The TPS Report - Games, Beats 'n' Blogs

A Couple o' Words On Gunpey For the PSP
Posted by Diggler - 3/12/2006 14:52

Gunpey's the latest of Q's oh so addictive PSP puzzlers. You'll have to import, mind, as of right now, no UK release is slated

I won't make this long, but I do still feel the need to shout out from the rooftops any time a decent PSP title comes along. You see, I couldn't give a rat's dick about GTA: Hooker Rape Simulator #289 on my handheld - for me, those sorts of games are about as far removed from what I expect on a portable as you can get - instead I want fun, simple pick up 'n' play titles that I can dive in and out of at a moment's notice. Gunpey is perfect in that regard...it's the sort of game a handheld was made for.

Based on an ancient puzzler from yester-decade known as Gunpei (no, I hadn't heard of it either), Gunpey has been rejuvenated and modernised here courtesy of Q Entertainment. Yes, those delightful Japanese weirdoes behind such music/puzzle cross-over classics as Lumines, Meteos and the upcoming Every Extend Extra. Much like Lumines, Gunpey takes a simple puzzle game concept, then marries it with expert sound and visual work to create something gorgeously hypnotic, fun and really sorta artistic.

The concept is piss easy in theory. Shapes appear randomly along a scrolling board, and it's your job to rearrange them to form lines from one side to the other, where they disappear. Fail to do so before any shape reaches the top end of the screen, and it's game over. In classic Q tradition though, the visuals and sounds (or "skins" as they're known) are what really breathe life into the experience, altering repeatedly as you progress, resulting in a constantly evolving and mutating fountain of sound and colour that feels more like an AV light show than a simple handheld game. The sound even reacts to your movements and performance as a player, resulting in subtle remixing of the tunes based on your skills.

Skins range from lavish and extravagant club stylings, to more minimal, truly bizarre pieces

That all said, Gunpey's selection of tracks is a little more underground than what we perhaps heard in Q's previous games. There's little in the way of big cheesy vocal numbers ala Lumines here, Gunpey goes straight to the well of minimal techno and dark electronica and pretty much stays there. As a lover of this shit though, I totally crush over this game as a result...do you know how rare it is to hear the sorta tunes I dig show up in a video game?

Sure, a big hallmark of Q's games is the music and presentation, but in terms of raw gameplay Gunpey also boasts a solid underlining that backs it all up. Constructing lines across the screen starts out so simplistic and easy as to border on laughable, but what you soon find out - the hard way, no less - is that this game gets real fucking tough, real fucking quickly. It's almost too tough for me in fact - even as a Lumines expert, I find it hard to survive more than 10 minutes a pop in Gunpey land.

A large part of that is due to how quickly a game can turn bad for you. With you rattling off lines every other second, it only takes a short spell of wrong shapes popping up for it all to go horribly wrong and explode in your face. The pure jolts of adrenaline this game excretes as you hammer that D-pad like a mad man in an attempt to move around the cursor that extra millisecond faster is really rather alarming in that regard...it's scary how into it you can get.

Gunpey has also seen release on the DS, where I hear it plays ever so slightly better, in spite of more kiddie aesthetics

True, if you don't particularly care for puzzle games - and especially if you hated Lumines - Gunpey ain't about to bring you around to Q's unique blend of gameplay and sound. It's very much a follow-up to their other recent and similar work, and not a lot a whole lot more...but with a formula that works so well, I ain't complaining.

It's ironic that for all the PSPs amazing graphical power and sheer technical merit, it's simplistic 2D puzzlers like this which continue to suck up all my time on the damn thing. Perhaps with Lumines II and Every Extend joining the likes of Gunpey and LocoRoco now, Sony are finally starting to realise just what people want and expect from a handheld these days.

The question is...is it too late?

(Pictures courtesy of Namco Bandai Games)