The Puzzle Game Thread

[Blade]

I'd love to see the Level 29 Tetris Superplay everybody's been talking about for the NES version.

[Ayanami]

No you're not alone, wetrix is ace!!

Awesome, Wetrix is the bomb.

I also like the usual stuff as far as puzzle games go....

Tetris Attack, Magical Drop 3, Dr. Mario (Even though I suck at it) and Mr. Driller.

[Zweihander]

It's a rollmup, of course!

At heart, it is a puzzle game. The way the objects are laid out, for example. The "top of the screen" and "falling blocks" factors are replaced with an objective, and a time limit with which to complete it. Trust me, I feel a certain kind of addiction to puzzle games, unlike that of a shmup, and I feel that puzzle-esque addiction in Katamari Damacy. The second game, not so much. objects are practically thrown in your face, waiting to be rolled up. The first game had a rhyme and reason for its object placement.

[Ayanami]

I agree with the Katamari bit. The first one definitely was harder to roll stuff up it seemed. I played We Heart Katamari and it seemed pretty slapdash compared to the first.

[Vexorg]

For those of you with Xbox 360s, there's a new puzzler on XBLA called Jewel Quest (not to be confused with Crystal Quest) that's worth at least checking out the demo of. It does admittedly borrow some stuff from Bejeweled, but has an actual purpose to it (making matches turns squares to gold, you have to get all of them on the board to clear a round) and some other interesting mechanics. I've been playing it for significant portions of two evenings now, and I'm about halfway through the puzzles on the second difficulty level now.

[raiden]

remember Sega Swirl? A puzzle game Sega gave away for free, first on Dreamcast, then also on PC. It had an interesting concept, but somehow lacked a driving force pushing the player on. Recently I discovered Popcap Games have taken the basic gameplay and tweaked it to become more hectic, motivating and score-oriented:

http://www.popcap.com/gamepopup.php?theGame=bigmoney

[undamned]

TALL is a brilliant PS1 puzzler, that not many talk about.
-ud

TALL is good, and it actually got a sequel released only in Japan called, "Tall Twins Tower". It got vs mode.

Tall Twins Tower game Review:
http://home.netvigator.com/~tarot/Games/Tall04.html

I always thought there is a site delicated to puzzle games and with forum like shmups here. But cannot found it yet.

BTW, I consider Umihara Kawase as a puzzle game too.

Thanks for the info!
-ud

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I've got a few cool classic Jamma arcade puzzler PCBs:

American Technos' Blockout PCB circa 1989

Atari Games' Tetris PCB circa 1987

Atari Games' Klax PCB circa 1990 -- I 1CC Klax on a standard Klax arcade upright machine at Regency Game Palace in May 1994 with a whopping 6,000,000+ points. Is my personal best but was never officially recognized to be included in Twin Galaxies high score records.

---------------------------
Cool personal Klax story tidbit...

At the 2001 California Extreme show, I personally met LX Rudis (who later said that he was the mysterious "Bugsjik" guy who created the cool heavy metal inspired BGM tunes for the Tengen version of Klax for the NES). I told him I enjoyed listening to the cool BGM tunes of the Tengen version of Klax for the NES. He said he was happy to be recogized for his contribution on the NES Klax game...the early beta version of Tengen KLax for the NES were very slow but LX said that Tengen finally managed to boost up the framerate so that many tiles could appear at the same time on the screen & not affect the NES Klax game engine.

LX said that he had never seen anyone play Klax (Klax was up & running on an Ultracade machine at the show) as well as I did at the 2001 CAX show ( manage to reach Wave 100 on both days of the CAX show and finally completed Wave 100 on the last day with the power still on some fifteen to twenty minutes after the show had officially ended...I had beaten Wave 100 on my second try & almost didn't make it but finally scored more than 250,000 points to beat Wave 100 once & for all!). LX personally told me that he had finished the Tengen Klax game with some very different BGM tunes. He was listening to some heavy metal one day and decided that his current Tengen Klax BGM tunes were not good enough -- decided to go back and create some killer Klax BGM tunes to "jam" to...and so now you know the rest of the story of how the Tengen version of Klax game for the NES is the only one that has BGM tunes to this very day! ^_~
-------------------------

Battle Balls (aka Senkyu in Japan) SP1 cart on the USA Bios version of Seibu Kaihatsu SP1 mobo circa 1994

--------------------------------
My highest score for the SP1 Battle Balls was set on 1/5/2004 (Monday) on single player mode:

Level - 44
Lines - 75
Combos - 14 Chain!
Balls - 552

With an overall score of 1,286,660 points
--------------------------------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[undamned]

So, about Cleopatra Fortune, how is the DC/NAOMI ver any different than it's SS/PSX/F3 counterpart? It's retarded expensive, beyond what I would pay, but if it's exceptionally cool, I'll keep my eye out for a bargain
(Oh, and the original did get a domestic PSX release under the same name.)
-ud

[BulletMagnet]

Not sure if you're aware, but Cleopatra Fortune's also on the PS2 Taito packs (not sure exactly which ones offhand, though), so if you ever plan on picking those up you could get it that way...'course, it's just the arcade game, I don't know if any of the console ports have any extras worthy of note or not.

