#puzzle
#puzzle
by Amr (@siegarettes)
“Learning Puyo Puyo” is one of those intangible goals I always come back to, in the same way I tell myself that I’m going to get good at fighting games, or learn Japanese. SEGA’s been making that goal a little easier lately, localizing new entries like Puyo Puyo Tetris, Champions and now returning with an official English release of the highly regarded Puyo Puyo 2, two and half decades later. The AGES release is a port of the arcade game, specifically worth noting as it’s talked about in the same way as SEGA Tetris or The Grand Master in terms of the specific feel and details serious players prefer.
The package feels as celebratory as its history might suggest, with developer M2 adding several special features to make it the definitive edition. But there’s one standout feature that changed my approach to Puyo entirely: the ability to rewind moves.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Sporting a clean, turn of the century aesthetic, CROSSNIQ+ would feel right at home on the Dreamcast. Every edge is rounded, and bold lines make its geometric accents and flat colors pop against pristine backgrounds. The soundtrack pulses with synths, breakbeats and vocal samples, with a sense of style that almost made me expect to see the words SAMPLING MASTERS preceding each of the composers’ names.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Contrary to its title, one of the first things Baba is You taught me that my adorable sheep avatar was not in fact always me. Sometimes I’m a rock, or a ghost, or every single wall in the room. Sometimes the goal is to get Baba to a flag to win, sometimes the goal is to get something else there, transform into it and then make yourself the win condition. If that sounds confusing or inconsistent that’s because Baba is You is fundamentally about changing its own rules.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Marble It Up! is at once familiar and strange. It’s a ball rolling puzzle platformer that alternates between open ended puzzle levels and fast paced time trials. While it might initially bring to mind to mind SEGA’s Monkey Ball series, it follows directly from the Marble Blast series, a PC series which shares some developers with Marble It Up! The devs’ experience comes through here, making it clear they know how to make a good momentum based platformer.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
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Rising Dusk is an atmospheric, anti-coin collecting puzzle game. You traverse Japanese landscapes while dealing with various yokai. You can only fail by falling offscreen, so despite the spooky theme it’s not violent one. Blocks in the environment will react depending on how many coins you’ve collected, becoming boons or traps depending on the context. But mostly traps.
This results in interesting challenges, like a rainy level where you dodge coins falling from the sky, or one where you climb a mountain, being forced to collect coins along the way so that the footholds below will disappear if you fall.
