The SNES Classic Mk. II: Episode XXI: Writer's Blocks

The SNES Classic had a sterling assortment of games from Nintendo's 16-bit star console, but it's hardly all that system has to offer a modern audience. In each installment of this fortnightly feature, I judge two games for their suitability for a Classic successor based on four criteria, with the ultimate goal of assembling another collection of 25 SNES games that not only shine as brightly as those in the first SNES Classic, but have equally stood the test of time. The rules, list of games considered so far, and links to previous episodes can all be found at The SNES Classic Mk II Intro and Contents.

Episode XXI: Writer's Blocks

The Candidate: Kan's's Super Gussun Oyoyo 2

It occurs to me that, so far, my choices for the SNES Classic Mk. II have been heavily weighted towards RPGs, platformers, shooters, and other miscellaneous action games. While I am limited by how much certain genres appeal to me - I'd have zero base of reference for how good a sports game is, for example - I do feel like that a second SNES Classic should have all the accoutrements of the first, including two built-in controllers. So today I'm going to look at a few multiplayer competitive puzzle games and see if they have what it takes to be part of this new enterprise.

The first of these is a game from a series that has piqued my interest for a variety of reasons. Gussun Oyoyo started as an arcade game from Irem, but was then ported to three different consoles by two different developers - Xing Entertainment handled the PlayStation and Saturn ports, and Kan's did the SNES version. In 1996, Xing ported Kan's SNES version to the PS1 and Saturn with a graphical boost, as it contained a number of enhancements like the two-player mode. While Xing was doing that, Kan's put out a superior SNES-exclusive sequel: Super Gussun Oyoyo 2.

Despite this odd release history, every version of the game follows the same rules. Gussun (and Oyoyo, if in two-player mode) wanders around the screen following his own programming: he walks forward, dropping down if there's a gap or climbing up if there's a wall that's one tile high. If the wall is too tall and he can't proceed, he turns around and heads the other way. The player's job is to get him to the exit by dropping blocks and bombs: the blocks are used as steps, while the bombs can be used to destroy mistakenly placed blocks or remove those already in the stage. Sometimes you'll only have one or the other. Getting in your way is a set of enemies with their own behavior patterns, which can also be removed temporarily by dropping blocks and bombs on them, and an unseen time limit that will eventually cause a wall of seawater to rise from the bottom and drown Gussun if he becomes submerged.

Those are the basics. As you play the game you start to pick up on advanced tech, like how Gussun can be sheparded around if you push a block into him (though he can die if trapped between it and the ground/wall) and can actually walk across blocks that are still being moved by the player if they're close enough to be climbed on. The latter makes it possible to cross gaps without building a bridge, though it can be tricky to keep him on that block for long, as he'll inevitably walk across it and then off. Because enemies often respawn several seconds after being defeated, the player soon learns that it's better to "trap" them inside block formations instead, which neutralizes them without leading to an unexpected respawn somewhere inconvenient.

Since the series started life as an arcade game primarily designed to munch up coins, Super Gussun Oyoyo 2 can feel a bit arbitrary at times. Your chances of winning the current stage are heavily dependent on the order and types of blocks you're fortunate enough to get, and there's not always a huge amount of room to place awkward blocks that would only serve to deter Gussun rather than help him. As well as enemy attacks or drowning, the player can hit the usual Tetris fail state by reaching "block stalemate", where the blocks have been stacked up too high and there's no room to drop more. The game's also very contingent on player reaction speeds and their grace under pressure, as situations can go badly very quickly between a lack of useful blocks, random enemy spawns, and that bald little idiot's quest to find the fastest way to kill himself.

I didn't get a chance to try the two-player despite all I said above, but I can only imagine it would be chaos personified. If Gussun and Oyoyo spawn in the same place, though, the cooperation might make certain levels a lot easier - there was one that relied on placing a lot of small blocks very quickly, and having two players working on the same task would greatly reduce the time it would take. This tool-assisted speedrun is a fine example of two players either independently getting their guy to the exit, or working together to help one.

While Super Gussun Oyoyo 2 regularly throws players into precarious situations, nothing is as precarious as a shaky tower of P.O.G.S. and its equally shaky appraisals:

• Preservation: Tetris has proven that any decently constructed puzzle game, especially one that relies on timing as much as it does solving a riddle, can effectively live forever. Super Gussun Oyoyo 2 is 50% Tetris already, so it has that going for it. Super Gussun Oyoyo 2 scores extra points for ensuring you have infinite continues and can restart the last stage you were on as often as you'd like, while offering an expert-level challenge in rescuing mini-Oyoyos scattered around the levels in awkward places. There's also a tricky puzzle mode that works like the one in Tetris 2 where you have to solve a stage with limited, pre-determined pieces, as well as the aforementioned two-player co-op mode, so even if the single-player story mode might take an hour or so to complete there's plenty left to see. 4.
• Originality: The sequel to a port of a game built from merging two other games might not sound like the most original creation, but due to the particular way Gussun Oyoyo merges Lemmings and Tetris they've ended up with something wholly different, and worthy of standing on its own two feet. There have been puzzle-plaformer games like it before - notably Konami's Tower of Babel and Tecmo's Solomon's Key - but neither had the same breakneck speed or panicky sense of fun. 3.
• Gameplay: There are definitely times when the game feels too hectic and arbitrary, or Gussun too unresponsive or fickle, but for the most part the game offers a gentle difficulty curve and provides all the basics you'd need, letting you discover the advanced tech on your own. The times where it seems to go out of its way to screw you over - which cynically served a purpose in its arcade game incarnation - is greatly mitigated by its infinite restarts here. I'll admit to being annoyed at the game quite frequently, but I also won't deny that I got little tingles of satisfaction every time Gussun made it to an exit either because of a well-laid plan or some urgent last-second improvisation. 3.
• Style: Even in its compromised SNES state, all the trappings of the original arcade game are still present in this port, including that special kind of overstimulating presentation built to attract passersby and eventually convince them to part with more of their hard-earned currency. Couple that with the generally cute vibe of the game - it's hard to stay mad at lil' Gussun, even if he is a raging idiot who cries too much - and there's something of an old-school appeal about the total package. 4.