[undamned]

Not sure if you're aware, but Cleopatra Fortune's also on the PS2 Taito packs (not sure exactly which ones offhand, though), so if you ever plan on picking those up you could get it that way...'course, it's just the arcade game, I don't know if any of the console ports have any extras worthy of note or not.

Yeah, I can almost guarantee it's the F3 ver. though. My question regards the DC/Naomi vs. that one.
-ud

[GaijinPunch]

There was a thread about it at gamengai some time ago. Has some info in there. I believe the Naomi game is pretty damn rare. I didn't even know it existed until this thread.

[Davey]

Trust me, I feel a certain kind of addiction to puzzle games, unlike that of a shmup, and I feel that puzzle-esque addiction in Katamari Damacy.

And I get the same addiction from Wario Ware, but that doesn't make it a puzzle game.

The second game, not so much. objects are practically thrown in your face, waiting to be rolled up. The first game had a rhyme and reason for its object placement.

So any game with logical level design is a puzzle game now?

tell me what genre it is, and we'll talk

People dump it into the puzzle genre because they don't know where else to put it. I'm not sure what it should be classified as, but I'd really lean more towards action than puzzle. There's much more mindless rolling than there is problem solving.

[undamned]

tell me what genre it is, and we'll talk

People dump it into the puzzle genre because they don't know where else to put it. I'm not sure what it should be classified as, but I'd really lean more towards action than puzzle.

Word. Action it is. BTW, let's start calling RPG's "level'emups."
-ud

[EOJ]

My fave puzzle game is hands-down Gyakuten Puzzle Bancho (1996) by the company Fuuki. Only available as a PCB or in mame. Highly recommended, it has a great solo score-attack mode, excellent 2-player, and a fun story mode.

[Pete]

Has anybody played the first sequel to Devil Dice, Xi Jumbo? I bought it but can't get it to work on my modded PS2. Just curious if its actually any good.

[SuperGrafx]

Hexic HD.

Honestly. I've been playing this game off and on since I got the 360 in November. No other puzzler save for Tetris has had my attention for this length of time. Then again, Hexic is said to have been created by the developer of Tetris, so that might explain it.

[zaphod]

Jewel Quest is EVIL! EVIL i say!

It's been available for PC for a long time.

It seems innocuous enough, but once you get farther along the hooks sink in deep, and you will start cursing the game. and then when you final beat tthe first loop, oh the agony of the cursed relics. And the third loop is even WORSE. I shudder to think of how bad the fourth and fifth ones are!

Bejeweled is a fun and fair (if frustratingly random at times) game. Jewel Quest is pure unadulturated evil.

[Neon]

What about Puyo Puyo Sun for PSX? Any reason to get it if I have it on Saturn?

[D]

I just got an original TETRIS pcb.
But to my disappointment there is 2 player mode, but it is individual, it's not head to head.
I want combos to drop to the other player.
Waht would be my best option for head to head battle tetris?
Disney's magical Tetris?
Or perhaps some of the Jaleco ones.
Who can shed some light on this.
Warning: don't buy TETRIS pcb if you want battle tetris where you can compete and hinder the other player

[undamned]

D, for head to head tetris, my rec. is Bullet Proof's "Bomblis" and "Battle Tetris Gaiden." If you want more details, I can expound
-ud

[BIG]

Some of my favs:

Puzzle Fighter
Tetris
Twinkle Star Sprites
Uopoko
Money Puzzle Exchanger
Ghost-Lop
Magical Drop Series

B-

[animefanjr]

Some of my favs:

Puzzle Fighter
Tetris
Twinkle Star Sprites
Uopoko
Money Puzzle Exchanger
Ghost-Lop
Magical Drop Series

B-

Have you played Tetris Attack (or Pokemon puzzle league), its one if the bast puzzlers ever!

