Spin Pair

Overview

Spin Pair is a puzzle game exclusive to the PC Engine. The gameplay involves matching pairs of opposite symbols to remove them both. These often cause chain reactions that remove other symbols on the same layer. The game has a cutesy anime theme, where an apprentice witch must take down the diabolical Wizerd who has turned all the creatures and people of the world into magical glyphs.

The game features the main Story mode, in which the player moves from area to area trying to achieve a quota of matching pairs, as well as Arcade, Battle and Versus modes. The Arcade mode allows players to pick a location and keep playing until they lose, similar to the main gameplay mode of Tetris. Battle is for two-players and involves matching symbols quicker than the opponent to defeat them.

Versus requires a system link between two TurboExpress/PC Engine GT systems: the portable version of the TurboGrafx/PC Engine console that had been released in Japan earlier the same month as the game's release (December 1990). While a powerful portable system for its time, able to play any TurboGrafx/PC Engine HuCard game, it usually did not have a two-player option except in rare cases like Spin Pair.

Gameplay

The goal of Spin Pair is to drop each pair of falling symbols to match their opposite on the grid below. Every shape is half shaded in and half empty: by placing one shape over an identical shape with opposing shade/non-shade halves, the two combine and release the creature/person/object sealed within. If subsequent shapes of the same type are nearby horizontally and vertically, they will also disappear. Through this, the player can create chain reactions.

Each symbol falls in a pair, usually with another symbol of a different type. By hitting one button, the player can spin the two symbols around so that the shaded half will be either north, east, south or west. By hitting the second button, the player can switch the positions of the two falling symbols.