Games of the Abstract: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (1996)

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

One to Two Players

Originally for: Arcade

 

Whilst the Street Fighter franchise has had a strong lineage in Capcom's history as a games developer, there have been once or twice deviations from the template for characters from the franchise, and not just cameos. The crossovers, whilst in the fighting genre, between the likes of the Marvel comic franchises, games developer SNK and even Tatsunoko, the legendary animation studio, have been some I grow fonder of, despite being terrible at fighting games, because they allow some of the obscurest figures of everyone's history a chance to appear in the games. Even the infamous hiccup that was Street Fighter: The Movie (1995), the original arcade version by Incredible Technologies, stands out as very different not only from the home console versions by Capcom themselves, but also as a weird case of bringing in these Western developers, and chasing the digitized character bandwagon Mortal Kombat created, allowing singer/Neighbours soap opera alumni Kylie Minogue to stand toe-to-toe with the late actor Raul Julia in the least expected battle possible.

Note so far these are still fighting games, though we have had one or two deviations even outside of the fighting genre over the years like the RPG and card battle crossovers, like Namco x Capcom games, or a game like Cannon Spike (2000), a Psikyo developed Capcom game where they used Cammy from the franchise as a playable character in a three dimensional area shooter. We have yet to see Ryu play tennis or Zangief in a go kart, as even with Nintendo crossovers, Ryu is performing hadouken on a Pikachu in the Smash Brothers franchise. Puzzle Fighter, even in 2017 with a free-to-play mobile phone remake being released from Capcom Vancouver, is another exception, which crosses over into the Darkstalkers franchise, one tragically lost to never getting a modern day follow up, but was in full swing at this point, the pair of them being mashed together here to give us a puzzle game.

The character roster is eclectic, from only eight to say the least from just the main roster. There is a notable emphasis, which is cool with hindsight and very clearly done, on the female cast, which has five characters over the three males. Whether this was targeting a male audience or not as a game, or was as much focused on potential female arcade players back in its initial release, it is great either way, and it does suggest, even before we get to the "super deformed" chibi art style, how these Capcom had an incredible set of character designers for this era. It also really emphasises how, in general even if they did sexualise a few of these characters, female characters that you could also play, or stood out as side characters, or even antagonists, became something which you can applaud Capcom for as you can literally go through the rosters of their fighting games, and then other genres, from the nineties into the 2000s and find so many that stand out and/or became beloved as much as the male ones. From their costume designs to personalities which made them figures who gained fans, some of the strongest female characters in gaming, even if they were initially side characters or were occasionally made sexualised, came from Capcom and you can find enough to fill an entire crossover fighting game with just a female cast. It is actually disappointing that the discontinued 2017 Puzzle Fighter, with twenty three characters to choose from until the mobile game was taken from circulation, had only six women in the cast despite that fact. Even if the crossover fighting games usually had more men, you had a murder's row of distinct figures from the women let alone men or actual monsters to choose from over the decades, altogether just making Capcom bad asses in their artists and designers for making everyone, male or female or beast, stand out even in obscure games just from how they wore a coat let alone their characterisation.

Even the stoic male martial artist template created with Ryu, visually iconic, stands out far more than so many games trying to reach the success of Street Fighter II (1991), and forcing really bland male protagonists based on him on us the players. Ken, his player two from the games, is here too as the pair makes sense to include, but in terms of a game which is playing to cuteness and comedy, they come off as a chibi straight men in a more eclectic cast. A personal favourite from Darkstalkers, Felicia the catgirl, is here and whilst she was explicitly designed in the original game for some blatant sex appeal, with her fur hiding little, she is played here as a cute sentient cat girl with goofy mannerisms which is why I fell in love with the character. Likewise Morrigan from the same Darkstalkers franchise, a literal succubus and also deliberately provocative in her design, not only got to be the poster girl and protagonist for the final game, even if she is the only one of the franchise's cast seemingly referenced in the modern day, but she gets to be more goofier here. The pair really emphasised how strong the cast of the Darkstalkers franchise was, where the closest to a conventional martial artist also happened to be a werewolf, fitting as the third female member from the games was one introduced at this period in the first sequel, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (1995), a Chinese "hopping corpse" (jiangshi) named Hsien-Ko who stood out as distinct even among one of the most distinct fighting game rosters for all the franchise.

