''Puzz Loop'' is an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

puzzle game A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle ...

developed by

Mitchell Corporation Mitchell Corporation (株式会社ミッチェル) was a Japanese video game developer based in the Suginami ward of Tokyo. Roy Ozaki served as president, and Koichi Niida served as vice-president. Some employees were former Capcom and TAD Corpor ...

and released in 1998 for Japan and North America and 1999 for Europe. It was later ported to the

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

and

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Nuon

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

players under the name ''Ballistic''. The original ''Puzz Loop'' game was also known by this title. In 2008, publisher

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...

released the game on

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

for the iPhone and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...

. There was a

Neo Geo Pocket Color The is a 16-bit color handheld video game console manufactured by SNK. It is a successor to SNK's monochrome Neo Geo Pocket handheld which debuted in 1998 in Japan, with the Color being fully backward compatible. The Neo Geo Pocket Color w ...

version of the game initially planned to be published by

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

, but cancelled due to bankruptcy of the original incarnation of the company. The original ''Puzz Loop'' was followed by a sequel, '' Puzz Loop 2'', in 2001.

Gameplay

In the game, marbles of different colors roll down a spiral path towards a central goal, which the player must stop by shooting new marbles using a cannon into the oncoming ones. The marbles disappear if player matches three or more marbles of the same color. In addition, collecting bonus items attached to marbles can, for example, temporarily slow down the rate the marbles advance or cause all marbles of the same color to disappear. The game is over once the marbles are pushed over the goal threshold.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Puzz Loop'' on their March 1, 1999 issue as being the eight most-successful arcade game of the month. ''Game Machine'' also listed ''Puzz Loop 2'' on their April 1, 2001 issue as being the thirteenth most-successful arcade game of the month. Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PlayStation version of the game for ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'', rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "OK, so it's an ultimately derivative action puzzler; but give it a shot and we guarantee you won't want to put it down."

Legacy

Sequel

''Puzz Loop 2'' is an

released in 2001 on

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', '' Mega Man'', '' ...

CPS-2 The or CPS-2 is an arcade system board that Capcom first used in 1993 for ''Super Street Fighter II''. It was the successor to their previous CP System and Capcom Power System Changer arcade hardware and was succeeded by the CP System III hardwa ...

hardware. Gameplay is exactly the same as its predecessor, with the player needing to deplete all the colored balls before they hit the center of the screen. The most popular feature of ''Puzz Loop 2'' was the two-player versus mode.

Clones

The success of ''Puzz Loop'' led to a number of

clones Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...

with identical or nearly-identical gameplay from other companies including '' Zuma'', the ''

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-ai ...

'' series, ''

Tumblebugs ''Tumblebugs'' is a fast-paced puzzle game developed by Wildfire Studios. It was released for a number of platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and WiiWare. An updated version for Windows, Tumblebugs Remastered was released for sale in Ap ...

'', '' Potpourrii'', ''Butterfly Escape'', ''Loco'', ''Bonsai Blast'', and ''Bonbon Factory''. Mitchell alleges that ''Zuma'', one of the more popular clones, directly infringes on their intellectual property. In reply, ''Zuma'' developer

PopCap Games PopCap Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Seattle, and a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The company was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka. Originally founded under the name "Sexy Action Cool", ...

asserts that their game is "not an exact clone", but an elaboration of Mitchell's original idea. Mitchell itself released a version of the game for the Nintendo DS called ''

Magnetica ''Magnetica'' (known in Japan as and in Europe as ''Actionloop'') is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo DS, released as part of the Touch! Generations series. The game was developed by Mitchell Corporation and published by Nintendo, and is ...

'' in 2006. A

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

version of ''Magnetica'' was released via

WiiWare WiiWare was a service that allowed Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii ...

in 2008.

References

External links

*{{KLOV game, id=9165 1998 video games Arcade video games Capcom games SNK games IOS games Game Boy Color games Marble games PlayStation (console) games Tile-matching video games Video games developed in Japan