Maker - Altron   Catalogue No. - T-16608G

Type - Action Puzzle

Waku Waku as you may or may not know is the Japanese "Sound" for excitement (yes, they have words for almost everything), so when you see it in a games title you'd expect a very fast, action paced game.  Well, Waku Waku 7 could fall in to that category but I wouldn't say the same about Waku Waku Dungeon.  So how about Waku Waku Monster?  Well, happily enough is does fall in to the exciting area or at least as far as puzzle games go.

Unlike many puzzle games, Waku Waku Monster allows you to change the actual items that drop down.  They can be changed from eggs that look very similar to the ones that Yoshi pops out off in Super Mario World, Bubbles sort of like the ones in Magical Drop and Jewels & Diamonds as in Columns.  To accompany the nice variety in objects you have the choice of choosing one of the appealing characters to play as.  Most look as if they are Pokemon rip offs.  There are 15 in total (3 being un-lockable characters) who share one of the 6 "human" owners.  I guess these animals must be pets.  Make sure you choose the character most suited to you though because each one or each owner I should say has their very own special combination attack.

The idea of the game is to get one of the 6 coloured items in to a row of 3 in order for them to disappear.  Sounds simple until you bring in the Power Bar!   Every time you perform a chain the power bar rises.  At any time you can press the B button to launch an attack which sends over junk to the opponent's area.  Or you
can wait until your bar hits MAX where upon it will automatically fire a load of junk over to your opponent's area.  Sounds pretty similar to most other puzzle games doesn't it?  Well how about the ability to counter the opponent's power bar attack by pressing B once they've unleashed an attack?  Pretty cool, don't you think?  Mind you, this will only work as long as you have power in your power bar.

Over all, Waku Waku Monster is a pretty entertaining puzzle game that is well worth checking out.  However I'd go for Deron Dero Dero by Tecmo first.