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Puyo Pop Fever, known in Japan as Puyo Puyo Fever (ぷよぷよフィーバー), is a puzzle game released mainly on the Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable and was developed by Sonic Team. Sega published all versions of it in Japan, but due to a strange reluctance to carry it over to other countries, international versions of it were sometimes published by others. Sega of America published the U.S. GameCube version, Atlus published the U.S. Nintendo DS version, Sega of Europe published the European GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions, and THQ published the European Game Boy Advance version. The PlayStation Portable version is listed for a U.S. release, but has been re-listed recently with the "To Be Announced" status.
Gameplay Information
The game's story mode follows the adventure about Amitie, a spunky girl who attends a magic school, where she is taught by Miss Accord how to cast magical spells using Puyos, which are blob-like jelly creatures of multiple colours and facial expressions. Magicians using Puyos for battle have a field in which groups of Puyos can fall (much like Tetris) and must be arranged to "pop" them, which occurs when they arrange in certain patterns so that four of the same colour touch each other. This casts a "spell," which will disrupt the opponent's Puyo arena. The loser is determined when one of the middle two columns on his or her field fills up to the top.
A new addition to the Puyo Pop game mechanics is the Fever Mode. Fever Mode occurs when a bar in the middle of the screen is filled up. To fill the bar, one must "offset," or counterattack "garbage Puyos," which are colourless and hard-to-pop Puyos, being sent to the field by the opponent. Every chain, which is a single popping of Puyos, will fill one space in the Fever Gauge until it is full, which is when Fever activates. In Fever Mode, a pre-designed puzzle will fall onto a cleared field. In a limited amount of time, one must find a "trigger point" in the puzzle, which will cause a major chain to go off and attack the opponent. Once a chain is made, another puzzle falls, bigger and more complicated than the previous one. This keeps occurring until time runs out, then it returns the player to his or her original field.
Story
In the main story of the game, Ms. Accord has lost her Flying Cane, the equivalent of a magic wand, and claims to have a reward for the student who can find it. The player plays the role of Amitie as she ventures across the Puyo Pop Fever world to find the cane, while meeting many wacky characters along the way and battling them. In a harder version of the story mode, one plays as Amitie's rival: Raffine. Which story mode one is playing determines what characters one will meet and which ultimately finds the wand.Character Description
The different characters of Puyo Pop Fever offer different gameplay. With the addition of groups of three and four Puyos, unlike previous Puyo Pop games, each character has his or her own pattern of which different types of Puyo groups fall onto the field. All the characters are playable, but not in Story Mode, where one must be Amitie or Raffine, respectively. There are also two hidden characters, one possessing a powerful pattern of Puyo groups. We took the time to go into detail on each playable character, and each one has his of her own playing style. Pick whichever one that caters to you most.Amitie *
Amitie is a spunky, adventurous girl who attends the PuyoPuyo Magic School with Raffine and the rest of the gang. She's new to magic and can best be compared to a new-age Arle (or a near-Arle clone, for that matter). She wears a large, red hat that looks like a Puyo and is the first to set out on the quest to find Accord's flyer. It can be assumed that Amitie is making this trip for a chance to make up for low academics or simply for extra credit. Amitie is an all-around player, using fire, lightning, and ice spells and is a great character for beginners, yet you're forced to play as Amitie anyway in three of the game's play modes in most of the home versions.Chain Enders:
Flame- a fireball spirals as Amitie points with her finger to the sky.
Blizzard- various snow flakes rise from the bottom of the screen, with amitie still pointing up.
Lightning bolt- Amitie does the pointing thing as one lighning bolt strikes in the middle of the screen.
All righty- Amitie spins around with sparkly eyes, with both hands pointing to the left, as flowers flash across the screen.
Fairy Fair- Amitie closes her eyes with outstretched arms as a huge beam of light strikes.
