Warning! More addicitve than Bust A Move

I first played this at a get-together at a friend's house and I was hooked before I even played. Even watching this game is fun. Then I got play.... and I was an addict. But unfortunately my friend had a copy from Japan and I couldn't find it here in the US until a couple of months ago.

Gameplay

This game pits you against a human or computer opponent in a puzzle fight. The great thing about this is the setup of the match. The characters in the game are child-versions of characters from your favorite old-school fighting games (e.g. Street Fighter). Think Muppet Babies that pack a punch. The game is very simple. Each player has a rectangular playing area at the sides of the screen and in the very center the puzzle fighter cartoons face off. The fighters can only hit each other if the player makes a successful play in the puzzle part of the game.

Blocks drop from the top and you arrange them within the rectangle to group like colors together. Unlike tetris, or Bust A' Move the blocks don't disapear if you get a bunch of the same color together. Instead they form "super blocks," that look like big gems. Super blocks and any other blocks can be destroyed by glowing blocks of the same color if they fall on top of them. This is the fun part.

When you destroy a super block your player in the center of the screen hits the other player. There are special moves when you hit multiple blocks and funny animations to go along with super hits. In addition to triggering a fight sequence the multi-block hits cause blocks to rain on your opponent causing their rectangle to fill. The first to cause their opponent's rectangle to fill with blocks so no more can fall wins!

Fun for all
Although the characters at the center do fight each other, I think that this game is not as violent as most normal fighting games. The graphics aren't super but they are adequate and there is no gore. I would recommend this for parents who might not want to get their children a real one-on-one fighting game. It has the puzzle challenge to keep the competitive feel but I don't think that the fighting gets out of hand. The characters are too cute to let that happen.

This is also a great group game. I've spent quite a few evenings challenging friends with this game. It is totally addictive and you always want rematch.

The game is mostly in Japanese so don't expect to understand most of the voices. The writing has been translated, however and lets you know all that you need.