Puyo Puyo Fever
| Puyo Puyo Fever | |
|---|---|
 Puyo Puyo Fever Japanese Box Art (PlayStation 2) | |
| Developers | Sonic Team |
| Publishers | Sega THQ (GBA, Europe) Atlus (DS, USA) Ignition Entertainment (DS, Europe) |
| Platforms | Arcade, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Windows, Xbox, Mac OS, Palm OS, Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Sony Walkman |
| Players | 1-8 players (DS), 1-2 players (other) |
| Release date | Arcade
PlayStation 2
Dreamcast
Gamecube
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo DS
PlayStation Portable
Windows
Xbox
Mac OS
Palm OS
Pocket PC
|
Puyo Puyo Fever (ぷよぷよフィーバー, Puyopuyo Fība), known in English versions as Puyo Pop Fever, is the first Puyo Puyo game in the Fever sub-series. The first mainline Puyo Puyo game developed by Sonic Team, Puyo Puyo Fever serves as a soft reboot of the series, eschewing the world and most of the characters featured in previous games in favor of starring a separate cast of characters who live in an entirely new setting named Primp.
The first version was developed for the Sega Dreamcast-based NAOMI arcade hardware by Sonic Team, and the game was ported to a wide variety of then-contemporary platforms. Sega published all versions in Japan, while some of the versions were published internationally by other companies: Sega of America published the North American GameCube version, Atlus published the North American Nintendo DS version, Sega of Europe published the European GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions, and THQ published the European Game Boy Advance version. The Xbox version was listed for a U.S. release, but the release never occurred.
This game is followed up by a direct sequel, Puyo Puyo Fever 2.
Story
The game's story mode is divided into three courses. The game follows the adventure of Amitie, a spunky girl who attends a magic school, where she is taught by Accord on how to cast magical spells using Puyo.
In the main story of the game, Accord has lost her Flying Cane, the equivalent of a magic wand, and claims to have a reward for the student who can find it. In the WakuWaku Course, the player plays the role of Amitie as she ventures across the Puyo Puyo Fever world to find the cane, while meeting many wacky characters along the way and battling them. In a harder version of the story mode, titled the HaraHara Course, one plays as Amitie's rival, Raffina.
Which story mode one is playing determines what characters one will meet and which ultimately finds the wand. When playing as Raffina near to the end of the game, it is revealed that Accord never actually lost her flying cane. She then plans on revealing Accord's and Popoi's secret, but fails in her ending, as she is knocked unconscious by Accord, losing all memories of the flying cane incident. She regains consciousness near her school where Amitie and her friends congratulate her.
All three courses in the Arcade, Dreamcast, GBA, DS, PSP, and PC versions, can be played as with other characters. However, this causes the game to skip past all cutscenes.
RunRun Course
The RunRun Course serves as a short tutorial where Accord teaches Amitie (and by extension the player) the gameplay of Puyo Puyo Fever. You play as Amitie by default.
- Lidelle
- Tartar
- Accord
WakuWaku Course
By default, you play as Amitie during the WakuWaku Course.
- Raffina
- Dapper Bones
- Lidelle
- Donguri Gaeru
- Klug
- Frankensteins
- Arle
- Popoi
HaraHara Course
By default, you play as Raffina during the HaraHara Course.
- Onion Pixie
- Klug
- Ocean Prince
- Tartar
- Yu
- Hoho
- Accord
- Popoi (Carbuncle if certain conditions are met.)
- Specifically, to challenge Carbuncle, the player must have used either 0 continues or a multiple of 7 continues, and have either must not entered Fever more than 4 or less than 12 times.
Gameplay
A new addition to the Puyo Puyo game mechanics is Fever mode, which is the default mode for all single player courses and Free Battle. This occurs when a bar in the middle of the screen is filled up. To fill the bar, one must offset Nuisance Puyo waiting above their board. Each chain will fill one space in the Fever gauge until it is full, which is when Fever activates. In Fever mode, a preset chain will fall onto a cleared field. In a limited amount of time, one must find a "trigger point" in the puzzle, which will cause a major chain to go off and attack the opponent. Once a chain is made, another puzzle falls, bigger and more complicated than the previous one. This keeps occurring until time runs out, then it returns the player to his or her original field. Tsu rule also returns, and a variant of Fever mode, Trap is also playable, where Fever mode makes you weaker.
