter II... … Continue reading Pomping Pang Bros.
Dragon World 2001, available only on the eye-catching red cartridges used with IGS' PGM arcade system, is a title that will feel instantly very familiar to many in spite of its relative obscurity. It's yet another digital variation of solitaire mahjong, the same solitaire mahjong found all over every computer of a certain age and … Continue reading The perfect arcade game to play at home
As you may have already guessed from the photo above, the overly-named Bomberman: Panic Bomber is yet another spinoff of Hudson's evergreen Bomberman franchise - this time a puzzle game where little Bomber-heads fall from the top of the screen in L-shaped clusters of three, the aim being to line up a trio or more of the … Continue reading A bit of a dud
What do you get when you mix Columns with Sakura Taisen? You get something close to my idea of heaven - now on Dreamcast! As you may have guessed from the large yellow "2" plastered on the box (and the title screen) Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2 is a direct sequel to the Saturn/ST-V puzzle hit of very similar name and … Continue reading A match [three] made in heaven
Aconcagua begins with a dramatic explosion sending a small passenger plane hurtling towards the titular real-world mountain the game takes place on, which for the purposes of this 2000 PlayStation title is located within the fictional country of Meruza. This is a country where the people suffering under enforced military rule still harbour faint hopes of democratically-elected … Continue reading When two very different genres collide…
This charming little PC-98 action-puzzle game is just one of the interactive diversions contained within Compile's 1996 release DiscStation Vol.11, alongside a gaming buffet of six other DiscStation-exclusive titles. There appears to be at least one true standalone Tanukids release - a Windows 95 compatible CD called "Pa☆Pa☆Puzzle Tanukids" - but beyond a vague awareness of its … Continue reading Like herding very small and very round raccoon dog children
More than a successful game, more than a phenomenon, Jordan Mechner's action-platformer Prince of Persia was so ubiquitous it simply was - and to question if any semi-popular console, computer, or handheld around in the early Nineties had its own version of the game was about as ridiculous as wondering if these machines needed some sort of screen to display … Continue reading The sands of time
The original Puyo Puyo Tetris is one of those games I have to keep coming back to just to make sure it actually exists: Puyos... and Tetriminos? In the same game? And there are a good selection of different ways to mix the two together and they all work? You're kidding, right? That'd be as … Continue reading Review: Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
Some puzzle games come and go so quietly most people won't realise they ever existed at all, some burn brightly, once, and then spend the next decade or two commanding almost comically high second-hand prices, and a rare few settle in for the long haul, puzzle series that become so ubiquitous it's difficult to imagine … Continue reading Bubble bursting brilliance
(Dolphins and Hitchhiker's - it's all I know) A lot of very successful 16-bit games didn't even dare try to make the leap from older cart-based hardware to fancy turn of the millennium 3D consoles, and those that braved the most extreme forced makeover in all of gaming did so to varying degrees of success. … Continue reading Thanks for all the fish!
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 