Popils

Popils is a single-player puzzle game in the form of a two dimensional side-view platform game. The player controls one character, a Boy through different stages (referred to as rounds) and must reach the Princess on every stage to complete it. Gameplay focuses on destroying blocks, avoiding enemies and spikes, and using various ladders and warp doors to reach the Princess. Each stage is one fixed screen and does not scroll in any direction and is completed when the Boy and Princess meet, or failed when either the Boy or Princess is killed, the Boy and Princess have no health and will die upon contact with an enemy, or falling onto a spike.

The puzzle aspect is based on destroying certain blocks using the player's punch/kick/head-butt action. When a block is destroyed the column of blocks above it fall down one square and doing this can change the layout of the stage altering possible paths for the Boy, or for the Princess and enemies which move around. On many stages the player must move the Boy for the most part to reach the Princess, but in some stages movement of the Boy is restricted to a small area and the player must make him punch certain blocks to create a path for the princess to follow to the Boy.

In a short animation at the start of the game, a beautiful Princess and a Boy fall in love. But the evil wizard named Popils kidnaps her and traps her inside an enchanted forest and it is up to the Boy to rescue her. When the game is completed the Boy and Princess are happily reunited and it's revealed Popils kidnapped the Princess because he was jealous and he loves her too.

Popils was met with generally favorable reviews. Readers of the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine voted to give the game a 7.75 out of 10 score, ranking among Game Gear titles at the number 34 spot in a 1995 public poll.