Baku Baku

Cute! Baku Baku screams, "Cute!" A game " this adorable, this infectious, this fun, this outrageous, this...well, cute, could only come from the land of Hello Kitty and the Milky girl.That's right, Baku Baku is straight outta Japan.

Baku Baku is quite similar to Puyo Puyo, the Japanese Puzzle game to beat all Japanese puzzle games, but it definitely manages to mine some new territory with its unique gameplay and its bizarre premise.

As in most puzzle games, you must deal with various objects falling down a "well." You must rearrange them so that you can eliminate them from the screen, while hoping your opponent's as thick as a brick and can't think as fast as you can. If the objects stack up to the lip of the well, it's all over for you, buster. Sounds ordinary? It isn't.The objects you have to match up are animals and food. Random sets of two objects drop from the sky, and they can either be animals, like rabbits, monkeys, dogs, or pandas, or food, like carrots, bananas, bones, and bamboo. Match an animal with its favorite food and you'll see the critter come to life and munch away. Mondo bizarro, my friends, but it's a riot!

OK, so it isn't the most original game in the world. Baku Baku resembles Tetris, Columns, Puyo Puyo and KLAX, Trip'd and a bunch more puzzle games: Stuff falls from the top and you have to eliminate it. One of the things that these games have in common is a high rate of addiction and some fantastic gameplay.

Baku Baku has two types of falling debris: foods and animals. What you have to do is match the food with the creature (ie: monkey and banana; panda and bamboo) and viola, the animal will come to life and eat the food. Fantastic sound and graphics, along with the animal antics, make Baku Baku pure enjoyment.

Graphics - 9

Sound/FX - 8

Gameplay - 8

Rating - 8