Raffine *
Written in Katakana and often pronounced in the game's spoken dialogue as "Raffina", she is a snobby girl from a wealthy family who decides to beat Amitie to the punch and find the wand before she does, thus earning Ms. Accord's respect. Chances are she's hunting for the Flying Cane for the same reasons Amitie is. She comes from a somewhat French heritage, which explains some of the French she exclaims after scoring certain combos ("Allemange!") More often than not, she sometimes goes out of her way to show up Amitie.Chain Enders:
Tremendous- Raffine holds out her hand almost to say stop with her thumb tucked in. A light and several sparkles expel from her palm.
Ecossaisse- Same as Tremendous.
Avalanche- Raffine kicks up to the sky, as dust circulates it and rotates downards around her body.
Feu D'artifice-Identical to Avalanche, only balls of light circulate instead.
Ciel Arc- Identical to Avalanche, only a rainbow trail circulates.
Oshare Bones *
Possibly the most laughable character in the entire game, he is a skeleton who follows the steps somewhat to Skele-T. Knowing he's all that, a bag of chips and a 21-ounce soda, he uses the dastardly power of FASHION to helplessly beat his opponents. Oshare's really a flexible player: He can be a pushover with some users and a serious contender with other users. Facing him alone is enough of a reason to pick up this game -- he is an absolute liar, especially when he finishes a combo..."Call the fashion police!"Chain enders:
Call the fashion police- Oshare bones does a rude "go away" kind of wave with the back of his hand.
Talk to the hand- Same as Call the fashion police.
Drop Dead- Same as Call the fashion police.
Avant Garde- Oshare bones does a flirty kind of wink at you.
Psychedelic- Oshare bones spins around in a circle.
The Gameboy Advance version uses an extra piece of character art for Oshare Bones, in the sense that Drop Dead has the glowing eye flirty wink, Avant Garde spins in a circle whilst coming towards you, and Psychedelic is where he does a ballet spin with love hearts coming out from underneath his legs, supposedly propelling him up to the screen.
Oshare Bone's piece set is practically identical to Onion Pixy's, sharing the same number of puyos, but in a different order.
Rider *
A generally shy girl with large ears with hair growing on them(?), her overall hair weakly resembles that of a ribbon. She also has very small pair of horns growing from her head. Very shy and not very outgoing, she tends to stutter often. Her magic involves the power of wind, summoning hurricanes and gusts of wind. She is known around Amitie's group of friends as "Rita". A strong player in normal play, she proves to be quite the opposite in Fever mode.Chain enders:
Vento- Rider puts both arms up and sliashes them down diagonally, making wind blades.
Lampo- Rider closes her eyes and focuses hard as lighting runs between her two horns.
Rota- Small hurricanes expel from bothc of Rider's outstretched arms.
Bene- Rider does the same as Lampo, but lightning completely surrounds her.
Tempesta- A combination of Rota and Bene.
Klug *
A purple-clad boy in Amitie and Raffine's class, who is rumored to have a demon possessing him. Always with his head in a book when laying down attacks, he is at the academic head of his class. His attack titles are based on astrological/Latin-based words, with spectacular magic effects. He has a solid dropset, on the upper end of the scale in terms of Puyo count, and good for both beginners and advanced players.Chain enders:
Nebula- Klug looks down at his book and puts out one hand, as dark clouds release.
Ignis- Klug does his pose as a pink lighning ball collects on his hand.
Lactus orbis- Klug does the pose again, as a yellow symbol glows above his head.
Nebula Macula- Same as Lactus orbis, but the symbol is black.
A demonic Laugh(hahahahaha)- Klug looks to the sky with an open spell book held above his head, as he laughs maniacly and his demon within appears behind him.
The GameBoy Advance version:
Nebula- Klug holds his book on his side with his right hand and holds his left hand out, which spreads purple dust.
Igneous- Does the same pose, except he summons a purple lightning ball with his left hand.
Lacteous Orbus- Klug holds his book open beneath is waist with his left hand, holding his right hand up above the book, higher than his head. A yellow star with a circular glow around it appears from the book.
Nebula Macula- Same as Lacteous Orbus, except the star and the glow is purple.
A demonic laugh (ha! ha, ha, ha, ha!)- same as above.
Out of all the characters in this game, Klug is the strongest outside of Fever, dishing out even more garbage than the likes of Rider and TaruTaru (who are both almost as equally as strong as each other).
