Genre: Puzzle
Publisher: SCEA
Release Date: 08/09/2007
Players: 1-2

Colored blocks fall and you’re tasked to clear them; chances are you’ve completed that task thousands of times. It’s been a time tested formula for puzzle video games throughout the years, regurgitated in many video game iterations from Dr. Mario to Columns to the incredibly successful Lumines.

When you consider the seemingly endless list of color matching titles that have hit the market, it’s pretty staggering to imagine one that costs $2.99 could even compete. Surprisingly, Sony’s Japan Studio has somehow tossed out a cheap puzzle game that accomplishes the one and only task necessary; it’s actually fun to play!

Piyotama at its core is simply a color matching puzzle game. Colored eggs are laid above off the screen from the, “PIYOMAMATM” or Mother Piyo (Hen). The laid colored eggs tumble into your vertical play area for you to clear by matching four like colors either vertically or horizontally. To match the colors up, you slide the rows of eggs side-to-side, always holding three swappable eggs in a queue of sorts to the right or left of the play area. This “queue” can be flipped around using the face buttons, allowing you to pull like-colored eggs from one row and place them strategically in a row above or below their origin.

Once you have four eggs lined up, they glow and begin a quick hatching process. If you continually match colored eggs within the next few moments, you will create a combo and drastically increase your score. Getting a combo of two or three is fairly easy to accomplish however after a few days with the game, I’ve only been able to reach a high combo of 11. High scores on the Playstation Network show high combos near 30, which is pretty hard to imagine.

While all of this might seem incredibly basic, the additional game play twists make things much more complicated than it first appears. As you clear eggs below, pockets of empty space will accrue and with a gentle vertical flick of the SIXAXIS, eggs hop and tumble into unfilled holes. A horizontal motion with the controller acts similarly to a tilt in a pinball game, shifting the tube in your desired direction. One wonderful aspect of Piyotama is that the SIXAXIS motion controls are perfectly implemented here, they never feel tacked on or unnecessary at all.

Piyotama, to a fault, is simple to understand yet very difficult to master. Like an eggy game of chess, you’ll consistently need to plan numerous moves ahead. This necessity to plan causes some problems in higher levels, as the eggs really begin to pile up. When the area begins to fill with eggs, It’s hard to resist the urge to just toss eggs from one row to another hoping for a positive result or just shake the crap out of your SIXAXIS. Sometimes this is successful but thankfully, it’s definitely not the most effective way to amass a high score.

Graphically, Piyotama has a crisp and colorful cartoon presentation up to an unnecessary 1080p resolution. The backgrounds are colorful, yet completely static with only your previously hatched Piyotami floating around it. The colors change from one level to another but it definitely doesn’t affect the game the way the backgrounds would in a puzzle title like Lumines.

The musical score in Piyotama is enjoyable yet equally simple. While the tunes complement the cutesy, chickadee theme well, I yearn for a few more tracks to crack eggs by. You’ll hear the same few tunes loop in the background over and over throughout your time with the game. They’re very happy and catchy songs as a whole, which makes it even more disappointing there aren’t more of them.

Three main game modes are at your disposal here; Piyo COOP (not to be confused with co-op, this is COOP as in, “chicken coop”), Free-Range, and a 2-Player multiplayer mode (which is unfortunately offline only). COOP mode has a 300 second “egg timer” that slowly counts down, forcing you to clear as many eggs as possible within the time limit. Free-Range, my personal favorite, continues until the play area is full of eggs or the mother hen dies of exhaustion (okay, I made that last part up). The offline only multiplayer is fun if you have an experienced friend to enjoy it with but unfortunately, the high learning curve assures this won’t be a common occurrence.

Overall, Piyotama is an great game and I recommend any PS3 puzzle fan should take it for a spin. It successfully spices up the everyday, color-matching puzzle genre with an interesting flavor of its own. For a dirt-cheap price of $2.99, it’s pretty hard not to recommend adding this to your PSN library.

Official Sony jargon:

KEY FEATURES

* Fast & Fun Gameplay РEasy pick up and play – either solo or against a friend. Match 4 or more eggs of the same color to hatch the piyos. Hatch the rare egg to complete each level.
* Infinite Levels – Enjoy colorful characters, carnival music, and playful scenery in full HD at 1080p. Test your skills in timed play or play timer-free.
* SIXAXIS‚Ñ¢ Wireless Controller - Nudge controller side to side to fill in gaps, and shake up and down to force matched eggs to warm and hatch instantly.
* Global Online Ranking – Perch your hatching skills worldwide.
* 1080p resolution