Puchi Carat

The Good
The gameplay does a rather unique take on the ball and paddle genre in which you must continuously break blocks (gems) to defeat your opponent. Not once have I ever seen a simultaneous two-player breakout game before this title caught my eye. Some strategy is required such as creating a gap in the gems so that the ball will bounce and eliminate multiple gems in quick succession. Also gravity applies, so if you cut off a top row of gems, all gems directly below will also be eliminated. That's about all there is to playing the game, nothing too complicated.

Graphics are gorgeous. Starring in the game are cute and handsome anime characters with so much movement and personality throughout the course of the game. Each character has its own story for wanting the 12 gems, their own themed background and their own theme music. Peridot is the sort of person who stands out from the others and her choice of attire is positively tasteful. No matter which character you choose, you'll definitely be motivated to beat every opponent one by one.

The Bad
Unless you are used to straight up breakout, then you'll be sorely surprised to find that there are no powerups for lengthening your paddle, extra balls and such like. And while you have full control of the paddle, you have little to no control of the ball, so unless your aim and timing are good, you're going to find yourself swamped with gems spawned by the opponent before you can make an effective counterattack. All it takes is some practice to get far off into the game without too many mistakes and continues.

The Bottom Line
Puchi Carat is one of the more interesting and juicy titles that certainly rivals the Magical Drop series and is just as fun and intriguing to play. So much replay value for twelve storylines and competitive gameplay. Taito took inspiration from one its own titles, Arkanoid and Puzzle Bobble, then transformed them into something memorable and beautiful on the Arcade. Too bad it didn't get ported on many systems around the time of its release such as the Sega Saturn, Dreamcast and GameCube, but at least it got adequate releases outside Japan. The game certainly was worthy of sequels and spin-offs but didn't really get any. Don't hesitate to grab or download a copy of it, it's the game of any arcade player's dreams.