Dongurigaeru *
Probably the strangest looking frog ever, Donny is a frog that rolls around in an acorn top. Like Carbuncle, he is only capable of ribbiting. In the Japanese version, he shouts "kero kero!" (ribbit ribbit!) One of the only two sea creatures in the game, Amitie is lucky enough to have a run-in with this cute character. She watches Donny roll around, and when he crashes into a wall, he immediately becomes filled with rage and the only solution Amitie can think of calming the tiny beast is challenging him to a puyo-match. It's interesting to note when playing against Donny that he tends to stack a large 2 rows of puyo on the right -- this is so he can counter your offsets with ease with extra to spare, or go into Fever before you!His AI was a repeat of a classic Puyo Puyo character, Nohoho. However, it was altered so that only columns 6, then 5 respectively, were filled to the top (as Nohoho's required column 4 too, and this didn't fit with the new rules).
Frankensteins *
A puzzle game wouldn't be complete without fighting a duo-opponent. Frankendad, lacking the proper language skills, insists on grunting to get his message across. Frankenkid, however, is the "mouth" for his dad and translates for his lingustic-disabled father. Nonetheless, this father-son duo shares the same traits as Tarutaru, dishing out ground attacks and also capable of packing a super-punch ~ also capable of dishing out 4 times the puyo as usual.Frankenstein's piece set is practically half Popoi's, and half Accord's. The first 7 puyos follow Popoi's piece set exactly, whereas the last 9 follow Accord's exactly. He is a favourite among many that train using Popoi and Accord because of his effervescent piece set.
Onion Pixy *
One of the other cute characters in the game, this little brat carries a spiked club and has an extensive vocabulary with only one word ~ "Onion!" Japan he simply says "On!" Despite his English name being "Onion Pixy", his Japanese is actually a pun on "Oni", which is Japanese for Ogre. He`s a little Onion Ogre! With his wonderfully bulbous onion-shaped head, his cute shouts and cuddly appearance can really throw the opponent for a loop as they're sitting in a ditch of nuisance Puyo...Onion Pixy's piece set is practically identical to Oshare Bones', sharing the same number of puyos, but in a different order.
Prince of Ocean *
Changed to "Ocean Prince" in the Nintendo DS version, this fish is one of the strangest characters next to Oshare Bones. A minnow, he wears a crown and has a weak Australian accent. Of course, the Prince appointed himself to this position. He looks down upon anyone who crosses his path, and one who questions the status he holds can expect a dastardly verbal lashing. He packs quite a punch, using the power of the ocean in his attacks. The Ocean Prince is also a didactic fellow, frequently announcing things in such language that makes him sound high and mighty. Prince is a great player for building up to Fever quickly though, and this goes without saying.His strength in Fever makes him the most powerful, even stronger than Popoi and Hohow Bird (who are both equally as tough). He also shares the same number of puyos per piece pattern as Accord, as he has 42 puyos per piece pattern, the second highest in the game.
Yu *
A happy-go-lucky girl who's dressed as a ghost without legs enjoys the simple pleasures of life such as dancing, Yu roams about the netherworld constantly looking for an audience. Every day is Halloween for her, as she likes to grab attention with her rather empty combo dialogue Yes indeed!", Yu seems to get verbally repetitive rather quickly and somewhat annoying as well. Her Japanese form is considerably less repetative and is frankly rather fun to play. Yu is good at going into fever mode quickly and her best strategy involves staying there for a while.Tarutaru *
A spherical powerhouse of an individual, he does not have the logic that most of his classmates have and is often left behind. Amused by throwing his weight around, he throws gusts and earthquakes at his opponents. One of the strongest players, he can throw as much as four times the puyo at his opponent than most other players can! The only other character that can match this are the Frankensteins, who live in this universe's netherworld. On a side note, there is a small hint that Tarutaru is often lonely, and nor is he very good with women either, as shown in Harahara Course cutscene where he attempts to trap Raffine in the school to keep him company.Hohow Bird *
A horribly conceited bird, he actually is some sort of chicken. Thinking he is an action hero, he rubs his power and skill into his opponents "mhmm...!"-ing with each attack. For some reason, the Japanese voice parallels this; which he announces his name before the attack, which is just as arrogant. He is a very sly player with contant 3-puyo pieces that fall -- making it rather easy for him to dish out combos at the drop of a hat!His power matches Popoi's in terms of Fever exactly. Players that do battle against Popoi in free battle may find it easier to combat heavy garbage by training as Hohow Bird. His piece set also has no Big Puyo, so it follows a classic style (like Arle's does, except Hohow Bird has triple puyos and a double pair puyo).
