| Graphics: |   4 |
| SFX: |  3.5 |
| Music: | 3 |
| Gameplay: | 3.5 |
| Challenge: | 4 |
| Replay: | 4 |
| Overall: | 3.5 |
| Genre: | Classic/Puzzle |
| Reading ability: | Not required |
| Company: | Yutaka |
The Game:
Here is a Breakout-style game that does not try too much to be like Arkanoid. The goal of each screen is to get rid of all the yellow faces with pointy sunglasses, rather than "destroy all of the blocks on the screen." These yellow sunglassy faces are called Jamachine, or at least that's how I would translate it from the manual. It seems to be an amalgamation of the word "Jama," which means "something that's in the way" (like Jama Puyos), and the word "machine." These Jamachines are invading the world of Candy Land, and you control an adorable, blobby gummy candy character named Pop who flattens out to become the paddle. When you lose a life, Pop dries up, cracks, and disintegrates while saying, "oh no!" I'd describe it as a cross between a Mr. Bill claymation and Walter Donovan's death scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Weird.
Each level, you have a time limit. This is displayed as your life bar on the lefthand side of the screen. Avoid the ghost-like items that fall, as these will lower your life gauge faster. Star items fall, and collecting these builds up your power meter on the lower right hand side of the screen. Pop is a gummy candy, and pressing the A button will make him flex. When you have one or more stars, timing the pressing of A right when Pop makes contact with the ball will momentarily increase the destructive power of your ball. The more stars you have, the longer this will last. Having four stars is your max power and will make this last much longer, and the ball will continue to pass right through the blocks and destroy them as if they weren't there. Having five stars will make a bomb, and activating this bomb will destroy much of the blocks on the screen.
So as I said, the goal is to destroy the Jamachines, not really all of the blocks. But if you do destroy all of the blocks before destroying the last Jamachine on the stage, you get a "perfect clear" bonus. When you destroy certain blocks, items will fall down. Some of these are beneficial, some of them are a detriment. I'll list several because these require some Japanese reading ability.
Power Down. These ghost-looking items decrease your life bar. Not good.
Stars fill up your power gauge.
Pop. This is a 1UP. Yay.
Slow. The hiragana is yu, which I assume is short for yukkuri.
Small makes your paddle smaller, so this should be avoided. The kanji here is shou.
This makes your paddle bigger. The kanji here is dai.
Supapon DX is the followup to Supapon, which is also on the Super Famicom. The difference that makes this game "Deluxe" is that it features a simultaneous taisen two-player game that plays much like a taisen puzzle game such as Puyo Puyo or Puzzle Bobble. This part of the game is very fun. Unfortunately, you cannot play the taisen mode against the computer. You can only enjoy this part of the game with a friend.
Graphics:
The graphics are bright and colorful and well-suited for such a game. There is a scrolling background on each stage, but this is in muted colors and does not detract from the game at all. The opening intro is nothing more than a slide show, but the animations of the paddles in the game are nice.
Music/Sound:
Music is nothing special, but it suits the game well. Sound is overall pretty good. The voice is fairly muffled, so I can't easily understand what it's saying. But the sound effects of the ball bouncing around is nice, and reminds me a bit of a pinball game. At the end of each stage, you hear a crowd cheering.
Challenge and replay:
This game is pretty hard! You can continue as much as you like, but you must start back at the beginning of the area you are playing. The game uses a password system in order to return to your last play area, at least. The two player mode is rather fun, too.
The Good:
This is a unique, refreshing addition to the Breakout-style genre of game.
The Bad:
I wish this game had mouse support, like other games of the genre! Analog support would have improved gameplay.
Overall:
Unlike Block Kuzushi, Supapon DX does not try to ape Arkanoid and instead presents a far more unique game experience. Despite the lack of mouse support that Arkanoid and Block Kuzushi have on the SFC, the controls aren't too bad for Supapoon DX. I recommend skipping Supapon and just buying Supapon DX for its neat taisen two player feature. Unless you're a completist and want to own both, just get this game instead. Also of interest is Zig Zag Cat for the SFC.
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