Puyo Pop may sound like an unfamiliar name to you, but the series has actually been around a lot longer than you might think. Sega of America introduced the series to us years ago on the Sega Genesis, under the name of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, and Nintendo even had a variation of its own, with the release of Kirby's Avalanche on the SNES. Now it's the GameCube's turn, and Pop Fever is available for your enjoyment.

The game relies heavily on the puzzle factor, allowing you to build stacks of Puyos, little gel creatures that manage to stick together if they're the same color. As you stack them, groups of four tend to eliminate themselves, and as they vanish, new ones that were on top of them fall into play. If they're the same color, they too get eliminated. This allows for serious combo building, and the more pieces you eliminate from your side of the board, the more non-movable Puyos build up on the opponent's side. But be careful! They too have the same abilities, and can just as easily rain blobs onto your side of the screen.

It's this kind of gameplay that keeps Puyo Pop Fever refreshing and fun to play, no matter what your age. Obviously, more serious players will have a blast building themselves combos upon combos, while younger players will find themselves just as happily engaged building simply four-piece blobs. No matter what your experience, the game is balanced and has many modes. You can learn some tools of the trade in Tutorial Mode, try your luck in Story Mode and meet some bizarre characters, take on bonus rounds in the Endless Puyo mode, or just straight up challenge a friend in versus mode and see who's the king (or queen) of the Puyos

The graphics have improved since the old days of Dr. Robotnik and Kirby's Avalanche. The Puyos themselves have a bit more gelling animation, for smoother linking to other Puyos and some cute little bouncing movements if they become trapped or bored. The rest of the presentation, however, seems pretty static, featuring anime-styled characters in the game's story mode and hardly any sort of background animation. The game does show a bit of liveliness when you enter "Puyo Pop Fever", where you can build upon some mega combos after reaching a particular level and really let your opponent have it. Past that, it's pretty basic, but it still works, for the most part.

Where you might be driven a little nutty is with the game's sound. The music's not bad, but the sound effects aren't varied much, and, in an effort to attract the kiddie gamers out there, Sonic Team has included some distinct voices for the characters in the game. The problem is, they become annoying rather quickly, with quirky, upbeat voices and some strange dialogue. The main character herself, a Strawberry Shortcake-esque heroine, even says "Fiddlesticks", a word I haven't heard in a long time. This may annoy some of the more serious puzzle freaks out there.

But I assure you, the sound is a minor quibble. The fact that the gameplay remains just the way it is and hasn't really grown old is a nice touch, and you can find this game at most retailers for a bargain price of about $30, which is very reasonable for what's being offered. Puyo Pop Fever may not be the most thrilling puzzle game on the planet, but it still has its values in spades. You'll certainly gel with it.