Game:

Robo Pit (1996)

Duration: 17:54

1,415 views

39

A little bit "Magical Drop", a little bit "Puyo Puyo", and a little bit of a monster breeder, "Waku Waku Monster" is a pretty low-budget game like pretty much everything to come out from the development / publishing group at Altron. Altron is known almost exclusively for their card games and puzzle titles, though they've released a few surprise hits such as "Little Magic" and "Robo-Pit" and they've published ports of a few popular arcade games such as "Puzznic" and "Cleopatra's Fortune". That being said, Waku Waku Monster is one of their least known titles, but also one of their best. With a little more polish, I imagine it would've been an instant classic or a prohibitively sought-after rarity (though it's pretty uncommon as-is).

The goal of the game is simple enough: The story takes place on Waku Waku Island, a magical place ruled by Gods and Goddesses who protect the beauty of nature. These ladies and gents also happen to breed monsters for sport and, in their great boredom, have made a competition of it. Every year, they get together to see who has the best monster and the winner gets full control of the island until the next competition, and this game takes place on the day of one such competition. Breed a monster from scratch, enjoy pretty pointless pre-battle banter, and show the world your mad puzzle skillz. If you've ever played a match three or match four puzzle game, then you already know the fundamentals of this game. This game isn't going out of its way to redefine the genre, but it made a few subtle adjustments to a tried-and-true formula that work wonders for avid puzzle game enthusiasts and helps the game move at a brisk pace.

The game involves dropping objects from the top of the screen to the bottom and creating pairs to execute combos that will help you thrash your opponent in a typical puzzle-versus fashion, but here are the kickers: One, you can see up to four moves in advance versus your typical one, two or three from other games of this type. Two, you can plan your moves out in a well-calculated fashion like your typical puzzler, but this is somewhat frowned upon and will only get you through the first two opponents or so -- making a pair prevents you from moving for a brief period of time but if you rapidly throw down objects, you can orchestrate a grand chain as tiles will freeze momentarily to allow you to put down more tiles, and you'll need to master this mechanic to clear the game without fail as the A.I. will exploit any openings or downtime you have. Three, you can only hold an object for a brief period of time before it gets unruly and wiggles out of your grasp to the not-so-shadowy depths below. Four, if players take too long, junk will start rising from the floor to hasten your demise. Five, this is one of the earlier examples of a puzzle game that allows you to counter opponents not just by attacking, but by defending as well... players can unleash an attack on each other at will and as long as you have some energy, you can press a button to counter an incoming attack to reduce its effects or eliminate it entirely, which adds an additional unexpected strategic element to the game. And lastly... there's that monster breeding element...

In the story mode, you can evolve your monster by getting transparent capsules to trap traits of your choice, or it's determined by which color you eliminate the most. There are six parameters ranging from cuteness, strength, coolness, mischief, mutability and hunger and depending on which attributes you end up with at the end of each stage will determine how your monster evolves. Unfortunately, while these traits offer slight advantages to your monster, they are mainly cosmetic and there actually aren't many proper evolutions at all (we're talking about just over a dozen). With six attributes, you would hope there was at least like 36 or something, but I digress. These monsters are controlled by six different omnipotent gag characters (four of which can be selected by default) who have different junk attack patterns and you will need to recognize them to make it to the end as you adopt different strategies.

Aesthetically, don't expect much from the game; pretty much everything in this game can be replicated on a Super Nintendo and the game was even meant to be released in Arcades originally but a hidden text file on the disc states that the location test they did was a total disaster and only yielded a few hundred yen in sales in some spots. It's kind of a shame because while the game may not be great-looking, you can't always judge a book by its cover, but it also explains why they didn't make many copies of this game. This is a video showing a few segments. Enjoy.

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