Introduced in the spin-off franchise Street Fighter Alpha 2, in 1996, Sakura is a plucky underdog schoolgirl who admires Ryu and wants to be strong as him, fitting the game as a likable younger selectable character alongside Chun-Li, the first female character of the Street Fighter franchise, so obvious to include in this game as one of the most iconic characters to come from Capcom. There is a few secret characters and ones introduced in the console versions. For the arcade game, there is also Dan Hibiki of the first Street Fighter Alpha game as the instructor onscreen, before you put a coin into the original arcade machine, teaching the game mechanics. He is perfect for this comically minded game as he was literally Capcom taking the piss out of SNK, their biggest rival in 2D fighting games in this time period, a parody of their archetypical leads who was meant to be useless as a playable character. If you can play him even here, his gameplay is deliberately broken to make him useless still, but he managed to be a joke that got a fan base in the main fighting games, and people learning to humiliate opponents by beating them with Dan as he started to be modified to be a credible fighter without losing the gag. [Huge Spoiler] It is funny that Dan is set up as the final boss, only to follow a trademark from Street Fighter and other games from Capcom, the surpirse cameo of Akuma, the legendary and dangerous mirror to Ryu, who beats Dan up easily and challenges you instead. [Spoilers End]. Later console versions also included Hsien-Ko's twin sister, and a secret character you could unlock was an obscure character, but one loved enough to keep appearing in Capcom games, by the name of Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX. Gloriously named, she was from Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness (1995), a fighting arcade game which pilots in robots, and is clearly a tribute to the Doronbo Gang, the antagonists from Tatsunoko's Yatterman animated franchise, one which influenced so much Japanese popular culture in having a female villainess aided by two male lackeys, even the Pokémon anime series with Team Rocket, and would appear through their leader Doronjo in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

The outlier is Donovan, who time stamps the game to the history of Capcom, as in 1994, the first Darkstalkers did well enough to warrant its sequel Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, which created new characters like Hsien-Ko who became beloved, but also attempted to creating a new protagonist named Donovan, pushed to become the figurehead of the franchise as a half- dhampir, a half human and half vampire who hunts the Darkstalkers. He does get a fascinating ending to that game, becoming corrupted as he continues his campaigns, and stands out with a distinct style, be it his sword or the psychic girl Anime who followed him, brought here and becoming another new character by herself in console versions of Puzzle Fighter. However, it is damning, unlike boss characters which were removed for Vampire Savior/Darkstalkers 3 (1997) for space for new characters, Donovan feels like he never appeared because no one wanted him. It is a cruelly funny punch line that, whilst nowadays only Morrigan gets to represent the franchise for Capcom for the most part, back here even when it came to a sequel to Puzzle Fighter back in the fighting genre, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (1997), Donovan was not even allowed to get into the spin-off cure fighting game, told to leave and close the door behind him.

If the review is going to be short here, it is only because the actual puzzle game mechanics are based on rock solid foundations. You link same coloured gems, in clusters which form together with enough into giant gems, which need the use of a spark gem the same colour (or a rarer multicolour diamond) to clear away. Speed is of importance as, least for the CPU opponents, they will own you as you start to dump "garbage" onto the opponents' grid as you clear gems, timed to not be useable as regular gems which becomes dangerous as they start to climb in height up the grid. It is completely solid gameplay wise, and it is really pointless to extrapolate on a fun game which is this simple is premise. My biggest disappointment is that there is not as much around this gameplay in terms of individual endings. The style of the game is great - particularly the "chibi" character designs, based on an art style of deliberately distorting characters into smaller, squat versions none as a "super deformed" style which appears in manga and anime for the likes of comedic moments. It stands out here, and the entire presentation is bright and wonderful, making me wish there were more cut scenes and humour to what we got.

Barring an intermission and an end credits which adds more humour, this feels like a game which is still great, but could have been expanded further and further in a franchise of its own, something which happened to Taito when they took the Bubble Bobble franchise and made the spin-off Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move one in the puzzle genre, the latter becoming its own beloved concept which embraced its aesthetics and is as loved. Tellingly Capcom would instead make Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, a return to the fighting game genre, but one which took this entire art style and gave you everything I wanted here in terms of the comedy and wackiness of the proceedings. What you got here in this puzzle game thankfully - with its ports in the day for the likes of the Sony Playstation to Sega Saturn, to a HD remix for the Playstation 3/Xbox 360 era which changes touches - was something Capcom should have still been proud of, and has been available still thankfully, as it is a lot of fun. I only wished we got a franchise from this that became the wackier Capcom crossover puzzle game to their awesome fighting games.