OK, its Tetris. No wait, its Puzzle Bobble. No my mistake, it IS Tetris…..no that cant be right…..

Jump it for the Confusion

Hang on, I’ve got this. It’s Tetris Bobble. No that can’t be it. Its got to be Puzzle Attack. Nah, that doesn’t sound right either. Oh, Its useless. I can’t identify this masterpiece of gaming as a Tetris game or a Puzzle Bobble game.

Ok, way back in 95/96, The SNES got its little piece of puzzlers heaven, in the form of Tetris Attack.
In this game, you have to match three of the same tiles to clear them. Simple i hear you say. Well, yes, but no too.

The Game

In the game you control a 1×2 grid block piece, which when activated, will switch the two tiles it is occupying around, on a grid which has new lines of tiles constantly appearing from the bottom. If three tiles in a horizontal or vertical line are the same, the tiles clear, and any other tiles above are dropped. Not only that, but T shapes and L shapes can be cleared to, provided that you have set up the move correctly. Things get really interesting though when Combo’s and Chains are introduced.
A Combo is anything above three tiles cleared with a single move, and a Chain is the result of tiles falling form a move to create another line.
Ok then a fairly simple game mechanic, but trust me, at harder levels, when the new lines of tiles are coming in thick and fast, this game gets hairy.

There are four types of gameplay modes in this game,
Endless (keeps going till the player dies)
Stage (Clears a certain amounts of tiles)
Versus (multiplayer or AI opponent)
Puzzle (Set number of moves for a specific tile layout)

The Music

A fairly decent soundtrack, including arranged pieces from Super Mario World 2 : Yoshi’s Island (see Story). alot of the music is a driected carry over from the Japanese version of the game, Panel de Pon.

The Story
It all begins at peaceful Yoshi’s Island, where all is well. Until one day, Bowser and his Minions showed up and planted curses on all of Yoshi’s friends, except Yoshi and Little Yoshi. They now have to Battle their friends in order to save them from the evil force. After rescuing all of his friends, Yoshi and Little Yoshi prepare to brave Mt. Wickedness, all of his friends decide to lend a hand.

Upon entering, they are greeted by Bowser’s cronies (Hookbill Koopa, Naval Piranha and Kamek). They all challenge Yoshi and his Friends but are defeated by them. Yoshi and his friends now encounter Bowser at the base of the mountain. Bowser doesn’t think Yoshi and his friends stand a chance of winning but challenges them anyway.

Yoshi and his friends defeat Bowser and free the island from his evilness, then peace returns to Yoshi’s island as Yoshi and his friends return to their natural environments. Anytime Bowser attacks the island, Yoshi can always count on his pals.

Source Wikipedia, i never did play the story mode through, Endless was good enough for me .

/10 Ratings

Groundbreaking-ness : 4
Good puzzle game, but underappriecated.

Gameplay : 10
You just cant stop playing this wicked game.

Innovation : 8
A great Puzzle game, makes a change.

Long-Term impact : 3
Sadly, little.

Total : 25/40

A purely brilliant game, i recommend it highly, especially multiplayer games. Unfortunately, if you dont own a SNES and the cartridge, theres no legal way to play this. There are however, a few fansites out there which have recreated there own versions, with extra features like online play. I havent had the chance to cehck them out, so if anyone does, give it some feedback.