Review by Matthew Hamilton

For puzzle game freaks, I want to present a review of this obscure game, which I could only find at NCS (at $29, however, its a good deal on an import).

An early Saturn game (1995), Hebereke doesn't exaclty blow the doors off its 16 bit ancestors, but is a nice example of the genre nonetheless. With the usual cast of overly-cute Hebereke characters, Popoitto offers an intesting twist on the classic Tetris/Columns/Puyo Puyo style gameplay.

The several characters, each of a distinct color, run around the play-field shaft -- your goal is to eliminate them by stacking or lining up three other blobs of the same color so that they pop and vanish. Once you have eliminated the little criters, you can move on to the next, more challenging level.

The blobs fall two at a time, and can be rotated as usual. They stick together however, so that if one hits a stack, the other stays sustpended there along with it, only the weight of several others upon it will shift the stack down into the free space below it - this concept makes the gameplay particularly challenging.

With funky, happy-techno music, cutesey voice samples, and great two player action, this is a puzzle game for collectors and enthusiasts alike.