The Puyo Pop series is not a new one to gamers. The game has seen various releases across multiple platforms in previous years. Puyo Pop Fever is the latest in the series and has also seen release on this generation's consoles. On the surface, Puyo seems to just be another generic falling block type puzzle. After spending hours upon hours addicted to the game, however, that was definitely proven to be false.

The game starts out simply enough. You'll have three colors of Puyos that fall in groups of two, three or four. You can rotate them as they fall and speed their descent. If they fall with one side hanging over a ledge, that side will break off and continue to fall. The goal is to eliminate groups of Puyos by bunching them up in clumps of four or more.

Much of your time playing, though, will be against an opponent. They'll be doing the same thing with their Puyos and, if they do it more than you do, you'll have some clear "nuisance" Puyos that drop onto your screen. These don't clear when they clump up but only clear if you make a group and they're touching it.

This is where the game's surprisingly deep strategy comes into play. Above your play field, you'll see a small meter. You'll also see this above the opponent's play field. If someone has Puyo(s) or other symbols on this bar, they are due to receive nuisance Puyos. As they make groups and eliminate Puyos, however, the meter will go down and possibly shift over to the opponent's side.

Also of note is that nuisance Puyos won't fall after a turn where you've eliminated Puyos from your side of the field. This gives you an opportunity to turn the tide (and doing so will add points to your fever meter, which I'll explain in a moment) on your opponent and assault them with some nuisance Puyos.

While clearing Puyos in single chains will eventually get you a win on the first few levels of the story mode, you'll need to step up your play to get farther. For example, using combos will eliminate large chunks of Puyos from your side and fill up the nuisance Puyo meter even faster on your opponent's side (or clear it faster from your side). Setting up massive combos is one of the larger strategic elements of the game and it can be extremely satisfying to have what looked to be a single line of 4 red Puyos being popped end up causing a chain reaction that clears the entire screen.

If eliminating the Puyos from the nuisance meter manages to fill up your fever meter, your field will temporarily clear and a block of Puyos set up for a combo will fall. This gives you an opportunity to really lay into your opponent and can quite often be a game-ender for them. Overall, this game is one of the more strategic puzzlers I've ever seen released. It definitely falls into the realm of games that are incredibly easy to learn the basics of but insanely hard to ever master.

Puyo Pop Fever's graphics are done in an anime style and have a lot of character to them. Some of your opponents will include a well-dressed skeleton and something that looks like a frog and only knows how to say ribbit. The backgrounds that your playfields lay over are also pretty well done and can get very animated if you make large combos. Also notable is that the game is incredibly colorful and happy. I really like to play this game if I start to get down over one thing or another -- it actually does help to make cheer me.

Also of particular note is the sound. The music is all upbeat and very appropriate to the happy-fun style of the game. Sound effects are also funny, ranging from simple pops to other sound effects that I can't think of a way to describe. The only knock against the sound is that some of the characters' voices can get annoying very fast, namely the main character of the first set of story levels.

As a complete package, this game definitely pleases. The overall bright attitude of the game and deep strategic gameplay come together to form a game that is fun to play and will last you for a while. You can play by yourself or, with just one cartridge, play with up to seven others in an incredibly chaotic eight-player battle. If you own a DS and enjoy puzzle games at all, you owe it to yourself to go out and grab this game right away.