Game Review and Information: A couple PSP puzzlers.

Puzzle games are often considered the most casual of games. They are, by design, simple and very easy to get into. Looking at games like Klax, Tetris, and Columns, you'd think there would be no reason for this genre to have a strong following. However, if you have seen highly competitive gamers going at it in games like Puyo Puyo or Puzzle Fighter, you can tell that there are also the hardcore of puzzle fans. Today, there are still games for this genre being made and I may have found the most uninteresting in the genre. Now, one thing I want to avoid doing in any of my gaming blogs is have a game labeled as bad, seeing how I always find someone who likes even the so called "worst" games. However, two puzzle games in particular strike my attention as having the most limited appeal out there. I will apologize in advance for hurt feelings, but this is how I see it. Vempire: This is in PSN's minis section. There are two faults with this game. There is no multiplayer and it only has one mode. Once you've beaten the game at 100%, there isn't much to do except try to beat it faster. However, I will say that it isn't completely bad. If anything, Vempire is a decent puzzler. In order to succeed, the player must clear a certain number of blocks within a time limit. They clear blocks by lining up four or more of the same type. Progress is shown by a vial that fills as blocks are cleared. Sadly, matching up more than four blocks doesn't add any bonuses, so there is no reason to try to get six lined up into a chain. There is a second meter which fills over time. When that fills, a boss monster comes out and does something to impeded progress. This idea was utilized very well. While a see through image would've been better, the monster will stay on screen only a short bit. Afterwards, comes the effect, which can be creating garbage blocks, rearranging blocks, and even spinning the screen on you. All of which makes for a great obstacle aside from the typical norm for the genre. Another thing that's available are equipment and summons. Summons occur after you clear certain blocks twice. The first to setup the summon, the second for it to take effect. Sadly, an image of what your summoning will show up like a boss monster will, impeding your vision for a couple seconds. As for abilities, they are either destroy blocks, freeze the timer, or change garbage blocks. To acquire summons, you must first buy them. To get gold, you have to clear gold and diamond blocks during gameplay. As for equipment, you can only get them by clearing special stages. The equipment do grant decent abilities like slowing time or effecting the appearance of certain blocks. You can only equip a max of four, so you can't expect to go through with everything you get. Then there is the music and graphics. Only two songs are really used. They're actually pleasant and don't get on the nerves. As for graphics, it's like looking at stills from a 90's saturday cartoon. Not interesting for adults. If anything, it's great for kids. Nothing is vulgar or gross. However, if your prown to motion sickness, you won't like the screen spinning ability of one monster. Now looking at all these great things, it may be nitpicky for me to say this game is uninteresting. However, I will stand by my statement because of how little this game has to offer. When you finally buy everything, clear every area, and get every equipment, your left with nothing else to do with this game. I do admit I did get my money's worth, as it is very cheap to download. I may still play this once in a blue moon. However, this puzzler is more like something a kid would enjoy than anyone over the age of twelve would want. If it had more modes of play or multiplayer, then it would be great for all ages. I hope the people behind this game do consider making another Vempire with multiplayer. Stuff like summons, equipment, and boss monsters in a multiplayer would make things very interesting. Kurulin Fusion: This is a puzzle game I heard alot of positive things about. Sadly it was a big disappointment for me. I see this as the opposite of Vempire. It has multiplayer and multiple modes, but it seriously suffers from a lack of depth. The most basic way I can describe this game is if Puzzle Fighter was in single player with added mechanics from Columns. You have block pieces and orb pieces. Blocks fuse into eachother to create bigger blocks for more points and only disappear when they connect with orb pieces of the same color. Orbs and Blocks have the same appearance ratio. At higher levels, blocks will fall inhumanly fast, but you still have time to slide and set the piece when it lands. Graphically, it's got alot of special effects, like glowing and pulsing blocks, but nothing much else to look at. If you like those special effects, then it's something you'll enjoy. The sound is supposed to be the biggest thing about it, but the sound effects aren't much to note. As for the music, it's actually pretty good if you like techno. The overall music, including success and failure chimes, has only 10 tracks. A couple tracks are different versions of the same track. Excluding different versions and chimes, you only have around half a dozen songs on the game itself. Hardly much of a statisfying soundtrack, but that's more of a personal opinion than a fact. As for what's available. There's arcade mode, which is your basic endless mode. Next is score attack, which is your basic timed mode of one or three minutes. Then there is Mission mode, which has five levels at first. Clearing them will add five more levels. This goes on till you have 30 levels. After clearing all 30 levels, the music box in options is unlocked, allowing you to listen to all the songs except for the chimes, leaving you with eight tracks. Not sure if that's supposed to be funny or if the musician wasn't given enough time to put more in. Or perhaps I've somehow miscounted. As for the stages, they involve simple little things, like clear a certain amount or type, all under a time frame. Stage 30 of Mission mode is probably the most annoying of the missions. As I described above, blocks can fuse into bigger blocks. In Stage 30, your supposed to fuse blocks into a 3x3 block then clear it. The problem with this is that four different colors, two types each, fall at fairly equal ratios. So, you have maybe a 1 out 8 chance that one of the next blocks will help add to your 3x3 block without ruining what you already have set up. In the meantime, you're stuck with extra blocks and orbs to set aside. The whole thing becomes a game of luck. Whether or not you succeed depends on if you fortunate enough to get the 9 pieces you need. Your given a three minute time frame to do this, so if you haven't created and destroyed the block when the timer runs out, you fail the stage. As for other things about the game. It doesn't have garbage blocks or a cpu opponent to keep an eye out for, so the game becomes one big score run. However, a bar does fill on the sides of the field as you place pieces. When the bars fill completely, the pieces push up and more pieces line the bottom. This doesn't get to be much of a difficult thing, but it does add to the frustration of Mission stage 30. As for scoring, it's a simple and limited formula. You do get more points when doing chains and clearing large amounts at once, which is typical. However, you score only when orbs touch blocks of the same color. The blocks can fuse into other blocks, but can only be no taller or wider than three blocks. So if you have three blocks of the same color stacked on eachother, puting a forth won't fuse that block to the rest. Also, you can't create oddly fused blocks, so they won't fuse unless they can create a qaudrilateral shape. You're limited to blocks fusing into only 1x2, 1x3, 2x2, 2x3, and 3x3 forms. While all orbs that are touching will disappear when one connects to a block, only the block touching the orb will go with it. It doesn't matter if it's touching another block of the same color, only a lone block or a block of the previously mentioned fusion forms will give a score. As for the biggest, 3x3 blocks, when one clears, all orbs and blocks of the same color disappear with it. While this is great for setting up a big chain, it doesn't offer much. One thing you can do is set pieces to the side, in that they are in standby and can be brought back to the field for later use. While this is great and can work for strategy in multiplayer, the scoring limit in this game prevents this from being used to it's fullest. While the game is great if you like puzzle games, techno music, and rarely play video games, it's an absolute waste for anyone else to play this game. Though, it can be fun if you know someone else with the same game. Final Note: While I am counting these as the most uninteresing puzzle games, I'm not saying they are bad. They are just seriously lacking in something that should have been included. One has alot of potential, great ideas, and executes them well, but falters from a lack of modes. The other has a nice sound and a decent amount of modes, but a lack of any real depth and a stage that's more luck than skill. There are other puzzle games out there that have far less than content than Vempire or Kurulin, but they are free and sometimes have online leader boards to supply an added challenge. If these games have something you like, then get it. If not, spend your money elsewhere.