While the plastic-looking 3D characters can never replace the charming big-headed sprites of the original, Capcom’s new free-to-play mobile Puzzle Fighter gets the puzzle fighting bit done well enough.
I won’t make too much of a fuss over the art direction of Puzzle Fighter, as it’s little more than set dressing to the main event. The dropping gems look just fine. They fall, they crash, they drop numbered garbage gems onto the opponents’ board when matches are made.
Then again, there are the super moves. Kind of hard to ignore the characters when they’re pulling stunts like these.
Out now in soft launch in select territories (including Australia) and launching later this year worldwide, this new Puzzle Fighter features two modes of play. The main focus is competitive online play, where players matched via their rank battle it out to climb the competitive puzzle fighting ladder.
Rotating single-player missions give players something to do while not matching gems at each other. As of right now there is a special event going on where players try to earn enough mission points for a special reward of some sort.
I like the fighting so far, but with a strong focus on competitive multiplayer, I’m going to have to wait and see how much microtransactions affect battles and ranking. Players can purchase crystals and coins to unlock new characters, costumes and moves. Upgrading special moves is done by collecting skill cards awarded though play or via purchased chests, so it’s obvious players who drop a dime or two are going to have at least a mild advantage.
Prices on screens are in Australian dollars.
We’ll know more about how it plays out when those ugly little Capcom characters take their puzzle fighting worldwide later this year.
Comments
4 responses to “The New Puzzle Fighter Plays Better Than It Looks”
Terrible. First couple of matches were against players with 2 or 3 characters on their team vs my single Ryu and could barely do any damage to them.
I love the original and tried this but just could not get past how bad it looks. Give me the original pixel style over this odd mess any day.
Agreed. Just get a MAME room.
i got through the tutorial matches, now my game just hangs on the spinning gem screen.
capcom needs to bring out another pocket fighter game. that was hilarious fun.