Features:
- 18 levels
- 15 characters
- Link cable support for four players (single and multicartridge)
- Battery save
- Only for Game Boy Advance
In Puyo Pop, you're fighting against different computer AI -- you each have your own pit to worry about, and you each get the exact same pattern of globs to rotate and place. If you form multiple chains that fall and disappear, you'll send piles of dead rocks over to your opponent...the bigger the chain reaction, the more rocks get dumped on your opponent. The only way you can get rid of these rocks is to create links on top of them, and when the link disappears, so do the surrounding rocks. If your bin fills to the brim, it's game over.
The Game Boy Advance version of Puyo Pop doesn't change a thing to the established formula whatsoever...it follows the old credo of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and on this handheld system, it's still as amazingly fun and deceptively addictive as it always has been. Sonic Team's GBA rendition offers the bare essentials in terms of graphics and sound, but that's perfectly fine since the gameplay is what makes Puyo Pop such an awesome creation.
This edition of Puyo Pop features the same quirky single player mode where the lead character (you) meet other strange characters, one by one, who challenge your persona to a game of Puyo Pop. Each character has distinctly different gameplay AI, so it really does feel like playing against different opponents. But the storyline is just so darn stupid...don't let it turn you off to the gameplay between the cutscenes.
What makes this version a must-have, apart from the great, established gameplay, is the attention to multiplayer. The developers utilize the Game Boy Advance's single cartridge link feature to invite every GBA owner to get in on the action...up to four players can link up and play, and what's more, the screen scales back so everyone can see what everyone's up to...and if someone's about to score a ridiculously high combo chain reaction. But the designers make sure that if you've bought a cartridge, more multiplayer modes will open up. It also encourages players to go through the single player Vs. modes, since the deeper you go solo, the more gaming options open up for two, three, or four player gaming.