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Released in Japan a year after the last version and in Europe in 2000 by Event Evolution Software. One might believe this is a "lite" version of Puchi Carat shrunk down for handhelds, but it retains every feature from the PlayStation version - bar the Original Story Mode and the presentation - as well as a few extras of its own, including two new characters!!
To begin with the boring stuff: For every perfect you get in Trial Mode, every ending you see and all other notable accomplishments, that image is added to your collection of Cards, of which there are eighty-something in total. There isn't much to it, really. You can trade cards with other people using the link cable, but considering you can collect every single one of them without ever linking up with anybody else, it seems to exist solely if the player has better things to do than practise Time Attack.
Now for the more interesting aspects: Pearl is portrayed alone in her miniature representation, but Dearl isn't missing in action - once you complete Patrako's story mode, Dearl becomes available as a playable character! Her attack formation is lacklustre, but the fact there's a new character at all is pretty rad in my eyes.
But it gets better! Complete Dearl's storyline, and Kumikumi becomes available all on his own! Essentially a Dan Hibiki-esque joke character, his attack formation can actually be mildly deadly if not treated quickly. Completing his story gets you nothing, sadly.
Being a handheld, it's only natural for the intensity to be toned down; the action is a little slower and occasionally prone to slowdown, particularly on Versus and Story Mode, but the game still plays very well.
The presentation takes a huge dip, though. The screen-filling and colourful character animations have been removed for obvious reasons, and in their place either a chibi rendition of that character standing in the HUD on the right hand side; or in Versus Mode, a tiny head at the top.
This wouldn't be too bad if the backgrounds were still colourful... but the entire game is purple. You might think this site's design is purple, but it's peanuts compared to this game! It is a nice purple, but if you're playing for long periods of time, especially on a television, it can get a little tiresome.
The game is playable on both Game Boy Color and the regular Game Boy, which has to sacrifice the colour for an even more stark presentation. The coloured stones are replaced with different shapes, though whether they'd even be identifiable on a soupy-green Game Boy screen is beyond me. Kudos for cross-compatibility, though!
Visual disappointments aside, the game still delivers on portable Puchi Carat action, and for the longest time was the only means of playing Puchi Carat on the go. It makes a great addition to your portable puzzle game collection!
Unique to this version are Cards; anytime there's a big screen-filling image, it'll be saved in your Cards collection (under Options). Getting Perfects, completing Story Mode, or getting high scores will unlock them.
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* I don't know if there's a certain score you need to reach to win the card. It doesn't matter how many Lines you set Testing Mode to, though.
To unlock Patrako, finish Story Mode as all of the 12 initially-selectable characters.
To unlock Dearl, finish Story Mode as Patrako (obviously you can't do this until she's been unlocked!).
To unlock Kumikumi, finish Story Mode as Dearl (repeat disclaimer!).
In Japan the game was first available as a retail cartridge, and then on July 1 2000 made available through the Nintendo Power cartridge service (see Wikipedia for details). That's about it.
There appear to be no major alterations between the two versions outside of the obvious text translation.
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プロデューサー ディレクター ゲームデザイン オリジナルゲームデザイン キャラクター オリジナルキャラクターデザイン キャラクターげんが サウンド オリジナルサウンド パッケージデザイン マニュアルデザイン ソフト
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マーケティング きょうりょく スーパーバイザー スペシャルサンクス のむら まさひろ CPかいはつぶのみなさん |
Producer
Director
Game Designer
Original Game Designer
Character Designer
Original Character Designer
Original Sound Composer
Package Designer
Software Manual
Programmer
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Marketing
Bug Check
Supervisor
Special Thanks
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