Total: 14.

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The Nominee: Bullet-Proof Software's Tetris Battle Gaiden

BPS first made a name for itself when it was responsible for Japan's first ever turn-based RPG (well, perhaps apocryphally speaking) with the 1985 MSX port of The Black Onyx, released only a few months before Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord: the inspiration for Yuji Horii's Dragon Quest and so many other JRPGs. However, that feat was eclipsed by their role in co-developing the Game Boy port of the Russian block-stacking puzzle game Tetris which, depending on who you ask, is either the best version of the game or at the very least the most iconic. A Hawaii-based company which solidified their presence in the game industry with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to produce console versions of Tetris, they've since been leading the charge for new iterations on the formula: Tetris 2, Bombliss, Hatris, Wordtris, Tetris Plus, The New Tetris, and - of course - Tetris Battle Gaiden.

It's probably evident enough to any regulars on this site why I've included this game in my considerations. As one of the Giant Bomb crew's most beloved standbys for a quick and brutal multiplayer showdown, Tetris Battle Gaiden is a smart restructuring of the original Tetris built specifically for competitive play. Featuring a host of colorful characters with their own distinct movesets, the player collects magic orbs while playing and activates however many they have - up to four for the strongest spell in their arsenal - to either give themselves some breathing room or to give their opponent a bad time. Players also fight over a shared pool of upcoming tetromino pieces: by either being quick on the draw or delaying their current drop, a savvy player can grab the long piece they need to clear four rows or hijack one with embedded magic orbs which can then be used to wreak havoc.

I think the secret X-factor here is that the game endeavored to build a whole cast of oddballs with little thematic consistency in order to better distinguish the types of powers they have (though in my view, the powers themselves seem to be arbitrarily assigned also). While you have a few traditional Japanese characters like the one-eyed wolf samurai and a ninja, there's also gnomes, ghosts, dragons, princesses, witch doctors, pink rabbits, and an Arabian hero all competing across a vaguely fantastical setting. When Brad Shoemaker waxes lyrical about his time with the game as a collegian, he wistfully muses about all the names they had to come up with for the characters - the game is only available in Japanese, though fortunately the menus are easy enough to figure out - and I think actually putting a face, or several, on Tetris helps to set this one apart from the many other spin-offs with silly gimmicks.

Suffice it to say, when I first contemplated this feature and what I would want to include on a second SNES Classic, Tetris Battle Gaiden was high on that list. However, in the interest of fairness we still need to go through the motions, and that means checking in with fellow stacker-in-crime P.O.G.S.:

• Preservation: Well, see above with Gussun Oyoyo. Tetris is evergreen, and by extension so are its many variants. If you wanted some anecdotal evidence on top of that (and who doesn't like anecdotal evidence?), the Giant Bomb crew regularly hop back into it and continue to highlight its staying power in much the same way they have for Windjammers and Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball (OK, maybe not that last one). Though if I were remaking it today, I might have a little more consistency with those spells: there's no reason the ninja kid would have a spell that summons Medusa to turn all the opponent's blocks into stone, for instance. Give that to a minotaur or some kind of Greek deity. 4.
• Originality: The secret behind most of Bullet-Proof Software's Tetris mutations is that they don't wander too far from those simple, central mechanics of the original game. Tetris Battle Gaiden is still 90% the same as the original, with just a few modifications for the sake of competitive multiplayer. Its changes are original enough, as is its vaguely Puyo Puyo-esque cast, but its core should be familiar to everyone. 3.
• Gameplay: I generally dig the extra layer of challenge that playing Tetris competitively brings, even if it doesn't change the overall experience: you still need to play well and hope your opponent breaks before you do. With Tetris Battle Gaiden, however, it's not just about out-playing your opponent and sending them waves of trash after every tetris: you actually have to consider what your opponent can do and what pieces they're going to try and take from the shared pool. You'll want to place pieces quickly or slowly depending on what's coming up, and you'll want to play defensively - removing just one or two lines in order to avoid gaps or a stack that's too high - if they've got a lot of magic stored away. It takes a while just to get used to what your opponent can do: playing against the Pumpkin, for instance, means that he can steal your magic reserves at any time, so against him you really should be using your magic frequently instead of stockpiling it for a rainy day. It's all these new, almost fighter-like paradigms to learn that elevates Battle Gaiden as a multiplayer Tetris experience. 5.
• Style: Battle Gaiden can be chaotic looking from the outside in, but it has a visual language that you pick up on quickly as both a player and a spectator. At any point someone might fling a spell around, and every effect has an accompanying visual representation: a big web stretching across a grid, for instance, or the blocks becoming stone-like or the sounds of a copy machine as it monochromatically replaces the opponent's grid with a clone of your own. That flair is a big part of what makes Tetris Battle Gaiden stand out, along with its excellent music and stage art. 4.

Total: 16.

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