Capcom Puzzle World
Bubbles, gems and blocks – all living together in harmony
Tags: Capcom Puzzle World Categories: PSP Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 19th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capcom Puzzle World (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Puzzle | No | ||
Capcom Puzzle World is a compilation of several older arcade and puzzle titles. Three
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of the games are variations of the same bubble bursting theme, Buster Brothers, with the other two being Super Puzzle Fighter II, perhaps the biggest reason to own this collection, and Block Block, which appeared on Capcom Classics Collection Remixed – also on the PSP. Right there, that should tell you whether or not you want to buy the game. Is it worth spending $30 for what is essentially two games? This is assuming of course that you already have Capcom Classics Collection Remixed.
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While the graphics take a bit getting used to with the “landscape” orientation of the PSP screen, the porting has been quite good on each of the titles. Actually, Block Block wasn’t much changed, giving the playing field a bit less room than there should be. Instead of turning the PSP 90 degrees the game forces players to suffer through two large black bars at the sides of the screen. This makes gameplay a bit hard, but not unbearable. What makes the game frustrating to play is the lack of PSP optimization not only in the screen, but in the controls as well – if I have to hold the PSP in the horizontal position, I like playing these Breakout knockoffs with the shoulder buttons.
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I missed out on Buster Brothers when it hit the arcades, so I was glad to get a chance to play these. There are three versions included here, Buster Brothers, Super Buster Bothers and Buster Buddies. The premise is similar to the arcade title Asteroids, where instead of a spaceship firing on large asteroids breaking them into smaller ones, and so on, the players are firing off what appear to be harpoons to burst balls, from which smaller ones emerge. Bursting those will net smaller ones, and bursting those will eliminate them entirely.
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A fine premise for an arcade game, and the translation to the PSP and its screen are done well. There are power ups, and, well, it’s an arcade game, what are you expecting? Super Buster Brothers and Buster Buddies add a couple of variations to the formula, but nothing that makes them completely different. It’s a shame, then, that Capcom Puzzle World doesn’t have more titles in it that are actually different from one another – or even titles that are actually puzzle oriented rather than 3 different variants of an arcade style game.
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Most people will be picking this up however for Super Puzzle Fighter II, which admittedly, is the best of the bunch. Tetris, Puyo Pop, and Dr. Mario players that have missed out will find themselves right at home with the gameplay on offer here. Positioning different colored gems together to clear the playing field is the order of the day. It’s a familiar style of gameplay, but what makes this game different is that it is inherently competitive. Even the single player game has an AI opponent.
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There are some variations in Super Puzzle Fighter II that make it worth purchasing for puzzle fans, but the premise is still the same – link together gems to send over to your opponent to fill up the playing field. With a little bit more enhancement (such as the inclusion of internet play) this may have been worth purchasing on its own as a standalone title.
Capcom Puzzle World isn’t a collection of the publisher’s puzzle games. It isn’t a bat collection, but just not as good as it should be, especially considering that other PSP collections, even from Capcom, contain many more titles.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Three versions of Buster Brothers + Super Puzzle Fighter II |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Only 5 games, of which 3 are variations of the same one? - Block Block |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| For puzzle game addicts, this is going to be a necessary purchase, but wait for the price to drop significantly. | |
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Tags: Capcom Puzzle World
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 19th, 2007 and is filed under PSP Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
