In my review of Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom, I said that I was optimistic about the future of Apple Arcade as the events of 2023 made it seem like Apple was committing more to gaming. Yeah, I may have been way off the mark there. Since then, it's become increasingly clear that with Apple Arcade, Apple is prioritizing crowd-pleasing children's games over all else, and with more and more indie exclusivity deals running out by the day, Apple Arcade is starting to lose more games than it gets. The only company still really committing to Apple Arcade is Sega, and they have a fanbase who wishes their games weren't on the platform. Do I think this is an unsalvageable situation? No. Besides, we usually get one really big batch of games every year, so there's totally a chance that at some point, Apple Arcade will get a metric ton of fresh new stuff. However, as it seems right now, Apple Arcade seems to be playing things safe and I'm not sure if that'll pay off for it in the long run.
I don't think anything sums up the current state of Apple Arcade better than the last two months, which only had two notably big games: a children's game called Crayola Adventures and a Sega game called Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop. This review will mostly be about the latter, but I do want to touch on Crayola Adventures as I did play it.
Crayola Adventures: Look, I know this is very much a game for kids and I'm not at all in the target audience, but since I liked the Hello Kitty and Tamagotchi games, I thought it's still worth a shot. And almost immediately, I realized Crayola Adventures is definitely meant for babies. It's very handholdy and gentle, and the tutorials feel somewhat patronizing, so I bounced off it quickly. There's no real reason for me to judge it compared to most other games, but I can judge it compared to Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom, both of which try to strike the same exact niche and do it so much better.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom were charming, comfy experiences because they kinda just plopped you into this likable world of likable characters and let you explore. Comparatively, Crayola Adventures feels so much more sterile and artificial in pretty much every way. From a visual standpoint, the game goes for a pop-up book style where every screen is essentially a page in a book... but that loses the vast open world magic that its contemporaries had. The main gimmick is that the story is basically Mad Libs. You can write whatever you want and the story will "change" depending, but most of the stuff you can add to the story are very superficial things so it doesn't feel like it matters all that much. It also doesn't help that the automated voice acting gives the story zero pathos whatsoever. Hello Kitty and Tamagotchi's games giving you multiple different quests you can jump between at will does a much better job at giving players and particularly kids an actual sense of freedom that feels like it matters. But I also just think Crayola Adventures was fighting a losing battle here from the start as well. People love Sanrio's characters and almost everyone can at least recognize Mametchi, but does Crayola have characters people recognize? Does Crayola have a world people would want to exist in?
Once again, I don't want to judge Crayola Adventures too harshly. I'm not its target audience, and as such, I didn't play much of it. But I can say that while I wholeheartedly believe that Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom are fully appealing family games that anyone can enjoy, Crayola Adventures is a game for young children and no one else, and a worse one at that.
2/5 Stars
Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop: Just to clarify, if you are into competitive Puyo Puyo, take my word
with a grain of salt. I mostly play Puyo because I love the characters
and I love the arcade puzzler genre, but I'm much more competitive with
games like Tetris and Panel De Pon. Hell, Puyo Puyo n is one of my
favorite games in the series, so yeah. Now with that out of the way, how is Puzzle Pop?
I'll be honest and say that I wasn't expecting much from Puyo Puyo
Puzzle Pop. The trailer seemed to make it out to be a very mobile-ified
version of Puyo Pop, and I was expecting it to turn out more like a
Candy Crush equivalent than a mainline entry. I couldn't have been more wrong if I tried. Seriously though, Sega has been committing hard to Apple Arcade and has been releasing some of their best recent games on there. Sonic Dream Team was my favorite 3D Sonic in over a decade, and Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop isn't half bad either. It's not on the same level as my absolute favorite entries (Tsuu, Tetris, 20th Anniversary), but it's a very fun and surprisingly robust title that I think will hover around a solid A tier alongside games like Sun, N, and Fever 2.
First off, the touch controls, how are they? Personally, I ended up adjusting to them very quickly. They feel a bit awkward in the initial tutorial, but once you're let out to start playing matches, the touch controls became very natural very quickly. But even if you really can't take the touch controls, there's still Mac and controller support, along with very robust customization options. Controls aside, Puzzle Pop really does feel like a proper mainline Puyo Puyo game and not just a watered down mobile entry. It lacks many of the annoying mobile game quirks like over-tutorialization and a lack of content, it's a beefy game that lets you loose with its surprisingly large roster of modes right from the get-go.
I'll start with the core Adventure Mode, though, because that's the main selling point. Puzzle Pop's Adventure Mode involves the main trio of Amitie, Arle, and Ringo getting trapped in a dream world and having... to find... their way out? Wait, wasn't this just the plot of Sonic Dream Team? Anyway, the story is fine. It takes a bit to get going and it's certainly not as funny or sharply written as other Puyo Puyo games, but the charm is still there in spades especially once the plot kicks in. As for gameplay, Adventure Mode is quite fun. Each of the nine current playable characters get their own chapters to complete, four of which progress the main story and the other five being side stories. Each chapter takes place on a Mario-esque map screen where you participate in battles, do side objectives to get treasure, and earn stars and other items for doing well. The main gimmick is the fact that you can get items that you can equip on yourself before a battle to give you some sort a boost, and soon enough, your opponents will start using the same items as well. I quite like this system, asnone of the powerups feel too game-breaking and there's a decent amount of strategy to figuring out which items will outmatch your rivals. If you're expecting Puyo Puyo n levels of gimmickry, don't worry, this isn't the case. Overall, Puzzle Pop's Adventure Mode is a fun time. I'm not entirely sure where this ranks among the Puyo Puyo campaigns, but with nine episodes each with a bunch of levels and stuff to collect, it's certainly the beefiest.
And this holds true for all of Puzzle Pop, as even outside of the Adventure Mode, this is still an absolutely massive game. There's Solo Challenge and Battle modes each with a number of different rulesets, online battles and leaderboards, achievements and daily missions, and all the customization options and purchasable bonuses you'd expect from a current Puyo Puyo game. The alt voices, the customizable profiles, the puyo and background designs, they're all there. On top of all that, the Lessons mode basically gets its own mini-version of Adventure Mode with 50 lessons to take,
and there's even an unlockable cutscene scenario maker just to sweeten
the deal. I can see myself playing Puzzle Pop for days on end, there's so much to dig into. The one area where Puzzle Pop lacks, sadly, is the character roster, at least at launch. There's only nine playable characters here, which is kinda nuts considering modern Puyo Puyo games usually have around twenty. The absence of fan favorites like Sig and Draco is certainly noticeable, though thankfully it seems they'll be added in eventual updates, along with even more game modes somehow.
Overall, Puzzle Pop is a great time, and keeps up the trend of polished mainline Puyo Puyo games in recent years. I would not say it's going to save Apple Arcade, nor would it win over anyone who may happen to not be a huge fan of Puyo Puyo's current direction. However, it's still a really fun, polished, charming, and ridiculously content-rich entry in the Puyo Puyo series with one of the more ambitious campaigns in the series and lots more potential to grow.
4/5 Stars
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