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Yosumin Preview
Written by Chris Goldberg on Thursday, October 4, 2007
Yosumin is devilishly addictive in ways that lesser puzzle games could never dream of being...
Back when it was first revealed that SquareEnix was going to be releasing a cutesy puzzler for the Nintendo DS, I was understandably dubious about this news. A puzzle game from SquareEnix, the company who is almost exclusively known for their stellar RPGs? After a little research, though, it was clear I needed to learn a thing or two about this concept.
The first thing that I learned was that this was not some sudden idea by SquareEnix, as it has been offered for free for the PC via the @nifty download service. The second thing I found out after playing for ten minutes, is that this - and I say so without the slightest hint of hyperbole - is one of the most addicting puzzle games of all time. I cannot comprehend why this went ignored for so long, but if there was any time more appropriate for this to end than right now I don't know of it.
If you approach Yosumin the first time in its native Japanese and can't speak the language, you might be perplexed. I stared at the screen for minutes wondering why nothing was clearing, as the timer perilously clicked down on the side. The batch of cute symbols mocked me, and I persisted. After a while of random clicking, something finally disappeared. It didn't take long after to realize that in Yosumin, the goal is to find four of the same type symbols in a perimeter that form the corners of a rectangle or square. Once you do that, everything inside that perimeter is automatically converted to that symbol and is removed from the symbol quota you must meet on each stage.
Once you see the boxes, you can't UNSEE them...
This may sound complicated, but it's merely difficult to explain without accompanying images. Rest assured, if you have any interest in puzzlers at all, this concept will swiftly consume your soul, until eventually you are dreaming of blue teardrops and yellow diamonds. In the DS version, you obviously use the touch screen now to drag out perimeters, as well as climb a tower which presumably represents your progress in the game. But the main goal is completely unchanged, which is a great example of "not messing with perfection." Yosumin is a game of such immense draw that it nearly represents a black hole on Earth. It comes out on the Nintendo DS this November 8 in Japan, and I can only hope that it similarly receives a North American release.
