Ludography
Puzzled cover

1990 · Arcade · Falling block puzzle

Puzzled

Timed SNK exclusive

Use your wisdom and courage to make your way through a block-filled tower to reach the God of the Sun!

Released
20 January 1990
Platforms
Neo GeoNeo Geo CDNintendo SwitchXbox One
Genres
ArcadeFalling block puzzlePuzzle
Developers
—
Publishers
—
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Kids
Country
Japan
Age ratings
ESRB E

About

Puzzled, released in Japan as Joy Joy Kid, is a 1990 tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. The game was ported to mobile phones in 2005, then was re-published by D4 Enterprise on the Wii Virtual Console in June 2011, and is also one of the twenty games that came pre-loaded on the Neo Geo X console released in 2012. Hamster Corporation re-released the game as part of their ACA Neo Geo series for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Android and iOS.

Media

Puzzled screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The visuals of Puzzled look a lot like Tetris and the core gameplay is the same: the player controls tetrominos falling from the top of the screen, and filling a horizontal lines clears it, but the objective is to clear a vertical path for a hot air balloon initially trapped at the bottom of each level, enabling it to fly off the top of the playing field and moving up to the next level of a tower.

The tower is divided into multiple floors, with 10 levels per floor, totaling 60 different puzzles. Some levels feature varied obstacles like robots floating around the puzzle to attack the balloon, regenerating blocks, and gold blocks that need to be cleared multiple times before disappearing. The player can also use a power-up called an "L-Ball": a meter fills up as lines are cleared, and once ready, the player can trigger a lightning ball to explode outwards from the balloon's current location, removing surrounding blocks.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Puzzled on their December 15, 1990 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the month, outperforming titles such as Carrier Air Wing and Raiden.

The graphics of Puzzled were described as being simplistic and unremarkable but well-designed and efficient. The sound effects were also considered minimalistic but enjoyable for a game of this type.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Neo Geo20 January 1990North America · Worldwide 20 November 1990 · North America 1 July 1991 · Worldwide 1 July 1991
Neo Geo CD9 September 1994North America · Worldwide 31 December 1994
Nintendo Switch24 August 2017North America · Europe 24 August 2017

Editions and related releases

Included in
Neo Geo Mini InternationalNeo Geo Mini
Ported as
ACA Neo Geo: Puzzled

Games like this

Collections5 collections

Publishers

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.