Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember)

[A Black Falcon]

Saturn
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Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle Dama - Finished arcade (story) mode in Normal with a character. I got the bad ending, but that's close enough for now... just like the arcade game, you only get one chance at the final match, and if you fail it, bad ending for you. That's cruel, in a puzzle game this hard! As for the game, Konami's Puzzle Dama series is clearly Puyo Puyo inspired, but they changed a few things, so it's not exactly the same. It's a fast-paced, fun game that I quite like.

SNES
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Block Kuzushi [Block Breaker] - beat the main story mode. This game is a Japan-only Arkanoid clone. It's got some issues, but overall I liked it. The game is MUCH better with the SNES Mouse, though -- without the mouse's vastly improved controls, I don't think I'd have enjoyed this game very much. The main story mode has text (in Japanese of course) after each of the boss fights -- and yes, there are boss fights about every 20 levels in this 101-stage game. You choose your route after each stage, though, so you'll only play 38 actual stages, max, in each game (fewer with warps). This adds some replay value, if you want to see some of the stages you didn't before. The game has very nice graphics, too -- the art design here really is impressively good for the genre and platform. The core Arkanoid/Breakout gameplay is solid and mostly well-designed, and there are plenty of powerups.

However, the game also has some problems. The music tracks are very short and repeat constantly, which gets annoying. In addition, this game gets boring at times -- many stages are absolutely LOADED with unbreakable (without specific powerups) bricks, and getting the ball through the mazes of bricks to those few you need to actually break gets tedious at times. Arkanoid is more fun than this, it's better balanced. Making this worse is that if you die you lose your powerups, and many cannot be replaced, since most powerup-generating blocks do not respawn. Also, the boss fights are mostly too simple -- the boss graphics look great, but only one, the third or fourth boss, actually presented a challenge; the others went down easily. The starting ball speed is SLOW, too, which does not help the tedium problem at all. So, you get a nice powerup, lose the ball, and then have to go through the rest of the frustrating stage without any powerups and with the ball barely moving for a while. This happens too often. The game also really should have had an Arkanoid-style gun powerup -- there is one laser shot weapon, but it's one-time-use, and clears a big chunk of blocks. Other powerups include a ball bomb (to blow up the area around the ball), a ball splitter (for two balls at once), paddle-lengheners, a warp that sends you to a higher level, etc. There are also some negative powerups as well, though -- there's a backwards warp I got once (ARGH!), paddle-shrinker, and slower-ball. There are a dozen powerups in this game overall, and about a dozen block types as well. This may sound like nice variety, but you see all of them early in the game; there's nothing new added here, just more levels with the same stuff and maybe new backgrounds and music. So yes, it gets repetitive. Also, you cannot save. This game isn't hugely long, but with how it gets boring sometimes, and you should have been able to save. Annoying. I had to leave the system on for a while instead. (On that note, you can't pause with the mouse; have to just leave it on one of the in-between-stage screens.) You have infinite continues here, and lose no progress when you continue (you just start from where you left off), so there really wasn't any reason not to have saving.

Still though, overall, Block Kuzushi for the SNES is a fun game, if you have the SNES Mouse. Without it I don't know if I'd recommend this -- you really need the improved controls the mouse brings to enjoy this game fully. But with a mouse, the game is a decent Arkanoid-style title worth a look for anyone who likes the genre.