PlayStation Basement #63 - Puzzle: Star Sweep

This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on November 9th, 2019.

This autumn let’s return to the PlayStation Basement. PlayStation Basement is a weekly, Saturday review of an obscure or odd game for the original PlayStation. The games I review end up rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. The point is to emphasize the review over the score. Now, let’s go!

This week, I wanted to calm down after the tense battles against the terrifying Scissorman of Clock Tower last time, so here’s a cute puzzle game. Puzzle: Star Sweep is another A1 Games budget title from 2001 (for North America) that includes the genre of game in the title. Like other titles in this series, the game was released years earlier in Japan (October 30^th, 1997). It also came out earlier in Europe (September 25^th, 2000). In Japan, the game was released as a budget title in the SuperLite 1500 series of games available for ¥1500. When this SuperLite version was released in 2000, three years after the initial print of the game, ¥1500 was around $15, a similar price to the budget version in America. The European version was such a budget title as well, being released as a Pocket Price game. Going back further, StarSweep was originally an arcade game in 1997, only in Japan. The arcade game was released by Namco and Arika, but the ports, at least, are all developed by Axela, a company that only existed for a few years. A Game Boy port of StarSweep was also released in Japan around the same time as the original PlayStation version.

Puzzle: Star Sweep has a cute cover in almost every release. The American version has the familiar A1 Games stripe at the top denoting that this is a puzzle game with the heroine Tia underneath. She is flying with some colorful stars that wouldn’t look out of place on PopStar. The original Japanese release shows Tia emerging from a star portal with a shot of the Island of Rio as a backdrop and the various other characters in view as well. The SuperLite 1500 version has the standard white background, but unlike some others, Tia is in color, cutely peeking from behind a game board of falling blocks. The European release fizzles by not showing any of the adorable characters, only giving the viewer some oddly rotating Tetriminos, things that aren’t even in the game!  There are also the color squares of the Pocket Price series. Why couldn’t they keep the cute characters to greet the viewer?

Puzzle: Star Sweep has these cute characters all over the game. Tia, Domingo, Po, Funger, and even the final boss Dr. J have beautiful chibi designs that combine anime with Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.  The designs are like the similarly named puzzle game Twinkle Star Sprites, though they are also their own thing. Star Sweep is bright and colorful with familiar blocks of Stardust appearing in lines like the more well-known Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon. The menus and map of the Island of Rio follow the cheery aesthetic. Everything really pops in an excellent way!

The cheery aesthetics are accompanied by cheery sounds. The musick takes a city pop/fusion sound, a style that I love. The style reminds me a bit of Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon for N64, especially the Kai Highway track from that game. I actually put many of Star Sweep’s tracks into a YouTube playlist I curate of PS1/N64/Saturn era musick. The Japanese version  has some extra voice clips and an extra song that were cut from the American version, most likely because the publishers didn’t want to translate the dialogue or throw in voices in an unfamiliar language. The translation as-is is a little off anyway. Considering they were doing this game on the cheap, that’s not surprising. The sound effects in the game otherwise include bright, hollow sounds for rotating, placing, and clearing blocks. It’s a bit strange at first, but I got used to the sounds as I played. I think it sounds really great actually.

As mentioned, Puzzle: Star Sweep is a puzzle game with similarities to Tetris Attack. Unlike that game, which had rising blocks of various colors, Star Sweep features falling blocks in the shape of lines. You must match the blocks together on one or more sides that feature a star, and like Puyo Puyo and other puzzlers, Star Sweep allows you to make combos to send garbage blocks (in the form of clouds here) over to the opponent’s field. Not every match is a battle though: Puzzle: Star Sweep comes packed with modes besides the one-on-one Story Mode. One Player Mode rates how far you can get through a gauntlet of falling blocks and short battles against cloud entities. Links Attack tasks the player with making as many chains as possible within the time limit. Combo Attack requires you to clear many blocks at once with a huge combo. Score Attack is about getting the highest score in the time limit, Time Attack is about clearing all of the obstacles in the time limit, and Obstacle Attack throws tons of obstacles your way. Finally, 5 Links Attack times how quickly you can clear five combos. There’s also a Versus Mode for two-player action and two unlockable modes that you obtain by doing well in the other modes.

Puzzle: Star Sweep is overall a great package. The game is colorful, fun, and full of gameplay. I did find that the Story Mode spiked in difficulty for the last two battles, and I also found that the game makes it hard to dig yourself out of a hole once you are losing. What this really means though is that what appears extremely basic at first is actually way more complex behind the curtain. This is especially obvious after trying the other modes and other difficulty settings. Puzzle: Star Sweep is therefore perfect for puzzle fans of all ages and skill levels. I was really happy to finally give this one a try!

Puzzle: Star Sweep receives a Good.

Follow EfreetEater on Facebook