Puyo Puyo is perhaps the best known puzzle franchise aside from Tetris. It has taken several forms and appeared on a great many consoles. For those of you unfamiliar with the series I'll give it a brief summary. It is actually very similar to SEGA's other contribution to the puzzle genre, Columns. Instead of coloured blobs falling in sets of 3 it is very cute blobs (Puyos) falling primarily in sets of 2. Instead of getting a row of 3 blocks, you need to create a group of 4 Puyos to clear an area. The standard 2 blob set can be rotated to fit any hole. Clearing a large area of Puyo will dump a large amount of immovable, neutral Puyo into your opponent's screen, making it much harder for them to win. For this latest version of the game, there are several new varieties of blobs. There are 'L' shaped blobs, ideal for filling awkward gaps, large 3 or 4 Puyo blobs and a large Puyo that can change colour, useful for clearing large areas of the board.

Another new addition to this version of the game is Fever Mode, which is activated by completing a certain number of chains in the game. In this mode you have a small Puyo puzzle that must be solved quickly. Successfully completing this mode will dump large amounts of neutral Puyo into your opponent's screen, almost guaranteeing victory.

The touch screen is simply used for control – a good idea if you ask me. A stylus will give you absolute control over your stack of Puyos as they fall. Who cares if its not innovative? Innovation is only one of those words thrown around by people who feel superior to other people simply based on their taste in games and have lost the ability to find joy in simple things.

Multiplayer strengthens the experience considerably

There are a variety of different game modes. As with all games, the developers have found some way to squeeze a Story mode out of this game, although it is essentially just a tutorial getting progressively harder, to use as you learn your way around the game. There is also an Endless mode, which as the name suggests, is a continual avalanche of Puyo. It is a true test of endurance and skill, and should make bus journeys disappear in a haze of smiley, happy blobs. Fever and Mission modes are quite similar, where the aim is the rack up the largest chains possible to try and clear the screen.

Where this game really comes into its own, especially on the DS, is multiplayer. Not only can it be played wirelessly by up to 8 people, it also only requires 1 of those 8 people to even own a copy of the game! As with every game where you can ruin your opponent's chances of success in one move, multiplayer mode, where you can hear their forlorn and miserable cries of anguish should be a lot of fun. If you have several friends who will be getting a shiny new DS in March then this is an almost essential purchase, especially if you don't own any of the previous, very similar versions.

This game looks like being great fun. However, if you aren't much of a multiplayer fan, or do most of your gaming indoors and already have one of the previous versions its not really worth buying. For the rest of you though, you have no excuse!