A while back we previewed a new Capcom game that didn't quite seem to fit into their normal fighter outfit. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (an almost self-parodying name, there) surprised everyone with its cute, super-deformed characters from the Street Fighter and Dark Stalker games, Street Fighter II-like combos, and intense, strategy driven gameplay. Here was the puzzle game to beat all puzzle games, plus it had all our favorite Capcom characters. How could you go wrong? Puzzle Fighter follows the basic two-player puzzle premise, where paired objects drop and stack into columns. In this case, they're colored gems, and by stacking four or more like colors together in a square or rectangle they make large gems, called Power Gems. The Crash Gems also drop, and these are the ones that shatter the gems. So far, this is pretty standard puzzle fare, but Puzzle Fighter really excels in strategy. A little luck does come into the game, but the real determining factor is planning. Not only do you want to stack your gems so a lot will bust at a time, you want to stack them so multiple colors will chain react in succession. Bust a lot, and gems will rain down on your opponent. These games won't be able to bust until they count down from five. The pattern that your gems fall on your opponent are determined by your character, and vice versa, so if you know your opponent's drop pattern, you can set up for that. This is really the key to Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo success. Perhaps the most satisfying part of the game is setting up the multi-hit combos. When you pull one of these off, your character attacks your opponent's character, complete with the sound effects from the original fighting games. It makes the game extremely exciting, and gets you shouting at your opponent like a madman! Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo is an excellent puzzle game, and is fun even when you're playing alone. It doesn't matter if you like puzzlers or not, you owe it to yourself to check this game out.