Let me get one thing very clear right from the beginning – there is no Puzzle Fighter. There is no Puzzle Fighter II. There is no Super Puzzle Fighter II. It's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo or nothing. Hats off to Capcom for the self-parody, and hats off again for making such a fantastic puzzle game!

In Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (I'm gonna shorten it to SPF2T from here on, for obvious reasons), gems drop from the ceiling and must be stacked up in like colours below. Corners are fine, diagonals don't count. There's no upper limit on how many like colours you can stack before they disappear – instead, an occasional “Crash” gem will drop, which must be positioned next to a like colour to eliminate it. Thus, you can build up some extremely large chain reactions. In a two-player game, this adds to your possible strategies in a more substantial way than with other puzzlers.

Just to shake things up, if you manage to stack gems into rectangular or square configurations, they'll merge into one big gem. The attack on your opponent upon eliminating this larger gem is then increased exponentially.

Attack blocks take the form of temporary sleepers, which last for five drops or three, depending on how long you've been playing a single round. Eliminating gems next to the sleepers will eliminate the sleepers, but putting crash gems onto the sleepers themselves will have no effect until they count down to zero and return to normal blocks. Thus, it's quite easy to use an opponent's attack against them, if you have the time, space and drops remaining to do so.

The game is pretty well perfectly laid out, with only the character selection upsetting the balance of play (some characters' attack blocks are far harder to make use of than others). Before attack drops are added to your screen, a meter in the top will flash either “Caution,” “Warning,” or “Danger,” with “Danger” usually resulting in an instant lose. However, you can escape certain doom by eliminating gems in the same drop as the meter being activated – no attack gems are sent to your opponent, but the number of attack gems sent to your screen will reduce.

It's a well-balanced and thoroughly well thought-out game, and massive fun to play. The presentation is a joy to behold too, with ultra-cute super-deformed versions of characters from Street Fighter II and DarkStalkers, and remixed, catchier versions of the music from said games.

In summary, SPF2T is one of the best puzzle games I've had the pleasure of playing. Interestingly, Capcom seem a little hesitant to remake the game, which is very unusual for the company who milks every game until there's nothing left; in these interesting gaming times, with more casual gamers entering the market, maybe we're due for Puzzle Fighter Alpha III.