on a more subdued stream, we nevertheless streetfight our way to the puzzle captain and make some friends along the way. includes a clip of me petting you and saying "i'm proud of you" if that's your thing. streamed 7/19/23

it is hard to imagine a puzzle game balancing character-based drop tables well. fighting game characters' movesets give each character their identity, their grain, and their primary mode of interaction. in puzzle games, your primary mode is the same essential motions, and the droptable is an extranneous result, not actually altering your material experience except perhaps at high levels. as we've seen in MONSTER SLIDER and AQUARIUM and SAKURA TAISEN HANAGUMI TAISEN, and as we'll soon see in SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER 2 TURBO, character balance is extraordinary difficult to get right. we could dismiss this whole thing, say the fighting game presentation and puzzle game mechanics could be an advertising sheen, meant to elevate a hobbyist product into competitive relevance -- but the genres are truly linked by dna. mixups, greed, confirms, commitment, safe play, aggressive play, interaction -- it's all there. in the 90s, this mechanical relationship are still struggling to be born. now is the time of bullshit.

as far as taisen-puzzle dama goes, the ability to combo small balls with large balls certainly eases the awkwardness i'm feeling while learning this overall mechanic, but it does not dismiss the lack of elegance i sense in TPD-likes. we'll play other ones, notably the Tokimeki Memorial TPD, so i'm hoping to develop more familiarity with the system. although i feel it's prudent to reserve total judgement on a puzzle game's kernel mechnics, i must also confess and convey that i'm not having a good time with it. it feels like the wrong end of an optimization curve -- reduce the number of blocks needed to clear to three, increase the number of rules that go into clearing -- in a certain sense, the opposite of what Puyo does.

i was pretty depressed the morning i recorded this, so didn't have other insights to share at the time. in short: the graphics, character design, "world-map," sound effects, block design, and music were more than enough to keep itself thrumming along. as i learned doing machine translation, the story and setting of this place is relatively rich (at least three unique dialogue lines for both sides of every character matchup), and likely making references to television series i haven't seen. so it'll get a 6.5 out of 10. may another heart than mine, full of love for TPD, enjoy it more.

art of me by Minasheep! (  / lammyheaven  ,   / minasheep  ) next up is № 29: Mausuke No Ojama The World (1996, Data East). i hope you'll join us!