--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       "Manga Puzzle" by THE COOLEST PARADISE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

system .. STfm?! STE, Falcon, STEEM, RGB, 1 MB RAM

genre ... what do you think? A puzzler?

release . spring 2oo3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know, I am a bit late on this, but I really hadn't the ass in my pants to do a
review for UCM # 24 as I wanted at first, but the game didn't hit' my taste that
much that I don't wanted to torture myself to write a few lines.

Now, with some more time left, I do it, better late then never :)

MANGA PUZZLE  is the first  game release by  THE COOLEST PARADISE that  are just
known to us through  their thematic slideshows (wuah!) and I wonder that they've
made such a big step forwards, but, good for the scene and the reputation of the
band as this production  tries to entertain  the people  a bit  more as watching
pics or Sheryl Crow or something.



The intro teases the eyes with a few nice grafix.

MANGA PUZZLE is  told be a  conversion of  a SNES (or Super Famicon if you want)
game in the same style, even  using some of  the same grafix. And  it works like
that, you get a  picture on the  screen (the style should  be clear after seeing
the title of  the game, but to say it right  here, the pictures always show cute
manga babes and I wonder what eye  teasers will bring the higher levels) that is
puzzled into 16 pieces  while one field on the screen is left black. This one is
the thing to  move around in  horizontal and vertical  direction while it always
exchanges the place with the tile laying on its way. At least  this would be the
way I would have liked it, as it works in the other way round!

Are you confused now?! Right, me too, and  this is the big drawback of the game,
the control may be easy but is a bit confusing, as you move the tiles around the
black hole  and not the hole  itself, as I thought at first and would have liked
to see... and if you're  stuck in this you get crazy as the hole always moves in
the wrong direction, arf.



Seems this girl is a bit puzzled, no?

So I puzzled around a while, but I have to admit, I was that stuck into the hole
moving idea that I was fed up after  finishing 3 quarters of the level, and this
at any try... so I never stepped to the next one, lame ass I am...

Oki, what  except a  confusing control  can be found in  the game? A  nice intro
sequence featuring a  few nice  pictures and  logos, while  the game title  logo
itself looks not that good anymore (rendered 3D font and converted), but not bad
at all. The manga pictures  are of the  usual quality  and I would count them to
the better creations around and they are told to use the STE palettes.

The game features a nice music by DMA SC that keep your ears teased for a while,
nice sid sound designer stuff.

And what else? In the game  itself there  can be found credits and game infos in
english and french language, but to  be fair, they  didn't helped me to get used
to the surely easy control... damn.
The game is furthermore told to be  run on STE only even  tough they mention the
STF in  the info text that comes along. As my STF is  sleeping in  the cellars I
wasn't in the mood to check it out at  the end. It runs  fine on STEEM and ofcoz
on Falcon, but here  you have to play from  disk only as the  game wont run from
harddisk (I got several times a wrong AES call and the machine hangs up).
I think there is nothing more to leave here as the...

Last words ... MANGA PUZZLE surely is a small step  for the scene but a big step
               for the band THE COOLEST PARADISE as  it shows that  the guys are
               able to do more than just slideshows. If  you get used to the bit
               strange (but very easy) control  the game offers you 35 levels to
               go, but people  that aren't puzzle lovers should take their hands
               off from it, as well  as Manga haters. The intro  sequence offers
               nice grafix, the ingame grafix are well done as well and the tune
               by DMA SC is nice... So all puzzlers should give it a try!


_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o9/2k3_