Bust-a-move 4 Review

3.0

Format PC

Developer Taito

Publisher Virgin Interactive

Genre Unknown

Dave Woods

We reviewed Puzzle Bobble 2 last issue and awarded it a desultory 30%. Our resident charmer, Charlie Brooker, said that you might as well invite the developers round to 'piss in your eyes.' Poor graphics and jerky animations, y'see.

This is the latest game in the series (forget the name change and just concentrate on the number to avoid confusion) and the graphics are still piss poor. What's worse, you can only play it in full screen mode if you've got a decent PC. We tried it out on a P233 and we could only play it in a window. This is unforgivable and the direct result of a lazy port that feels like it's actually PlayStation code that's running under emulation.

It's a wasted opportunity because there's nothing wrong with the game itself, and the new features, including the pulley system and chain reactions, work really well. If you've got a P2 then it's worth considering otherwise you may as well forget it. It's a simple game and if the developers can't be bothered to convert it properly, we can't be bothered to recommend it to anyone.