Initial Thoughts: Gunpey Reverse

Gunpey means "follow fart" or "more fart" in Chinese. Fortunately, Gunpey Reverse has nothing to do with flatus; it's another one of those catchy games from Q! Entertainment.

The object of the game is to move tiles with different line segments on them to create a line spanning from one side of the screen to the other. Simple enough, but then, that's what they said about Tetris and look where it is now. Like any good puzzle game, gameplay is easy to pick up, but more difficult to master. The basic UI is intuitive enough that I got to the story mode versus game without knowing how to read Japanese. (yes, I'm stuck with the Japanese version) There was no tutorial that I could find, but it's not really needed. After beating the first opponent, I began to see there was actual strategy involved. A line could fork in different ways and still be eliminated as long as there was a start and end point on both sides.

Visually, the game doesn't push the DS's boundaries. That's not to say the graphics are bad. They're quite bright, colorful, and charming, but eyecandy isn't necessary for a good puzzle game. The only complaint I have about the graphics is that the tileset and "setting" of each contender differs. For me, it takes a little more brain power to see and understand the changing tiles, so it's harder to "zone out" on the game in story mode. I had the same problem with Meteos, since the blocks changed depending on which planet was being played.

Aurally, Gunpey might be the DS's answer to Lumines, unless Lumines finally gets ported over. Different contenders have different music and sound effects. Running the stylus along the screen makes a sound fitting to the music being played. In one stage, the stylus made a record scratching sound and I lost because I got side-tracked making record scratching sounds on beat to the music.

The game controls much like Meteos with the stylus dragging tiles up and down. I think there's some sort of punishment when the opponent does a combo where the game forces you to use the button pad, but on an initial playthrough, it went by so quickly, I lost before I had a chance to really confirm it or not. I just thought my touchscreen was being wonky.

While it may not be the next Tetris, Gunpey would be a proud addition to any puzzle enthusiast's library. It's simple enough to be a pick-up-and-go game, but has sufficent depth to warrant more gametime to become a Gunpey master.

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