Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

About Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (1996) is Capcom's competitive gem-matching puzzler, in which super-deformed Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters brawl as players trade crash gems and counter gems.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo in Depth

Similar to Sega's Baku Baku Animal, and like Capcom's earlier Pnickies, players guide falling pairs of gems into a pit twelve blocks tall and six wide. Gems only vanish when touched by a Crash Gem of the same colour, which clears every connected gem of that colour and can set off huge chains. Clearing gems drops Counter Gems onto the opponent's board, each counting down, usually from five, with every new pair until it becomes a normal gem; they can only be removed early by clearing an adjacent gem of the same colour with a Crash Gem. Same-coloured gems arranged in rectangles at least two by two fuse into a giant Power Gem, which sends more Counter Gems when cleared in a combo.

Every 25 pieces a diamond appears, wiping out every gem of the colour it lands on, though a bug lets players avoid its intended halving of Counter Gems sent. Borrowing Puyo Puyo 2's offsetting rule, players can cancel incoming garbage with chains of their own and send the excess back. Meanwhile super-deformed versions of Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters act out a comic fight reflecting the match, performing fighting moves whenever their player sends Counter Gems. The title spoofs Super Street Fighter II Turbo, as there were no earlier Puzzle Fighter games, and its music and interface parody Street Fighter Alpha and Darkstalkers.

Making Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Capcom developed and published it for arcades in 1996. It received positive reviews: Next Generation called it "ferociously competitive, unfairly addicting, and as intuitive as riding a bike", praising its cute art and Capcom in-jokes in four-star review, and Computer and Video Games compared it favourably with Tetris and Columns, highlighting the giant Power Gems and saying "when it's this much fun, it's well worth a go." Saturn and PlayStation ports also received generally positive reviews. It was later remade as Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and included in Capcom Fighting Collection and Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium in 2022.