Game Boy: Puzzle Boy Series

There's no denying that the Game Boy -- and handhelds in general -- are well-suited for puzzle games. The portable nature of a handheld system just seems so perfect for the quick burst of playing that most puzzle games demand. And yet there are two puzzle games for the original Game Boy that I never seem to hear too much about. Which is, err... puzzling seeing as how they're both brilliant little cartridges.

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Puzzle Boy first came to the US in 1990 under the new title Kwirk. Developed by Atlus, the titular Puzzle Boy was a potato in his birthplace, Japan. However when he made his way oversees new publisher Acclaim decided that a walking potato was far too strange for US gamers. So they made the natural decision to change Puzzle Boy to a walking tomato. With sunglasses. Named Kwirk.

Kwirk is a fantastic puzzle game. It is simple and elegant and challenging without being infuriating. It's the sort of game that teaches you how to play it without ever being condescending. Instead the game slowly ramps up its difficulty, introducing new elements which will slowly cause you to continue to think outside the box until you "get it."

The basic premise is this: you are a tomato. You arrive in one part of a room, and need to get to the exit. In order to do so you will need to push some objects out of your way. It's so incredibly basic, yet just amazingly well put together. It's the sort of game that is generally overlooked (maybe because of the silly box art?) and yet once you sit down with it you can blow an afternoon on it without even realizing it. This isn't a puzzle game of hand-eye coordination like Tetris though. This is a logic puzzle game. A real chin-stroker.

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When it came time to bring Puzzle Boy II to the US, Atlus decided to do it themselves. They ditched the Acclaim-branded redesign in favor of their original potato. However since there was no game called Puzzle Boy in the US, they opted to give this one a new title -- Amazing Tater. The decision to not call the game Kwirk II tends to make the connection between these two games fuzzy in most gamers' memories. In fact what Amazing Tater is most well-known for nowadays is being a rare game published by Atlus. Indeed, it is one of the more sought-after and expensive Game Boy carts on the aftermarket.

To say that Amazing Tater is "more of the same" might sound like a put-down, but in fact this is a good thing. The formula that had been so perfected in Kwirk is still in place, and really doesn't need to be tweaked too much. Really any fans of the original game are going to want only one thing after completing it -- more puzzles. And that's exactly what this is. Although it goes for far more money than the first game, most fans will want them both. And once you sit down with either for an extended period of time, you'll understand exactly why that is.