Twinbee Taisen Puzzle Dama - 1994 - Sony Playstation (Japan only)
One of the very, very first games for the PSX, released in 1994. Twinbee Taisen Puzzle Dama is actually a conversion of a then current Konami arcade title - Taisen Puzzle Dama, to which, other than being Twinbee themed, it's 100% identical. PSX emulation is good, but not good enough to emulate the game unfortunately, so bear in mind that these scans don't fully represent the actual graphics quality.
TTPD offers exactly what you'd expect from a Twinbee themed puzzle game - competitive block busting action in the same style as Puyo Puyo. Or, if you prefer, Dr.Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Stack up the coloured Bells which fall from the top of the screen, rotating them for optimum placement. Place three bells of the same colour next to each other and they'll disappear. There's also a second class of bell, frozen in ice. These can't be destroyed and get dumped on each player whenever their opponent does well. However, if any bells in proximity to them disintegrate, then the ice will melt and they'll be upgraded to 'normal' bells which can then be dealt with. Hope that makes sense...it goes without saying that should anyone let their bell stack overflow the top of the screen, then it's game over. And of course, while all this goes on, the rival characters generally mug and leer at each other.
So basically, there's absolutely nothing in TTPD that hasn't been seen in countless other arcade puzzlers. That's not really a criticism - the game is 7 years old, and the play remains extremely solid. For the time, TTPD was probably quite impressive, and it's definitely still fun. What makes the game of interest is the Twinbee makeover it's been given. You can play with or against Twinbee, Winbee, Gwinbee, Light, Pastel, Warumon, Mardock, Madoka, Melora and the Evil Bee. And another green-haired girl whose name I don't actually know. Whoever you choose, you tour round Donburi island fighting various opponents, with each match preceded by a little voice-acted cut-scene. The character animation is well done...everyone has a variety of poses that they range through during the course of each battle. Some are of the predictable variety...Madoka cries or bakes cakes, Warumon menaces and Gwinbee bounces up and down. Others are just warped...Mardock picks his nose and bleeds both abundantly and disgustingly - that's when he's not shooting bolts out of his eyes. Pastel looks incredibly freaky when she loses, like a robot or something, and the green-haired mystery woman undresses gradually (though the clothes come back on when you stop doing well).
There's lots of music, mostly fairly decent remixes of older tunes. Unfortunately the tracks are distinct to each game-mode (two-player, single-player story, expert mode, etc.), so when you play, you'll hear the same tune throughout...randomising the themes or tying them to particular characters would have added more variety. The game also gets extremely fast and unfair towards the end - Melora is pretty much impossible to defeat without a lot of luck...but this seems to be the case with every puzzler I play, so it may just be my lack of skill that's to blame. Also, your opponents are merciless - they'll kick you when you're down by continuing to rain bells on you when your situation is already untenable. I guess that's just the way it goes...chain reactions seem to come out of nowhere, so you can often recover when you least expect it.
One extra thing - hidden (at least to an English speaker), but accessible through the options screen, is a complete version of the game this is based on - Taisen Puzzle Dama, so the CD actually contains two full games. It freaked me out when I first discovered it. In all then, and especially in light of this bonus feature, Twinbee Taisen Puzzle Dama is definitely worth getting as a slice of Konami history - if you can find it.