Playable Characters
- Amitie
- Dapper Bones (Also called Osharebones)
- Klug
- Donguri Gaeru (known as Dongurigaeru)
- Lidelle (known as Rider, also called Ridel and Rita)
- Onion Pixie (known as Onion Pixy)
- Ocean Prince (also called Prince of ocean)
- Raffina (known as Raffine)
- Yu
- Tartar
- Hoho (Also known as Hohow Bird. "Bird" was uncapitalized on the GameCube version)
- Accord
- Frankensteins
- Arle
- Popoi
- To unlock him, beat the WakuWaku or HaraHara Courses (when Popoi is your last opponent).
- Carbuncle
- To unlock him, beat the HaraHara Course (when Carbuncle is your last opponent).
Netplay
The PC (Windows) version is the first Puyo Puyo game to feature online connectivity in order to play against other players (Puyo Puyo Sun previously featured netplay via TCP/IP, but you could not verse random players). Initially, it was free to play online, but as of June 24, 2008 free online play has been discontinued and now one must purchase version 2.0 of the PC version, which includes a user ID and password.
Version 1.x only supports playing using the Fever rule when playing against a stranger, although as of version 2.0 it is possible to play using either the Fever rule or Tsu rule. When playing against a friend (which can be accessed through the game's chat room) it's possible to choose any rules available to the player in the Everybody Puyo Puyo menu.
Free alternatives to play online include:
- Use the somewhat buggy version 1.05 IP-to-IP method
- Use fangames, such as Puyo Puyo VS or puyo2ch (puyo2ch is incredibly laggy unless one lives near Japan)
Carnival Edition
Puyo Puyo Fever: Carnival Edition was a special version of Puyo Puyo Fever Sega created in order to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Puyo Puyo series. It was free for all players and despite containing the full version of Puyo Puyo Fever, the player could only play Endless modes or take place in online matches; Single Player mode is disabled. Every month starting from March 2006 to December 2006 it featured a different character that the player could play against. If the player managed to beat this special character, they would then be able to enter into a contest and win some Puyo merchandise.
Characters
- March
- Sonic the Hedgehog was the special character for the month of March. He used the Sonic Riders artwork and the Sonic Riders music for his battle theme.
- April
- The protagonist from The Rub Rabbits! was the special character for the month of April. He used music from said game for his battle and fever theme.
- May
- Koriki Choshu, a Japanese comedian, was the special character for the month of May. He has no special battle theme.
- June
- Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter series was the special character for the month of June. He used his own battle and fever theme.
- July
- Sakura Shinguji from Sakura Wars was the special character for the month of July. She used her own fever music but not battle theme.
- August
- Karen Erra from Phantasy Star Universe was the special character for the month of August. She used her own battle and fever theme.
- September
- An Aquos Robotallion from Bakugan was the special character for the month of September. He has no special battle theme. (Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary was announced a couple of days before this event.)
- October
- Cyrille from Shining Force EXA was the special character for the month of October. She has her own battle and fever theme.
- November
- AiAi from the Super Monkey Ball series was the special character for the month of November. He has his own battle and fever theme.
- December
- Satan was the special character for the month of December and was the last special character. He uses Arle's theme from Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary for his battle music and the fever theme from Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary for his fever theme. (Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary was released shortly before this event.)
Version 1.12 of the PC version of Puyo Puyo Fever is based off of the Carnival Edition. Although none of the Carnival Edition specific features are present, numerous leftover traces can be found throughout the game's executable and launcher.
Bugs
- In the Dreamcast and PC versions, it's possible to fight against Carbuncle without meeting the conditions to unlock him. It's also possible to unlock Popoi at the same time.
