Round 1....Fight!

It all started a few years ago, I had once been addicted to playing Tetris and couldn't help but notice when a buddy of mine was playing a similar looking game. Upon a closer look, it wasn't like tetris at all, but was just as, if not more, addicting. Now, after hours and hours of playing, trash talking, frustration, lost sleep, and sweet victories, I can honestly say that 'Super Puzzle Fighter' is a really fun game.

Think of it as one-on-one Tetris, though not as boring. Gems are falling down the screen (at a speed you can adjust) and it is your job to arrange them, by rotating them or moving them (just like Tetris) so that you can make bigger gems of the same color. You can then break them apart using certain items upon which they then pile up on your opponent's screen. The larger the gem and the more gems you break, the more stuff will fall on your opponent. But the best part has to be the animations that go along with the game.

'Puzzle Fighter' uses the characters of the popular 'Street Fighter' games and shrinks them down. Each player chooses a character to "fight" with. As you break gems and have them fall on your opponent's screen, you see your character successfully land an attack with some sort of dialogue to go on with it. The severity of the attacks and dialogue varies with how big a gem you have broken. The larger the gem, the more damaging the attack. You'll get your "Ha-do-ken's" and "Sho-ro-ken's" along with a lot of other cute sounds. Knowing someone that speaks Japanese is always good especially if you want to know what they're saying.

Game play is simple and the strategies involved take only a few minutes to explain. Mastery on the other hand is another story. But once you start playing and the rivalries heat up, I'm sure you won't be able to stop. There is a one-player option, but playing against someone else (or within a group of friends, round-robin style) is much, much more fun.