News is a puzzle arcade game released in 1993. It is unknown who actually distributed this game as in certain versions, the game is credited to a "Poby" or Virus (depending on the DIP switch), but another version rated by the Korea Media Rating Board credits a Jeansole and was submitted by a company of the same name.[1] The names Poby and Virus seem to be some type of alias for D.R. Korea, who previously made Hexa and Tetris. The game was developed by Kwang-Ho Cho and possibly another person.
Gameplay[]
The game is a clone of Compile's Puyo Puyo, with near-identical graphics. Black-and-white pictures of women appear in the background of the playfield, changing as the game progresses. The idea likely coming from Hexa. Just like Hexa, the player can use a powerup to clear a good chunk of the board, which is "EX". EX makes the next block connect with up to several other blocks before disappearing. The game's music is a heavily sped-up rendition of the Technical Game theme from Soldam. The game also uses the title screen background from Soldam. Some sound effects were stolen from Konami's 1992 puzzle game, Hexion.
The game features many bizarre voice samples when "Blocks" as the game calls them, are cleared, including "Whoa, what?", "Gimme a break!", "Get Lost!", "Hey, check this out!" "I got you" , and something that sounds like an elongated "Yay!" or "Gay!".
Trivia[]
- Another company known as "MIN" made a Columns clone known as Gumbo which can be seen as a successor to Hexa. It features some of the same music and uses same sound effects as News.