Bust-a-Move 4

• 16 characters.
• thousands of puzzles.
• Create-Your-Own-Level mode.
• multiplayer action.
• dynamic graphics.

Bust-A-Move 4 proves that Dreamcast games don't necessarily need flashy graphics to be fun. This puzzle game has been around in one form or another for years, and still offers enough charm and gameplay to deserve a spot on the shelf of any fan of the genre. This incarnation adds a mixed bag of new features and enough play modes to keep you busy for a few weeks. Gameplay is simple. The play area contains balls of various colors, and players control a cannon at the bottom of the screen that shoots one colored ball at a time. The cannon is immobile, but can be ed left or right, and launched balls stick to those that are already on the playing field. If three or more balls of the same color are touching, they are cleared from the board. These simple rules offer more strategic possibilities than you'd think, and the fact that perfect is required to place the cannon s where they're needed adds to the frantic action that ensues each time a game is started. Bust-A-Move 4 incorporates a new combo system that makes spectacular board-clearing s possible, but also decreases the difficulty of the game significantly because the combos happen far too often. The game is still fun in two-player mode, but the developers oddly left out the superior four-player abilities for which this game is famous. Still, with hundreds of puzzles to solve, arcade-perfect graphics (which isn't saying much), and a decent two-player mode, Bust-A-Move 4 serves up plenty of entertainment value. --T. Byrl Baker Pros: * Crisp, clear graphics * Hundreds of puzzles to play through Cons: * No four-player mode * New supercombos are lame