Cosmo Gang the Puzzle is a 1992 falling tile puzzlearcade game developed and published by Namco worldwide. It is a sequel to the gameCosmo Gang the Video, released a year prior. In the game, players must stack blocks and pink-colored aliens together, the objective being to clear as many of these as possible. Blocks can be cleared by stacking them into rows of six, while aliens can be cleared by dropping blue-colored spheres, which will defeat any enemies in its path. It ran on the Namco NA-1 arcade board. Namco ported the game to the Super Famicom a year later in 1993 - this version of the game would be remade as Pac-Attack for North America and Europe, which was later ported over to other systems such as the Sega Genesis and Game Boy. Cosmo Gang the Puzzle was met with a mixed to positive reception from critics, who praised its multiplayer aspect and gameplay while criticizing its graphics. The Super Famicom version was released on the Wii Virtual Console in 2008 and Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, while the arcade version was released for the WiiVirtual Console in 2009 - all of these ports were exclusive to Japan.
Gameplay
Cosmo Gang the Puzzle is a falling-tile puzzle game. Using the joystick, the player must stack groups of blocks and pink-colored aliens, known as "Jammers", onto the game board, the objective being to clear as many possible before they stack to the top of the screen. Blocks can be cleared by matching them into horizontal rows of six, while Jammers can be defeated by blue-colored balls, which will point in the direction they will move and clear any Jammers in its path. A meter located at the middle of the screen will fill up each time a Jammer is cleared - once this meter is filled, a star will drop from the top of the screen and clear all Jammers on-screen. The game becomes progressively more difficult as it progresses, increasing the speed of the dropping blocks and Jammers. Once the blocks and Jammers reach the top of the screen, the game will be over. Alongside a single-player option, a multiplayer option is also available. The second player's screen will replace the Jammers with white-colored robots named 'Pipopapo-Tai", which behave the same as regular Jammers. In the multiplayer mode, the objective is to fill up the other player's screen, which can be accomplished by clearing more Jammers than the other player, causing the other's enemies to fall onto the opponent's side. The game will end once a player's blocks and Jammers reach the top. The game forbids the name "AAAAA" on the high score table, instead replacing it with the name of an earlier Namco video game.
Reception
Cosmo Gang the Puzzle received mixed to positive reviews on release, with many praising its multiplayer and gameplay while criticizing its graphics. In Japan, Game Machine listed it on their January 1, 1993 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful table arcade game of the year. The Super Famicom port of the game holds a 58% on aggregator website GameRankings.
