Puzzle Fighter

Puzzle Fighter is a puzzle game which is similar to the Sega arcade game Baku Baku Animal. As in the Capcom arcade game Pnickies, the player controls pairs of blocks ("gems" in game parlance) that drop into a pit-like playfield (twelve blocks tall by six blocks wide, with the fourth column from the left being thirteen blocks high). In Puzzle Fighter, however, gems can only be eliminated by coming into contact with a Crash Gem of the same color, which eliminates all adjacent gems of that color, setting up the potential for huge chain reactions. When gems are eliminated, "garbage blocks" called Counter Gems drop into the opponent's playfield; these will eventually become normal gems, but only after they count down to zero.

Most Counter Gems start at "5" and are reduced by one each time a new pair of gems is dropped on that board. The only way to eliminate Counter Gems before they become normal gems is to place a Crash Gem of that color nearby so it eliminates at least one normal gem. If this is done, all Counter Gems immediately adjacent to the Crash Gem will be taken out as well. Additionally, gems of the same color that form squares or rectangles (of at least two blocks tall and wide) in the pit become a giant Power Gem of that size and color; eliminating these as part of a combo increases the number of Counter Gems that would otherwise normally appear on the opponent's board.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo on their August 1, 1996 issue as being the sixth most-successful arcade game of the month, outperforming titles such as Tekken 2.

The arcade game received positive reviews upon release. Reviewing the arcade version, a reviewer for Next Generation commented: "The gameplay is ferociously competitive, unfairly addicting, and as intuitive as riding a bike (once you've got the hang of it), and due to luck factor, the favor swings numerous times from winner to loser and back until the very last gem drops". Additionally praising the cutesy character art and the Capcom in-jokes incorporated into the backgrounds and soundtrack, he scored it four out of five stars. Computer and Video Games compared it favorably with Tetris and Columns, but said the "big difference is the way that gems of the same colour made into squares will join to make one giant bonus gem." They said that, "when it's this much fun, it's well worth a go."