While Sonic Team's recent outings with the blue hedgehog may be questionable, there is no denying that this group of people know how to make some excellent puzzle games. Not only are they behind the sublime Chu Chu Rocket, but have taken over the Puyo Pop series (which originally hit the market in 1991 for the MSX2, as Puyo Puyo.) Early versions of the game have appeared on older consoles under completely different names like Candy Crisis, Kirby's Avalanche and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (which is available in the Sonic Mega Collection Plus release.) This version, Puyo Pop Fever, is not a new game; in fact, it was Sega's last game for the Dreamcast and has since appeared on PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, with versions in the works for DS and PSP.

Personally, I feel this game belongs on handhelds - that's where puzzle games shine. There's nothing like pulling out your favourite handheld to play a challenging puzzle game when you want to kill some time. You just can't do that with a console. A lot of people may consider Puyo Puyo a Tetris rip off, but I see it different than that. For those unaware, Puyo Pop is a colour-based puzzle game, as opposed to a shape-based one. Connecting groups of one colour in fours clears them from the screen and all pieces that were previously on top fall down, opening up some great combo possibilities. Red, blue, green, yellow and purple make up the list of colours and each have their own designs (complete with distinctive eyes.)

They come down in all sorts of colour combinations and shapes, with Fever introducing new shapes to the mix, including an "L" shaped three piece Puyo that can be no more than two colours and a quadruple set that comes down in either two or one colour (if it comes as one you can manually change the colour as it falls), which actually looks like one giant puyo face! The main objective is to clear out as many Puyo pieces as you can, thus sending Nuisance Puyos to the other player, which are transparent pieces that get in the way and mess a lot of things up. This is a good set up but the game is called Puyo Pop Fever after all, so there is something extra thrown in.

For starters, when you clear out your entire playing field of puyo, you get rewarded with a stack of coloured puyo. Doesn't sound like much of a reward, right? Well, these pieces fall in a specific order so that, if you place a piece in the correct spot, the entire stack caves in line by line on itself and clears out colour after colour, making for a huge combo and tons of Nuisance Puyo for your opponent.

Puyo Pop Fever allows you to do what's called Offsetting, which is one of the best features to be introduced to the puzzle genre in a long while. First off, if you have any Nuicance Puyo waiting to drop in on you, they're displayed above your playing area in the Puyo preview box - it cleverly displays the amount of pieces waiting to drop in on you... but, they will only drop if you put a piece down that does not clear out a colour. If you do clear a colour, a specific amount of puyo are removed from the preview and thus eliminated from ever dropping in on you. If you manage to do a huge combo or clear an enormous amount of one colour, even more Nuisance Puyo's are eliminated before they ever cause any harm. Here's the great thing though: each time a player eliminates a Nuisance puyo from the preview box, they get a point in the Fever Count. As soon as you obtain seven points (which equals seven nuisance eliminations) you enter Fever Mode.

Fever Mode pours down a set of puyo exactly like what happens when you completely clear your playing field, however even if you don't clear every single piece with one combo, another set drops down until your time expires. As you do this your enemy is frantically trying to offset the massive amount of Nuisance Puyos you're piling on him, which in turn builds up his fever mode and allows him to enter it as well and counter yours. Everything from offsetting to the fever mode really adds a lot of strategy to an otherwise average puzzle game - do you clear pieces straight away, or do you wait for your opponent to clear some and send some nuisance puyos your way, only for you to offset them with a huge combo you've been preparing? Or you can attack right from the start and never give your enemy a chance to offset you. There's a surprisingly large amount of techniques and ways to play Puyo Pop Fever - that's the beauty of it and ultimately what makes it so enjoyable, so long as you actually realise how the game works.

The various ways to play makes for some challenging AI as well; the game is loaded with unique characters, each with their own looks, voices and, most importantly, their own play styles. Some opponents play by stacking up pieces on the left and right only, while others stack pieces up in the middle. Bosses like to refuse to clear any pieces until you do, so they can counter with a huge chain attack. Single Pop Puyo is the main single player mode, offering a three stage training course, an eight stage beginners course for when you get the hang of the way the game works, an advance eight stage course for the players who've mastered the game and a Free Battle mode, where you select who you wish to battle as and against. The boss characters are actually very difficult for new players and even veterans may struggle later on in the advanced course - Puyo Pop Fever offers some very challenging modes to keep you playing for quite some time.

Double Puyo Pop is a two-player battle mode requiring two systems and either one or two cartridges. Here you can select from various game set ups and rules, including the ability to completely disable Fever mode and play Puyo Puyo in its original form. Similar to this is Everybody Puyo Pop mode, except this one allows for up to four players, all against each other or on one team.

Finally there's Endless Puyo Pop, another single player mode that attempts to bring replay value to players who don't have GBA equipped buddies. You can play Fever Mode, where you are always in fever mode until the time runs out (you can extend this by making chains) and Mission, where you're given a task such as removing six or seven puyos at once or making a three chain combo. When you complete one task, you're given another until time runs out. Original mode is the classic Puyo Pop game with no time limit, no opponent and no Nuisance Puyos to be concerned about - this is a great way to practice building up chains for new players!

The graphics in Puyo Pop are a real treat, in fact they put a lot of other puzzlers to shame (especially It's Mr. Pants.) Not only are all the characters loaded with unique mannerisms and abilities, but even the puyo pieces themselves have little eyes. The pieces also are brilliantly animated, squishing against each other as you place them down or they fall from a combo and they break apart in a satisfying way after combining. Sonic Team covered the cake in a nice, creamy fudge icing as well by including loads of great backgrounds to battle on and even having the characters show up on screen at specific times during the game. Everything is incredibly colourful and naturally appealing to the eyes, especially to children and it all looks even better if you play on the Nintendo DS.

With great graphics there should be great sound to accompany and Puyo Pop doesn't disappoint. The music is fun, charming and fits with the style of the game and the characters flawlessly, even changing speed and tone if you're close to topping out. Sound effects for moving pieces, clearing pieces and even rotating them are in full force and each is unique, so you always know exactly what you or your enemy is doing. The only downside is the numerous voice effects for each character when they clear a piece and it only gets louder and more outrageous as combos are made.

Though some of the voices are fine, others will quickly get on your nerves, so I decided to put some rock music on whilst playing, until I realised that those voices really help you out quite a lot. Puyo Pop gets pretty frantic and you can't always be looking at the enemy's side of the screen, which is where the voices come in; when you hear the other player start to blurt out some absurd thing like "Indeed... Indeedy, In..DEEDY!!" you know you're in for a world of hurt, thus you automatically start trying to clear pieces to offset your opponent's Nuisance Puyos that are looming above waiting to screw you up. It wasn't until I was without the sound that I realised how big a role it plays in the game. The only flaw I can come up with (other than the pause menu reacting to every button thus making for some accidental un-pauses) is the fact that new players will probably struggle as they approach the end of the easy course - as some of the enemies are relentless!

Puyo Pop Fever is a great puzzle game that accomplishes everything it sets out to do, loaded with great graphics, good sound and most importantly of all, addictive and challenging gameplay. A lot of players won't see the magic of Puyo Pop Fever at first, but the fever mode and offsetting add a world of depth and strategy that easily ranks this game up with the greats of puzzling.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).