Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, released in Japan as Super Puzzle Fighter II X (スーパーパズルファイターIIX Sūpā Pazuru Faitā Tsū Ekkusu?), is a puzzle game first released in the spring of 1996 by Capcom on the CPS II arcade system. The game's title is a parody of Super Street Fighter II Turbo (or Super Street Fighter II X in Japan), with music and interface elements spoofing the Street Fighter Alpha and Darkstalkers games. An HD version titled Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was released in August 2007 on the Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network store. The game was also converted for the PC on CDROM Win95 by late Virgin Interactive.
Gameplay
Puzzle Fighter is a puzzle game which is inspired by the Capcom arcade game Pnickies and Sega arcade game Baku Baku Animal. As in that game, the player controls pairs of blocks ("gems" in game parlance) that drop into a pit-like playfield (twelve blocks tall by six blocks wide, with the fourth column from the left being thirteen blocks high). In Puzzle Fighter, however, gems can only be eliminated by coming into contact with a Crash Gem of the same color, which eliminates all adjacent gems of that color, setting up the potential for huge chain reactions.
As gems are eliminated, "garbage blocks" called Counter Gems will drop into the opponent's playfield; these will eventually become normal gems, but only after they count down to zero (most Counter Gems start at "5" and are reduced by one each time a new pair of gems is dropped on that board), and until that time they cannot be eliminated by normal means. The only way to eliminate Counter Gems before they become normal gems is to place a Crash Gem of that color nearby so it eliminates at least one normal gem. If this is done, all Counter Gems immediately adjacent to the Crash Gem will be taken out as well.
Additionally, gems of the same color that form squares or rectangles (of at least two blocks tall and wide) in the pit become a giant Power Gem of that size and color; eliminating these as part of a combo increases the number of Counter Gems that would otherwise normally appear on the opponent's board. The only other type of piece to appear is a diamond, which eliminates all the gems—normal, Power, Counter, and Crash alike—of whichever color gem it lands on (this, too, will cause Counter Gems to appear on the opponent's board; however, it will always be a smaller number than if the same number of gems had been eliminated as part of a normal chain reaction). The diamond piece appears every 25 pieces.
During the game, super deformed versions of various characters from Capcom's two main fighting game series (Street Fighter and Darkstalkers), will act out a comical battle based on how the game is going. Every time one player sends Counter Gems to his or her opponent, his or her character will perform a typical fighting-game action, anything from a taunt to a special move. The more Counter Gems the player sends over, the "bigger" the move the character will perform. These animations, however, are purely cosmetic and have no actual bearing on the gameplay.
The game continues until one player's field reaches the top of its fourth column (which is where all new gems first appear). That player is the loser.
HD Remix
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is a downloadable remake of the original game released on August 29th, 2007 for Live Arcade and August 30th, 2007 for PlayStation Network. The game featured full HD graphics revitalization, including new gem models and animations, redrawn character portraits and backgrounds, and HD-filtered original sprites. It also features 4-player local and online multiplayer, spectator mode and leaderboards.
HD Remix includes the three gameplay modes included in the Dreamcast version, plus an exclusive mode:
- X' Mode - Also referred to as "X Dash" Mode, this is an all new arcade mode for HD Remix that contains rebalances for competitive play.
- X Mode - The original arcade version of the game.
- Y Mode - Gems break as soon as three or more are aligned in a row, similarly to Sega's Columns.
- Z Mode - Lines of gems rise up from the bottom of the screen and the player controls a 2x2 square cursor that he uses to rotate pieces on the game board, similarly to Nintendo's Tetris Attack.
Characters
As noted above, all of the playable characters in Puzzle Fighter (with one exception) are borrowed from Capcom's two major fighting game series, Street Fighter and Darkstalkers. The super deformed take on these characters gave the game a unique, light-hearted feel that served as a deserved break from the rough and edgy fighting games that were prevalent at the time of Puzzle Fighter's initial release. A fighting game using these character sprites called Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (Pocket Fighter in Japan) was released in 1997. Akuma is the game boss and Devilot is an unplayable secret character controlled by CPU that rarely challenges the player. Akuma, Dan and Devilot are unlockable characters in the console version.
Street Fighter characters
Sprite | Name | Info | Origin |
---|---|---|---|
Ryu | A fighter from Japan, Ryu was the winner of Bison's tournament. He claims he is the best of the best. He is also the target of Akuma, due to his "secret" power. | Street Fighter | |
Ken | Ryu's best friend and greatest rival, Ken Masters is a rich playboy who has a wife and a kid. | Street Fighter | |
Chun-Li | An officer at Interpol, she lost her father after the evil M. Bison killed him. | Street Fighter II | |
Sakura | Sakura is Dan's pupil and considers Ryu her idol. She constantly searches and strives to be like him. | Street Fighter Alpha 2 |
Darkstalkers characters
Sprite | Name | Info | Origin |
---|---|---|---|
Morrigan | Morrigan is a succubus who lives for fun and excitement. | Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors | |
Donovan | Donovan is a vampire hunter and a enemy to Morrigan. | Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge | |
Hsien-Ko | Hsien-Ko is a vampire huntress. She was once an enemy to Morrigan, but eventually became friends with her. | Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge | |
Felicia | A cat-human hybrid, Felicia was once a nun and helped kids. She is also a performer. | Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors |
Hidden characters
Sprite | Name | Info | Origin |
---|---|---|---|
Akuma | Akuma is the rival of Ryu and Ken. He believes he is the mightiest warrior alive and trains day and night to prove he is the world's best. | Super Street Fighter II Turbo | |
Dan | Dan is the self-proclaimed teacher of Sakura. His father was killed by a young Sagat, who he defeated and avenged, not knowing Sagat allowed him to win for that precise reason. | Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams | |
Devilot | A major Cyberbots character, Devilot appears at random to challenge the player. | Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness | |
Mei-Ling | Hsien-Ko's twin, who is actually the talisman on her hat. | Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge | |
Anita | Donovan's little friend who accompanies him everywhere. | Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge |
Trivia
- If the controler is left without entering any command in the title screen, after a while an animated "tutorial" sequence will be shown, in which Dan appears instructing the players about how the rules for the game works.