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How 'Puyo Puyo Tetris' tricked me into liking puzzle games
When Larry Kasanoff said he was turning the world's most iconic puzzle game into a trilogy of science fiction movies, I was speechless. After a disaster like Pixels, how could anybody look at Tetris and think there was a narrative to tell? The game may be a classic, but the narrative potential of organizing falling bricks into horizontal lines seemed weak to me. Then I played Puyo Puyo Tetris. Kasanoff's sci-fi epic still sounds terrible, but somehow it pulls off the impossible: It builds an entertaining narrative from an abstract puzzle game.
Atlus signs 'family-friendly' Wii puzzler Octomania for North America
Atlus' long history of niche import localizations has extended to nearly every genre under the sun, from turn-based strategy and role-playing to games like Cubivore that simply defy convention altogether. Now, however, it appears that the publisher is looking to carve out its own slice of the growing casual games space, as Atlus USA has inked an agreement to distribute Idea Factory's multiplayer "family friendly" puzzle game Octomania for the Wii in North America. The cephalopod-centric game was developed under the watchful eye of Puyo Puyo mastermind Moo Niitani, and promises addictive color-matching gameplay not all that dissimilar from Compile's classic puzzler. Even better, the title boasts multiplayer gameplay, both locally and online, though given the game's March 11 release chances are the lion's share of Wii owners will be too busy playing a certain other game to give Octomania the time of day.
Puyo Puyo screenshots, no Bean Machines to be seen
Sega's Puyo Puyo franchise is heading to the Wii, to be released in Japan on July 26. It actually exists on the Wii right now in the form of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Virtual Console. So why would you want to buy a full-priced Puyo game when there's a perfectly serviceable entry available for cheap? We actually have an answer for this one (the best kind of question, we think): sumptuous four-player Puyo-ing. Check out some screens and decide for yourself if that and the wacky new play modes (co-op, a single-player dual-Wiimote mode) are worth the price of admission. Of course, there's another possible motivator for wanting this version over the Genesis version: fear of Dr. Robotnik and his foul machine.
