''Puzzled'' is a falling-block puzzle video game developed and published by

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

that was released for

Neo Geo Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed by SNK. On the market from 1990 to 2004, the brand originated with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo AES. The Neo Geo MVS was ...

arcade hardware in 1990, the Neo Geo home console in 1991, and the

Neo Geo CD The is the second home video game console of SNK Corporation's Neo Geo family, released on September 9, 1994, four years after its cartridge-based equivalent. This is the same platform, converted to the cheaper CD format retailing at per titl ...

in 1994. The game was ported to mobile phones in 2005, then was re-published by

D4 Enterprise is a Japanese video game publisher currently specializing in content delivery services like Project EGG over the Internet. Some of the titles that have been re-released include many of Compile's titles, like the ''Madō Monogatari'' games. The c ...

on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Un ...

in June 2011, and it is also one of the twenty games that came pre-loaded on the

Neo Geo X The Neo Geo X (NGX) is a video game console manufactured by Tommo, licensed by SNK Playmore. Information about the Neo Geo X was first reported in January 2012 and later confirmed in March. It is the first Neo Geo system to be released since the ...

console released in 2012. It was also ported in August 2017 to

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

, and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

as part of

Hamster Corporation is a Japanese video game publisher, with office located in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. The game division of Toshiba-EMI Limited spun off Hamster Corporation in November 1999. On the Japanese PlayStation Store, more than 200 titles are distribu ...

's '' ACA Neo Geo'' series.

Gameplay

The visuals of ''Puzzled'' look a lot like

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet Union, Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute o ...

and the core gameplay is the same: the player controls

tetromino A tetromino is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally (i.e. at the edges and not the corners). Tetrominoes, like dominoes and pentominoes, are a particular type of polyomino. The corresponding polycube, called a tetracu ...

s falling from the top of the screen, and filling a horizontal lines clears it. However, the objective is to clear a vertical path for a

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carrie ...

initially trapped at the bottom of each level, enabling it to fly off the top of the playing field and moving up to the next level of a tower. The tower is divided into multiple floors, with 10 levels per floor, totaling 60 different puzzles. Some levels feature varied obstacles like robots floating around the puzzle to attack the balloon, regenerating blocks, and gold blocks that need to be cleared multiple times before disappearing. The player can also use a power-up called an "L-Ball": a meter fills up as lines are cleared, and once ready, the player can trigger a lightning ball to explode outwards from the balloon's current location, removing surrounding blocks.

Development and release

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Puzzled'' on their December 15, 1990 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the month, outperforming titles such as ''

Carrier Air Wing A carrier air wing (abbreviated CVW) is an operational naval aviation organization composed of several aircraft squadrons and detachments of various types of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Organized, equipped and trained to conduct modern ...

'' and '' Raiden''. The graphics of ''Puzzled'' were described as being simplistic and unremarkable but well-designed and efficient. The sound effects were also considered minimalistic but enjoyable for a game of this type. The game's multiplayer portion was criticized for not featuring any interactions between the two simultaneous players.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Puzzled (video game) 1990 video games ACA Neo Geo games Arcade video games D4 Enterprise games Multiplayer and single-player video games Neo Geo games Neo Geo CD games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation Network games PlayStation 4 games Puzzle video games SNK games Virtual Console games for Wii Video games developed in Japan Xbox One games Hamster Corporation games