Saturday, September 01, 2007

They've released a new version of one of my all-time favorite games, Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. You don't even have to get off the couch to buy it! You can download Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix straight to your Xbox 360 for about $10. This is the first online-enabled Puzzle Fighter, so you can compete against people from around the world. We're a flying car away from The Jetsons here, people.

Puzzle Fighter is a cult game even among cult games. The tongue-in-cheek title turns a lot of people off, and one of the worst soundtracks ever doesn't help (listen).

Unlike similar block dropping games, Puzzle Fighter is built around competition. There's no way to just play for score, you are always trying to defeat an opponent. The game's not without it's quirks - as far as I know even the mighty Internet was never able to crack the math behind some of it's mechanics.

That's why I'm SO excited that HD Remix includes an option to play both a meticulous recreation of the original game (dubbed X) and a rebalanced remix (dubbed X'). The changes between the two are so minor and ridiculous, I would sound insane describing them. I'm embarrassed I noticed a few. Capcom was so paranoid about these little tweaks that they couldn't commit to them. They just threw up their hands and said, "you figure it out." I respect that.

Is anyone really going to use the drop pattern editor? I consider myself a pretty legit Puzzle Fighter fan, and Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix has more options than even I'm interested in. That's the best review I can give it.

1 comment:

Patrick Moberg said...

You, Casey, and I should have a Puzzle Quest tournament some time after work. Does anyone else play?