Poitto! [ポイッと!] Game Sample - Arcade
29A game from Metro/Able Corp, "Poitto!" is a simple enough puzzle game where you can match horizontally, vertically, and diagonally and create chains to launch powerful magic attacks at your opponent. In truth, Poi (for short) doesn't do anything truly revolutionary and because of the quality of the sound, there are opinions out there that the game does not really qualify as an arcade game and does not provide a rich enough arcade experience. I can't exactly DENY or IGNORE those opinions, because it is kinda plain as day just by looking at the game and hearing it...however, the game is certainly still playable and there isn't anything particularly WRONG with the game. I cannot point out any highlights that make it stand out from the crowd, but I have nothing really negative to say about it either. I think that if you are looking for another interesting game from Metro, you should look out for an arcade game known as "Gun Master".
At any rate, there is a versus mode in the game, as well as a mode where you must defeat the monsters roaming the land, which is generally like a single/story mode. There are, a couple of things to note about this game though and about Metro, though they aren't things that change my particular view about this game.
As obscure as this game is (or really, many of Metro's games), the game would see a console port --- Mahou Poi Poi Poitto! (魔法ぽいぽい ぽいっと!) was released for the Super Famicom in 1994 and the game seems better on it (a little more fleshed out, I suppose)...I guess Poi was just a game that seemed better suited for a console release. I also believe that the SFC release of the game is still fairly inexpensive, so if you like this game, it might be worth picking that up before prices hike on it. Also, Metro is said to be behind the "Bust A Groove" games (which are something of sleeper hit games in the U.S.), so there is that too.
Ultimately, Metro is something of an unusual developer/publisher and I can see that the company wanted to do some outside-of-the-box thinking and try different things...this isn't a bad thing and modern gaming (outside of the indie/doujin world) could benefit from more originality in some regards.