Me, My Fiancee, and Postman play Puzzle fighter all the time now. I trained my fiancee for the past almost 2 years or so. We started with Tetris attack, and Puzzle League. Then I found a copy of puzzle fighter and she plays that with us now. She got damn good, not quite as fast as us but she beats us on a good basis.......I am so in love ...finding a girl that likes me AND likes games and sports!!

Me and Postman did try to get her into Twinkle Star but she doesn't like it as much, she doesn't really play shooters. Maybe I will try again.

I am also enjoying playing Tetris DS online, that fun 4plr.

[rolins]

PC-Engine
-Beball
-Tricky
-Volfield

MSX
-Gorby's Pipeline
-King's Valley II
-Eggerland Mystery 2

[Vexorg]

Hexic HD.

Honestly. I've been playing this game off and on since I got the 360 in November. No other puzzler save for Tetris has had my attention for this length of time. Then again, Hexic is said to have been created by the developer of Tetris, so that might explain it.

You are correct. Alexey Pajitnov created Hexic. I haven't played it in a few weeks, but I've got all but two of the XBL achievements on it (all I have left are the pearl flower and "100 games played" achievements left.) Haven't managed to break a million points yet though.

Jewel Quest is EVIL! EVIL i say!

It's been available for PC for a long time.

It seems innocuous enough, but once you get farther along the hooks sink in deep, and you will start cursing the game. and then when you final beat tthe first loop, oh the agony of the cursed relics. And the third loop is even WORSE. I shudder to think of how bad the fourth and fifth ones are!

Bejeweled is a fun and fair (if frustratingly random at times) game. Jewel Quest is pure unadulturated evil.

I can generally get through the first and second loops with no problem (in fact, I think I may still have the top score on the XBL leaderboard for 1-2 on the second loop.) The fourth loop is actually easier than the third in my experience (no buried or cursed relics, you just have to get each square twice. You also get extends quickly since you get twice the points for clearing the squares.) The fifth loop is a combination of the second and third loops, and gets nasty quickly. I've got a saved game currently on 3-2 on the fifth loop, and I've got to try to finish it off at some point.

[BulletMagnet]

D, for head to head tetris, my rec. is Bullet Proof's "Bomblis" and "Battle Tetris Gaiden." If you want more details, I can expound
-ud

IIRC "The Next Tetris" also has something like that...the N64 version had a 4-player mode.

[RoninBuddha]

to PuyoPuyo experts, which is a better purchase? Fever or Yon? (PP4)...
which has "more meat"?

note: Multiplayer is important for me...

[Fost]

Puzzle games are the one thing I think the 'indie' games market are catering for to an incredibly high standard.

I love Chuzzle, which you can get here. -you can even play that in a browser, although I'm using firefox, so it doesn't work. Might be the overall cuteness of it that sucked me in though

A game I've only played briefly, is Alexei's Dwice. Designed by Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris. It seems to be 'match the shapes' rather than 'match the colours'.

I'm not a massive fan of word match games, but Tommy and the Magical Words is just so incredibly well made, and (like all good puzzle games I suppose) sucks you in and doesn't let go.

I also really like Sokoban style games [shameless plug]probably why there's a few sokoban style puzzles in the game I'm currently working on [/shameless plug], and my favourite is called 'Altitudes', by miremare - but sadly he seems to have removed the demo, although I've still got the full version, so I might email him and see if it's ok to share it still.

Incidentally, Jennifer Sandberg over at Gametunnel has just done a roundup of 5 PC downloadable puzzlers:

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=452

[Neon]

PC-Engine
-Beball

Beball's good, not too deep though. It seems to me once you've played through it there'd be no reason to touch it again.

@ Ronin - I seem to recall gameplay problems with Fever, I'd check gamefaqs and see if there are any decent gameplay oriented reviews. Sun is great but that's only 2 players, on SS at least, haven't tried the other versions.

[BrianC]

PC-Engine
-Beball

Beball's good, not too deep though. It seems to me once you've played through it there'd be no reason to touch it again.

@ Ronin - I seem to recall gameplay problems with Fever, I'd check gamefaqs and see if there are any decent gameplay oriented reviews. Sun is great but that's only 2 players, on SS at least, haven't tried the other versions.

I can confirm that the N64 Puyo Puyo Sun is also two players. Puyo Puyo~n for DC and N64 have 4 players, but the PSX one only has two players. Super Puyo Puyo Tsu remix for SNES has 4 players. The Saturn and PSX versions of Puyo Puyo Tsu are missing 4 player, but have some more extras instead.

Fever is a bit unbalanced when it comes to fever mode, though I still found it to be fun to play. It is one of the more challenging Puyo games in one player, though.