Platform: PlayStation 3

Genre: Puzzle

Number of Players: 1 or 2
Support: 1080p, Leaderboard

What is the one thing that the PlayStation 3 is lacking right now? First-person shooters? It has them. Action titles, sports games, giant robots? No, all those games can be accounted for as well. However, the one that that hasn’t really been found on the system are puzzle games, and while the PSP has quickly become THE system if you want to release a puzzle game, the PS3 has been without them, at least it was.

From the minds at Japan Studios comes yet another game to keep your controller fully charged and those minutes and hours quickly draining away. The game is Piyotama, a puzzle game that treads on some familiar ground if you know anything about games of this nature. The title itself does have a story to it, though it’s really not necessary. Somewhere in the Hotai forest live the piyo, a very colorful, birdlike creature and every spring, mother piyo lays her eggs so that new piyos can hatch. But, she’s laid far too many and now your job is to help her hatch them before there are too many in her nest.

You job sound fairly simple, and it is. You simply need to match up the colors of eggs either vertically or horizontally. Four or more is exactly how many you need, though more is better. To match the colors, you can push three eggs to either side and manipulate their arrangement, or you can move them up and down to other positions in the nest. Once you’ve scored a combo however, things don’t necessarily have to end there. Eggs may fall into just the right place to increase the combo, or you can continue to manipulate the positioning of the eggs to match more colors, get more combos, and of course, more points. Once the eggs hatch, the piyos fly away and make room for more eggs.

There is one hazard to look out for however, and those are larger eggs that, once in place, will not allow you to move the line of eggs at all. You must get a diagonal match in order to remove it, and that often isn’t an easy thing to do, adding a new challenge into the game. Piyotama also uses the SIXAXIS controller. Often you’ll find gaps left in the nest as eggs are hatched, but if you simply nudge the controller to either side, you will cause more eggs to fall into place and close those annoyances. On the other hand, if you shake the controller, it will help to make the eggs hatch faster, a necessity when you find the nest is becoming cluttered with eggs and you’re nearing your final moments in the game.

Piyotama can be played as a timed game or the free range mode. Playing in the free range version will allow you not 100 or 200 levels, but infinite, so be prepared. There is also a mode that will let you play with a friend in a co-op mode. The game also has a global online ranking mode so you can see how your score compares against that of others around the world, and as it stands now, Japan seems to have a number of outstanding puzzle fanatics. As one final reason to download this game, Piyotama is the first puzzle game to be featured in 1080p, bringing those colorful piyos to glorious and vivid life.

The trend that has been seen with many of the latest puzzle games are somewhat distracting backgrounds filled with bright and vivid colors that are fantastic to watch, but definitely can throw a game quickly. Piyotama however is a return to basics. There’s no need to worry about busy distractions. Instead the game gives you an spring background which changes color as you progress further into the game, and even the seasons begin to change. Apparently mama is quite busy with those eggs. Your reward for matching the colors is simply seeing them pop open, shells scattering away, and the baby piyo fly to freedom with the Hotai forest.

On top of everything else, Piyotama is a very inexpensive download title. For a mere $3.00, a little less than a cup of Starbucks coffee, you can help these poor piyos who, without your help, might not know the freedom of the great Hotai forest and instead will be stuck with nothing more than suffering in a stuffy nest. Piyotama has one final advantage, and like almost every other puzzle game that’s available, it’s addictive, almost too addictive, but nevertheless, just the thing to waste away the day, and if all puzzle games could be this enjoyable, the world of gaming would be a much better place.

-mike-