- Play against Popoi and keep on losing until you are on your 6th continue.
- Lose the match again. This time, when it asks you if you wish to save your replay, select Yes.
- Exit out of the replay screen (it's not necessary to save the replay, but you can if you want).
- When the match starts you'll be facing off against Carbuncle.
- The reason this works is because when you return from the replay menu, the game has to reload all the data for the match. When the game sees that you have used your 7th (or multiple of 7th) continue, the game will load the match for Carbuncle instead of Popoi. Note that this will not unlock the Raffina vs Carbuncle cutscene.
- In the DS version, if you start a Free Battle match in Single Puyo Puyo/POP section with the player's character randomized, quit out of the battle and then start any of the Story mode courses, that player will play said course with a random character chosen for each match(and continue/retry).
- Replays of long online matches may sometimes go out of sync during the middle of the match.
- Sometimes, seemingly randomly, players may get the current group of Nuisance falling into their board if they try to offset while an opponent's chain was going on. This usually should happen if they offset 1 frame after their opponent's Puyo drop animation has finished. This bug presumably was carried over to future games that has the Fever rules(including its direct sequel, Puyo Puyo Fever 2, and the most recent game with Fever rules, Puyo Puyo Champions).
- In the PC version, sometimes when the Fever meter is full, you do not immediately enter Fever and have to drop another piece. In addition, sometimes the game may skip voice clips for seemingly no reason.
Development
Pre-Release
Prior to the game's release, Sega showed off the game at Tokyo Game Show 2003, along with holding a promotional tournament there. In 2014, a prototype of the NAOMI version of the game was dumped and put online, while not being the TGS2003 version, it seems to be the version that the TGS2003 build was based on, as they have many similarities, and the prototype was compiled close to TGS2003 (The build was compiled September 9th, 2003 and TGS2003 started on September 27th, 2003.)
Monthly Arcadia Article
The gaming magazine Monthly Arcadia featured a spotlight for the game which featured background information about the characters that was not presented in the full game.[1]
Cheats
- Select Characters in Endless
- Highlight any of the Endless options in the Endless mode menu screen, then press the following buttons(in order) corresponding to the version you're playing:
- DC: Up, Down, Y, X, A/START
- PC: Up, Down, Control, Alt, 'A'/'START' (Z/Enter)
- GBA: Up, Down, Select, A/START
- NDS: Up, Down, X, A/START
- PSP: Up, Down, Triangle, Square, Circle/START
- If the 'All Clear' sound is played, then you should be able to get to the Character Select screen.
- Use Dropsets in Endless Modes
- Hold X or SELECT(DS or GBA) while selecting your character in any Endless mode, then press A/START with the buttons held. The previously all-pair dropset, normally used as Arle, will now have the chosen character's dropset. Please note that high scores will not be saved into the records if you use this cheat.
- Select Characters in Story
(Please note that in the PC port, their in-game rotation buttons('A', 'B', 'START') must be used if you're playing with a keyboard. The buttons next to their in-game buttons are the default binds.) Highlight any of the Courses in the Story/Course selection('Single Puyo Puyo/POP') screen, then press the following buttons(in order) corresponding to the version you're playing:
- DC: Down, Up, X, Y, A/START
- PC: Down, Up, Control, Alt, 'A'/'START'(Z/Enter)
- GBA: SELECT, Up, Down, A/START (Highscores will not be saved.)
- NDS: X, Down, Up, A/START (Highscores will not be saved.)
- PSP: Down, Up, Square, Triangle, Circle/START
- If the 'All Clear' sound is played, then you should be able to get to the Character Select screen.
- Use TSU Ruleset in Free Battle + Story Mode
- Hold X or SELECT while selecting your character and/or your opponent in either the Story mode(via the character selection cheat) or any of the Fever-related rules in Free Battle, then press A/START with the buttons held. You/your opponent will now have a TSU/Classic Rules board, following the rules of said mode. Doing this in the Story mode will have CPU opponents will always play in Fever Rules in their board.
