Kokontouzai Eto Monogatari (1994)

This is a strange game that deals with two cats; a pink and white one (player 1) known as Nyan and a brown and white one (player 2) known as Dodonpa. One day, Nyan questions the Chinese Zodiac and wonders why a cat isn't part of the zodiac while others like the dog and monkey are. Dodonpa isn't really bothered by it so much and sort of teases Nyan but then he too wonders about it and Nyan (feeling inspired) gets optimistic. The story of the game has Nyan and Dodonpa eventually going to meet a fairy after battling 12 animals (specifically of the Chinese Zodiac) in order to make the request that cats be part of the zodiac. Apparently, if you play with player 2 and beat the game, the ending is slightly different or so I hear. Kokontouzai Eto Monogatari (KEM from this point forward) roughly translates into "Chinese Astrology Story for All Ages". However, the game has a lot of stages for a puzzle game (13 to be exact) and the speed picks up pretty quickly so as childish as it looks, it definitely requires skill on the later levels. It is a fairly simple and charming game (it's funny how the cow/ox of stage 2 will "power-up" and win by drinking milk, lol), but the CPU definitely shows aggression pretty quickly (if you couldn't tell by watching this video). Visually, the game is pretty good and doesn't do anything over-the-top, but still manages to be pretty decent for the genre. The audio is okay; I don't have any qualms with it, but nothing really jumps out at me (the music is geared for the kids). It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but it isn't necessarily bad (I have different tastes in music). KEM plays like many other drop puzzlers in the general sense; you match three blocks and they disappear. You can create chains and drop big piles of junk on your opponent. To destroy said junk and get your breathing room back, you must match blocks that are touching the junk. When you do so, the blocks and junk next to it will both vanish. KEM does have a trick up its sleeve; orbs that when matched, destroy all treasure boxes (just another type of block that you can chain with) as well as any orbs you didn't match that are scattered on your screen. By matching three orbs together when your screen is full of blocks, you can cause massive chain reactions or massive gatherings of blocks to be destroyed all at once. Naturally, you will deal a huge blow to your adversary when you do this so timing is essential (and the opponent can too so watch out!). At any rate, KEM is a pretty decent game to play with silly characters and decent audio/visuals.

• Release Date: March 1, 1994