Somewhere in the midst of its vast fighting library and barrage of adventure hits, Capcom released a few puzzle games. Players may remember (and more than likely already own) Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for the PlayStation or Saturn. The name Buster Bros. should ring a bell -- a collection of the games was released for the PSOne almost ten years ago. If neither of these sound familiar, don't worry -- Capcom includes them in the PSP compilation Capcom Puzzle World.

This little collection contains five titles: Super Puzzle Fighter, all three Buster Bros. games and the paddle ball game Block Block. Despite these slim pickings, quality outdoes quantity.

Puzzle Fighter stands out as the main highlight. Players choose from several super-deformed characters from the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers games, ranging from Ken to the lovely Felicia. From there, they enter puzzle-based combat, divided into two opposite playing fields. Gems must be removed from the playfield to avoid high stack-ups, resulting in a loss. By eliminating these multi-colored gems, rival gems begin to stack up on the opponent's side of the screen. Consequently, they return the favor.

Along with a number of modes to choose from (including the all-new Counter Gem Edit Mode), players choose between three different styles of play, humbly labeled X, Y and Z. X retains the original arcade formula, setting up blocks of gems with glowing activator icons to shatter them. Y shares a play style similar to Sega's classic Genesis game Columns, where players set up three gems in rows or columns to remove them. Finally, Z presents a more complex approach, forcing players to move gems around as a stack of gems rises. All three of these modes offer challenging play, especially in Expert mode.

The Buster Bros. games: Buster Bros., Super Buster Bros., and Buster Buddies essentially share the same kind of game play. Each allows one or two players to move along the bottom of a playfield, eliminating balloons and other threats with a harpoon gun (or other weapons). Buster Buddies, the cheesiest of the three, includes weird looking characters (Pink Leopard?) and a high-pitched announcer. The original Buster Bros. continues to be a retro delight, and Super Buster Bros. deserves a look as well. As a bonus, players upload personal photos off their Memory Card Duo for use as backgrounds.

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