Capcom made waves back in the late Nineties when, out of nowhere, they released a tongue-in-cheek parody of their two biggest franchises in the form of a puzzle game. Poking fun at the famous titles of their Street Fighter series, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (the first and only Puzzle Fighter), featured eleven characters from the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers series, all in super-deformed chibi style. This latest remix not only throws in the new modes that were created for the Dreamcast release of the game, but also adds a new re-balanced X' mode and even revamped visuals to fully take advantage of the HD era.

Puzzle Fighter does what it seems many games fail to achieve: it delivers a highly addictive and fun concept and great presentation. Using brightly colored gems, 1x2 pieces drop down one at a time, sometimes two different colors or all the same color, and you must use them to form blocks. When four gems of the same colors touch in a pattern of 2x2, 2x4, 4x4, 5x5 and so on, they merge into one giant colored block. Eventually, Crash Gems start being attached to your pieces and, upon contact with a piece of the same color, break that piece regardless of its status. For instance, touching a yellow crash gem to a single yellow block eliminates it, as does touching it to a giant yellow block that you've created out of numerous small ones. Once a block has been cleared, everything above it falls down to fill the space, hopefully causing chain reactions or forming new blocks in the process. The only other pieces that come into play are Counter Blocks and Diamonds; the diamond piece instantly eliminates all blocks of whichever color it touches, while counter blocks are shoved into your opponent's field when you clear your own. There is one catch though...

When the counter blocks fall onto the other playing field they have a number displayed in a certain color, usually five. After five more pieces are played, the counter block turns into a regular block and can be used to form new blocks or break others. This adds a strong strategy element to the gameplay and enables some truly great comebacks as you plan out piece placement based on where the counter blocks are placed and what colors they will turn into - each character also has their own specific color pattern that the counter blocks will fall in, giving the character selection process some actual importance. Just don't select Dan though, whose counter pattern is all the same color!

During gameplay you'll see fighters in the middle of the screen from Capcom's two famous titles - and one from a not so famous game - though for the most part they just stand there and look ready to fight. When a player gets a huge combo or clears out a large block, their character attacks the other player's character with familiar moves; if you make the enemy top out with counter blocks after a huge string of block clears then you'll see your character perform their signature finishing move from Darkstalkers or the Alpha series.

Taken from the Dreamcast game, Puzzle Fighter also features two additional modes of play - X and Y. In the X mode, you clear pieces simply by stringing three of the same color together either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. In Y mode, you rotate a 2x2 section of blocks similar to Tetris Attack as more pieces rise from the bottom of the screen. X' is simply a rebalanced version of the traditional Puzzle Fighter mode created to make the game a bit more even for online play. The different modes all could have been the main gameplay style of a single puzzle game, yet they're all offered here in Puzzle Fighter and each can be played any time, single player or online.

Puzzle Fighter has been recreated by the UDON team, who worked on the Street Fighter comic books and the upcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, so the game stands up against modern HD graphics. Instead of the graphics looking pixelated or distorted, all the characters are incredibly crisp and clear, as are the backgrounds and menus. The gems look better than ever and the overall feel of the game is very cheerful and upbeat, meshing with the classic midi-styled tunes featured in the original game, the various cute voices and superb crashing sound effects for the gems. Overall, Puzzle Fighter's presentation is that which puzzle games can usually only dream of being and rarely manage to achieve... not only is it a real treat to play, but to look at and listen to as well.

Even if you're not a fan of the Capcom fighting style or their games, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo is one to pick up. The Capcom faces aren't a gimmick at all and simply exist to further showcase one of the best and most fun puzzle concepts ever devised. With some real effort having gone into ensuring the game looks great on any TV and plays well online, this is one of the Xbox Live Arcade games that really needs to be in every collection, especially with the recent decline in classic puzzlers on the console. Now go bust some gems!

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