Arle *
Who could possibly forget Arle Nadja? The original heroine of the previous Puyo Pop classics makes a return from the Compile games as a side character who was "separated" from her own Puyo universe. With Arle's help, she and Amitie figure out a way to get Arle back to her dimension -- how else but a game of Puyo Pop? An expert sorceress, she is a well-balanced player who only has the traditional 2-puyo combinations fall in her Puyo arena, thus giving experienced Puyo Pop players a "retro" feel to the gameplay. Arle is also a prime choice if one wishes to find out how the mechanics of the Puyo Pop series work.Chain Enders:
It should be noted that Arle and Amitie have identical graphic affects for their spells.
Fire- a fireball spirals as Arle points with her finger across her body.
Ice storm- various snow flakes rise from the bottom of the screen, with Arle doing the same pose.
Thunder- Arle does the pose as one lighning bolt strikes in the middle of the screen.
Cutie- Arle spins around with sparkly eyes, with both hands pointing to the left, as flowers flash across the screen.
Heaven Ray- Arle closes her eyes with outstretched arms as a huge beam of light.
Miss Accord *
Miss Accord is the teacher of Amitie's magic class alongside her puppet, Popoi, who looks like a cat. She is also the diabolical mastermind behind the events transpiring within the PPF world involving her Winged Cane. Her attacks are all music-based, beginning from slow tempo (Alegretto, Andante), to fast(Presto) as the chains rise higher and higher.Her drop set follows the cycle of 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 4. The eighth puyo is a Big Puyo, whereas the 16th puyo is a Double Pair. Admired by many, and suited for the advanced player, she shares the same puyo count as Prince of Ocean and Klug, having 42 puyos per 16 piece pattern, the second highest in the game.
Popoi *
Popoi is the diabolical looking cat puppet that Miss Accord carries around with her. He is the final boss for both the Wakuwaku Course and Harahara Course. Although he is cute when held by Miss Accord, he becomes somewhat demonic in appearance: he looks much like his normal form with the exception of having his entire body exposed. Although he seems to be a sentient being, he's really controlled by the seemingly oblivious Miss Accord. He uses attacks based on stellar objects and weapons ("Galaxy Meow!", "Shooting Star!", and "Whip Meow!") and yells Meow! or Go Go Meow! every so often. A strong character to face, he is able to dish out lots of nuisance Puyo in an instant.Carbuncle *
The OTHER flagship of the Puyo Puyo franchise, known for being Arle's sidekick, and often referred to in Japan as "Kaa-kun". His former roles usually included him dancing around a small box on the playing field as in Puyo Puyo, starting the match by popping a balloon, and generally acts silly most of the time. Carbuncle really does not speak but just shouts "Guu~!" ("Tada" in English) every chance he gets. He is incredibly skilled, sometimes lucky, but deadly character in this game. Contrary to his appearance, he is capable of shooting beams out of the ruby in his head.Chain Enders:
Again, Arle, Amitie and Carbuncle have exactly the same spells.
Ta-da- a fireball spirals as Carbuncle looks up.
Ta...da- various snow flakes rise from the bottom of the screen, Carbuncle looking up.
Ta--da- one lighning bolt strikes in the middle of the screen, Carbuncle looking up.
Ta--da---- Carbuncle spins around with his tongue out, as flowers flash across the screen.
Ta da daa---- Carbuncle looks up as a huge beam of light strikes.
