Super Puzzle Fighter II: Network Battle – MB – Preview

Along
with a couple other mobile games, Capcom is working on a port of Super Puzzle
Fighter II. For those unfamiliar, Super Puzzle Fighter II is a Tetris-like
puzzle game that uses gems instead of blocks.

The point is to build up
big gems by orienting smaller ones of the same color into square blocks. When
at least a 2×2 square is made, the gems merge into a bigger gem. Gems can only
be cleared when a round glowing gem of the same color touches it. At that
point all gems of that color that are touching pop,
and your opponent gets a bunch of gems dumped on them. So basically you’re
building trails and huge gems of the same color, then
just waiting for that glowing gem to unleash the fury.

The main focus of Puzzle
Fighter on the cell phone is its multiplayer feature. Anyone in the area with
that game can receive messages and invites from you. You can even send
multiple challenges out if you’re somewhat impatient. If there are no human
players around, there are always bots to challenge.

You can also create your
own name to use when playing multiplayer, as well as pick from four Street
Fighter characters and four Dark Stalkers characters to represent you.

The way a multiplayer
game works is by utilizing timed sessions. Both players play at the same time,
and the game takes note of when big combos are made and how well each player
is doing. The session ends and you can see your score as well as your
opponent’s, and then the next session begins. In this session, the game
remembers at what time each player made combos, so now you’ll begin receiving
gems from your opponent’s combos and such.  Each session picks up right where
the last left off, and it isn’t a game over if you lose. The game just counts
a loss as a KO and you have a clear screen to work with.

Super Puzzle Fighter II
is a great puzzle game, and it translated perfectly to a cell phone game. The
way multiplayer works is a pretty creative way to solve the problems of lag
and dropped connections. Super Puzzle Fighter II should be available this
June.

For All E3 2006
Previews