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Puzzle Master
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Score: 80%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Metro3D
Developer: Metro3D
Media: Cartridge/1
Players: 1
Genre: Puzzle
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Graphics & Sound:
Puzzle Master’s graphics are quite simplistic, with little brick-like things as the earth element pieces, little flames as the fire, drops as water, and trees as... earth again? Ah, we’ll just pretend they’re air. Now, I warn you that if you play this game on an old-school Game Boy or Game Boy Pocket, the fire and water are quite difficult to discern. Although it does support non-Game Boy Colors, your eyesight will be much better off with one. The graphics themselves are pretty basic, but this is a puzzle game, so you don’t expect gorgeous displays. The sound is typical Game Boy beeps and bloops. Nothing special.
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Gameplay:
Puzzle Master is Puyo Puyo on crack. If you’ve ever played Kirby’s Avalanche, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, or Qwirks for the computer, you’ve played Puyo Puyo. Puzzle Master uses the same mechanics -- match three or more pieces together to make them disappear -- but adds a lot more complexity. This is both good and bad. It’s good because the levels are a lot more interesting. In some, there are monsters that you must kill to keep them from dropping blocks all over your pretty designs. In others, there are chests to open and switches to hit. You can select what items you want to use, from keys to bombs to ‘wild cards’ that match anything, with one button, and use them with the select button. It starts off pretty simple and gets devilishly hard as the game progresses. Sometimes the screens are a bit -too- busy, and it’s difficult to play because there’s just too many things getting in your way, but this is the exception and not the rule. The gameplay itself is rock solid, having been proven many moons ago by Puyo Puyo, and Puzzle Master is an excellent little puzzle game because of it. The addition of the chests and monsters give it that little twist that make it even more interesting than Puyo Puyo.
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Difficulty:
Puzzle Master starts off easy and gets to hair-tearing difficulty levels rather quickly. It’s not a one-sitting game, I promise. It’s damned fun, though, and you won’t mind playing through it, even if some levels require you to repeat them ten times over. It’s got the proper ‘one more time’ playability needed for a good puzzle game.
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Game Mechanics:
It’s kind of awkward to only have one rotate button, and I found myself often hitting the other one and moving my inventory cursor instead. Oops. This aside, the mechanics of the game are quite tight. Control is spot on, the game’s speed is neither too slow nor too fast, and the actual gameplay is, as we said, tried and true. Puzzle Master is a rather interesting take on Puyo Puyo, and if you’re a puzzle lover, it’s a game you definitely want to check out.
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-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon |
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