- Harder CPU in Battles (Core AI Cheat)
- While selecting the CPU character, hold the follwing button(s):
- DC/PC: UP(on the controller/player slot that's being controlled by the CPU)
- NDS: R
- PSP: L + R
- Then choose any character with the buttons held. The CPU opponent will now have faster movement.
- Set Player as CPU (DS-only)
- Hold SELECT, then press A/START on your difficulty selection during the start of each match. The player's character should now be controlled by the CPU. (Hold R + SELECT to activate Core AI CPU for your character.)
- Instant Win/KO All CPU's in Free Battle (GBA/DS-only)
- Press L + R + SELECT during a match. This will KO all CPU's, which instantly wins the player(s) the match if there's only 1 human-controlled player remaining or if there are no opposing human-controlled players remaining. While the GBA version only has this code work during multiplayer Free Battle matches, the DS version has this code work at any Free Battle match(including CPU Free Battles, so long as you choose the 'Player VS. COMs' option in 'Double Puyo Puyo/POP').
Trivia
- Puyo Puyo Fever is the last game created by Sega for the Dreamcast.
- It is also the only home console version that uses 3D pre-rendered sprites. The Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube versions uses the RenderWare engine, created by Criterion, a studio currently owned by Electronic Arts, and the backgrounds (except for Fever Mode backgrounds) and Puyos are fully real-time rendered in 3D and the board uses a dynamic camera angle that follows 2 or more chains up until the second-to-last chain.
- The NAOMI and Dreamcast versions were actually intended to be ports of the GameCube version, but development of the arcade version outpaced development of the GameCube version, to the extent that the arcade team would end up deciding parts of the game for themselves and passing their work along to the GameCube team.[2]
- Puyo Puyo Fever is the second game developed by Sonic Team to spawn a numbered sequel, behind Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Following Puyo Pop Fever, there was a 13-year gap in which no Puyo Puyo games were released in English. Ports of Puyo Puyo Tsu were released outside of Japan during this period, but they were untranslated. Puyo Puyo Tetris would be the next game to be localized, in 2017.
- Puyo Puyo Fever is the first mainline Puyo Puyo game in which the vocal cast is consistent across all releases.
- Puyo Puyo CD and Puyo Puyo CD Tsu replace the original voice work from the 1992 Puyo Puyo and Puyo Puyo Tsu respectively. Additionally, Arle has four different voice actresses across the various releases of Tsu.
- Puyo Puyo Sun saw the voice actors for Skeleton T, Incubus, and Rulue recast after the Sega Saturn port.
- Pocket Puyo Puyo~n reuses Puyo Puyo Sun voice work in many places.
- However, Klug's first chain is slightly different in the DS version, as he does not elongate the "aa" part of "Saa" anymore. This voice is still provided by Mie Sonozaki.
- Of the five Puyo Puyo games that contain both regular Puyo Puyo characters and English voice acting (the 1992 Puyo Puyo, Puyo Pop Fever, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Puyo Puyo Champions, and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2), Puyo Pop Fever is the only one that is not playable on the Nintendo Switch.
- Puyo Pop Fever was featured in Sega Superstars as one of the main games. Unlike the traditional gameplay, the player will use their arms to align Puyo to their perspective color.
- It was also featured in Sega Superstars Tennis as one of the mini-games in Superstar Planet. It takes place in the NiGHTS into dreams... stage, Nightopia. It follows a unique gameplay style to traditional gameplay. The player will have to rally, as in a usual tennis match, to pop puyos. Just like the traditional gameplay, puyos fall into the board but, puyos can't be popped during a chain after the first set of puyos are popped. Also, single puyos can be popped as well, even while falling. If the ball is out of the court, the player will have to serve again.
Gallery
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Japan Gamecube cover -
US Gamecube cover -
EU Gamecube cover -
Japan DS cover -
US DS cover -
EU DS cover -
Japan PSP cover -
EU PSP cover -
EU Xbox cover -
Title Screen (Japanese) -
Title Screen (English) -
Title Screen (Carnival Edition)
External links and References