Mighty Beanz: Pocket Puzzles for Game Boy Adv Reviews by Gamers

It's rare when a company designs a tile-matching puzzle game that becomes nearly unplayable because of the incorporation of a a licensed property or familiar brand. Tetris is successful because of its absolute simplicity and instantly recognizable shapes. Puyo Pop works because players are familiar with the simple colors to maneuver and match. Mighty Beanz Pocket Puzzles from Majesco, however, is a perfect example of what could have been fun puzzle game had the designers stuck with simplistic icons. But because the game forces players to match up two halves of artwork that's not instantly recognizable ruins the entire experience and turns a simple design into something incredibly and utterly cluttered, complex, and just not fun to play.

First, you need to familiarize yourself with the obvious: what exactly is a "beanz," and what makes it "mighty"? Mighty Beanz is apparently this generation's Pog; Mighty Beanz are, quite simply, a variety of weighted plastic beans with artwork printed on them, that young consumers buy in sealed packages. These packages hide the contents of which beans are inside, making for the potential of finding common, uncommon, and rare beans in a purchase. And though the packs they come in resemble tasty candy samples, they're far from edible. Kids call 'em "collectibles." I call 'em "choking hazards." Majesco includes a "rare gamer beanz" in each Mighty Beans: Pocket Puzzles pack, just so you can understand how utterly ridiculous these "collectibles" really are.

The true use for these Beanz is a real mystery, and must have been for the developers of Mighty Beans: Pocket Puzzles simply took the Mighty Beanz concept and turned it into a traditional tile-based puzzle game. The idea is, like most tile puzzle games, to match up like icons together in order to remove them from the bin. In this case, though, players must shuffle through Beanz halves, pairing up the bottom half of a bean with the matching upper half. Doing this removes the bean from the bin, making room for other Beanz to shuffle into play. There are two modes of play that utilize this piece-matching mechanic, that can be played solo or in battle mode with a computer opponent or a linked-up friend, and the incentive to continue playing is in the game's "collection" aspect; by pulling off enough combos, players will unlock the rare beans for their Beanz Case. There are more than 200 Beanz to uncover for the collection, which will take players a lot of playtime to complete.

This puzzle concept would have worked had it not been for one little element: believe it or not, guys...not everyone is familiar with every single Mighty Beanz on the market. Pairing up two pieces of a hard-to-distinguish portrait is an exercise in frustration, and turns a simple game design into a complex mess that isn't any fun to play. The designers try to help the player by showing the current half's entire bean's portrait on the sidelines, but by doing this your eyes are constantly looking away from the action. It's incredibly difficult to immediately recognize which lowerhalf goes with the matching upperhalf, and this proves exactly why videogame puzzle designers keep their graphics simple. Had the game used simple shapes or colors instead of complex, high-color pictures, this game would have been far more enjoyable.

©2004, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved