This is a very original strategy game. This was ported in the States and Europe as Kirby's Avalanche in the States, and Kirby's Ghost Trap in Europe. Both featured the little lovable pink blob called Kirby in them. This is the original game though, and stars a lovable little girl called Arale.
The game sees Arale as she travels through the world. When she meets with her adversaries, she must fight them and win in order to continue. To win, you have to play about with little blobs, connect four or more of the same colour, and they'll dissappear. The blobs above it will fall and probably cause chain reactions if the blobs fall on to others of the same colour that will make more than four. They can be connected horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally. By creating chain reactions, you will create ghost blobs for your opponent that cannot be linked, and can only be destroyed by causing a reaction with blobs prior to gohst blobs (this is known in the West as the Ghost Trap). Whoever's column fills up to the top first loses. Very much like Tetris but a lot more fun.
Graphics [8/10]:
The graphics look good, but under my impression they look basic, with coloured blobs and boring backgrounds. Says it all for what you see, really.
Music and Sound [8/10]:
The speech effects are all in Japanese, so I can't understand them, but for some strange reason you'd understand what they are portraying when you get a multiple chain reaction. The music sounds okay, but the sound effects are repeated that little bit too much for my liking.
Gameplay [10/10]:
The controls are so simplistic that you'll be hooked - move and rotate, that's all there are. They are responsive, if you want to know. If you need English text, then play the Western equivalents, Kirby's Avalanche (North America) or Kirby's Ghost Trap (Europe), but this is more original as this is the first one.
Challenge/Replay [9/10]:
The game has a 2-player mode, so when you've got a mate to battle with, you'll get endless nights of playing fun with this. And headaches from looking at all those little coloured blobs, but you'll be hooked to this game for ages!
Conclusion/Overall [9.1/10]:
A brilliant strategy game that has also seen the light in the PC Engine, the MegaDrive, the GameBoy and several other game consoles. Just goes to show how popular this game is.
