First touch with Touch Ro Puzzle

Brandon over at Insert Credit really got me interested in Touch Ro Puzzle when he mentioned it’s the base for the upcoming horror/puzzle game Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen. I saw a reasonably priced, used copy in Youngsan and my curiosity got the better of me. I blindly bought it, even though I personally understand zero Korean. I justified the purchase as an interesting story for Siliconera readers. (I hope you enjoy this and if you're thinking about importing Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen give this a read.) The theme of Touch Ro Puzzle couldn’t be further from Success SuperLite modification. Touch Ro Puzzle has a happy Yeti-like creature bopping on the top screen while players match monsters in groups of three on the bottom with the stylus. I think the Yeti-creature on the cover is from of Douwa Oukoku, a Japanese MMORPG.

Yes, this sounds a lot like Bejeweled. Touch Ro Puzzle is essentially Bejewled with a twist. You can match as many monsters as you want, but the goal is to increase the surface area of cleared space. When you match three smiling skulls or giggling demons they vanish and change the background underneath them to orange. To beat a level you need to turn certain percentage of the background to orange. Luckily, this was pretty easy to figure out regardless of the language barrier.

Each stage is a different shape, which can make things difficult when trying to change the color of pieces wedged into a corner. The other obstacle to tackle is time, which slips until you get a boost by match three monsters or using the clock item. If time runs out you lose a life, but lives are restored to three each time you start a new stage. After level five in the story mode, Touch Ro Puzzle has a new challenge you have to turn the entire field orange (read: match three monsters on every space) and then turn a percentage of the field red by matching three monsters on an orange square.

I haven’t delved into Touch Ro Puzzle beyond that point, but I understand there are other fairy tales you can save by matching monsters to remove them. Skonec adapted Alice and Wonderland, Arabian Nights (with a genie who looks like he’s doing a shift at the FBI) and the Wizard of Oz (pictured on the right). Notice how “Dorothy” is holding a gun? I'm still playing Touch Ro Puzzle just to get up to the point to see what Dorothy does with her pistol.