Carbuncle has the biggest piece set in the game, totalling to 48 puyos per 16 piece pattern, boasting 3 Big Puyos, 3 Double Pairs, 5 Triple Puyos and 5 Pairs, following a mirrored cycle during each half. Despite having such a huge piece set, beginners favour him for his quick ability to jump into Fever, however, he is not the best character to choose for many matches. Carbuncle's huge disadvantage is his power, which is the same as Arle's both inside and outside of Fever. However, his piece set is versatile and helps him scamper into Fever and deal out heavy damage just when needed. In addition, he has a single advantage over every other character in that his pieces always will fall faster than theirs, thus allowing skilled players to get more attacks in and counter faster.
Multiplayer Battles
Multiplayer is argued to be the best feature of this game with a near-unanimous opinion among Puyo Pop players, especially in the Nintendo DS version which supports 2 to 8 players, as opposed to the others which only support 2 or 4. In this mode, one can play as any available character.Endless
There is also an Endless Mode, where one can practice Fever Mode, complete small tasks as they are given, and play good old-fashioned Puyo Pop. Unfortunately, the grid and All Clear rules remain the same as they do in Fever, so it's not exactly classic (in the original Puyo Pop series, you could use the top of column 4 fully for building chains if needed. If you fill column 4 all the way in this form of endless, you lose).Other information
Puyo Pop Fever (And its sequel, Puyo Pop Fever 2, already out in Japan) is the latest installment in the popular Puyo Pop (or Puyo Puyo in Japan) puzzle game series. Compile, the original creator of the Puyo Pop series, played no part in the creation of this game, for it has been gone from the video game industry for a while. Sonic Team began this project to keep the series alive, but redesigned the entire package into something of its own, adding new features, new cast characters, and gameplay elements along the way. despite the absence of Compile, the protagonists of the original Puyo Pop series, Arle the brown-haired spellcasting warrior and Carbuncle the little yellow beam-shooting rabbit, play a cameo role in this game, Arle being "lost" from her own world and Carbuncle being a final boss and secret playable character. It received much fanfare and praise in Japan, and is still going strong with the recent Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable versions.
15th Anniversary Edition
Puyo Pop Fever: Puyo 15th Anniversary Carnival Edition was released on March 17 2006 in commemoration of the original release of Puyo Puyo. This version may be downloaded free of charge for PC. It features online battling as well as a chat lobby for matchups and such. "Present" matches are also available in which the player battles against a special CPU character for the chance to win one of many prizes.
Worldwide Distribution
While becoming popular very quickly in Japan, the game hasn't received much attention from other parts of the world, mainly because of the lack of international distribution. In the U.S., it has been released for the Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo DS, with an announced PlayStation Portable release. A U.S. Xbox release was once planned, but cancelled. Europe has received all three main console versions as well as the Nokia N-gage and Game Boy Advance versions, but otherwise no others are announced.
Lesser Known Versions
While noted for being released on today's most popular gaming platforms, Puyo Pop Fever has actually been, much like its highly multi-platform Puyo Pop ancestors, released across several smaller platforms in Japan, including a few mobile phone services. Sega released them in an easily memorizable pattern as an almost "once a month" system throughout 2004, each being on the 24th day of every month. The only versions known to have broken this "24th day" rule are the Arcade (exact date unknown) and PlayStation 2 versions. The main console versions (Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2) were re-released in Japan on November 4, 2005 under the "Sega Best" label and budget price. The official Japanese site lists the following releases: Arcade (November, 2003), docomo (May 24, 2004), Macintosh (June 24, 2004), Vodafone (June 24, 2004), au (July 24, 2004), Windows (September 24, 2004), Pocket PC (October 24, 2004), and Palm OS (November 24, 2004).
External links
- Official Japanese Website
- Official U.S. Website of the Nintendo DS Version
- Official European Website
- Japanese 15th Anniversary Edition Website and Download
- Official Japanese Tournament Information and Videos
- Comprehensive History of Puyo Pop
- CubeIGN Review Article
See also
2003 arcade games | 2004 computer and video games | Mac OS games | Arcade games | Dreamcast games | Game Boy Advance games | GameCube games | Nintendo DS games | Windows games | PlayStation 2 games | PlayStation Portable games | Puzzle computer and video games | Xbox games | Puyo Puyo series | Sega games | Atlus games | THQ games
"Puyo Pop Fever"