201. Palamedes II: Star Twinkles (Hot-B, Famicom, 1991)

Developed and published by Hot-B, Palaemdes II is not based on an existing arcade game, unlike its predecessor. Gameplay is an interesting reversal of the original Palamedes, in multiple ways. From a physical perspective, the blocks are now rising from the bottom instead of descending from the top of the screen.

The gameplay is also cleverly inverted: instead of you cycling through a single die to get the number you need to throw, you cycle through the dice in each column of the playfield in order to match with the single die at the top of the screen. You can either match the number on the top die, or go one above or below. In the versus mode, this has an intense feel reminiscent of certain card games where slapping down a card will prevent an opponent from placing theirs.

Thankfully for us single players, there is a quest mode that has you facing off against a series of AI opponents. This mode is a blast, as Palamedes II was clearly designed around its versus mode. Matches are very fast-paced, but played in a best-of-three match that feels very modern. Clearing a number of lines send that many to the opponent, and with only 7 lines before you are crushed by the rising blocks, it's very easy to win or lose extremely quickly. It's kind of like a tennis match, often the point is made quickly, but when you have a good back-and-forth volley going, it gets really intense.

Palamedes II also sports some very nice colorful graphics. There are a lot of rainbow sparkles, and the main music track doesn't grate, even after several rounds. The story mode has you puzzle battling against incarnations of various constellations. At the end, you go to what I think is heaven and battle against Jesus, and once you beat him he turns you into a constellation (killing you?)

5/5, a simple versus puzzle game with an exciting back-and-forth