Baku Baku Animal

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Baku Baku Animal
Baku Baku Animal.jpg
Developer(s) Sega
Publisher(s) Sega
Platform(s) Arcade, Saturn, Game Gear, Windows, Master System, mobile phones
Release1995 (Arcade)
April 1996 (Sega Saturn)
1996 (Sega Game Gear)
1996 (Windows 95)
1996 (Sega Master System)
2002 (mobile phone)
Genre(s) Puzzle
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade system Sega Titan Video (ST-V) [1]

Baku Baku, [2] released in Japan as Baku Baku Animal, [a] is a 1995 falling block puzzle video game developed and published by Sega for arcades. It is Sega's first network compatible PC game. [3] A Sega NetLink compatible version of the game was also announced, [4] but never released. The Japanese onomatopoeia "Baku Baku" roughly translates to "Chomp Chomp". [5]

Contents

Plot

The King is hosting a competition to hire a royal zoo keeper for his daughter's numerous pets. The main character, Polly, must fight her way through other applicants to earn the position. Each opponent has an intro dialogue with different responses based on if you win or lose.

Bug: "How lucky, my opponent is only a little girl!" Polly: "Hmph! How rude! I'll show you who's the weak one!"

— Sega, Baku Baku Animal

Gameplay

Gameplay of Baku Baku Animal Baku Baku.png
Gameplay of Baku Baku Animal

The player lines up falling animal and food tiles. When an animal is adjacently aligned to a tile of its favored food (e.g. Monkey and Banana), the animal eats the food. The number of connected food tiles eaten in one bite from an animal tile determines the point amount—more connected tiles means more points for the player.

When animals eat food tiles they also make random blocks fall in the opponent's area, right after the opponent's currently falling blocks. The object of the game is to make one's opponent unable to place more blocks.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Baku Baku Animal on their June 1, 1995 issue as being the eleventh most-successful arcade game of the month. [11]

The Saturn version was met with critical acclaim upon release, with Maximum calling it "the best 'next generation' puzzle game we've seen to date", [8] Sega Saturn Magazine "some of the most addictive puzzle play since Tetris ", [10] GameSpot "a must own" for "Saturn owners who have even a remote interest in puzzle games", [7] and GamePro "undeniably the best puzzle game in the world so far." [5] Critics lauded the addictive gameplay, especially in two-player competitive mode, [7] [8] [9] [10] [5] [12] but the cute graphics and sounds were met with general approval as well. [7] [8] [10]

Reviewing the Game Gear version, the four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly commented that the gameplay concept of Baku Baku Animal is simple and accessible, yet has enough strategic possibilities to engage even veteran players. Andrew Baran summarized it as "non-threatening fun anyone can enjoy". [6]

Baku Baku won Computer Gaming World 's 1996 "Classic/Puzzle Game of the Year" award. The editors wrote, "The beauty of this game [...] lies in its ability to suck you in and keep you coming back for more and more. If you haven't already tried it, beware: Baku Bakuwill eat up your time." [13] It was a finalist for the Computer Game Developers Conference's 1996 "Best Trivia or Puzzle Game" Spotlight Award, [14] but lost the prize to You Don't Know Jack XL . [15] Electronic Gaming Monthly named the Game Gear version a runner up for "Hand-Held Game of the Year" and the Saturn version a runner up for "Puzzle Game of the Year" (beaten in both cases by Tetris Attack ). [16] Rome News Tribune also listed Tetris Attack as better than Baku Baku Animal. [12]

Baku Baku Animal was named the 72nd best computer game ever by PC Gamer UK in 1997. [17]

Other media

Baku Baku Animal's predecessor Tetris (1989) on Game Boy. Tetris on Game Boy.jpg
Baku Baku Animal's predecessor Tetris (1989) on Game Boy.

A white label 12 inch EP consisting entirely of dance tracks using sound effects from Baku Baku Animal, recorded by The Dream Team and Timebase for the Suburban Base label, was circulated to disc jockeys in 1996. [18]

Additional evidence for the popularity of Baku Baku Animal is its use as an example of a falling-block puzzle game (a sub-genre of the tile-matching video game). A 1997 The Psychologist article about video game violence used it to describe puzzle games along with Tetris. [12] In a Figure 3 article from 2007, its legacy is noted within the history of tile-matching video games. Author Jesper Juul states that Baku Baku Animal has "special objects to match". This new gameplay rule distinguishes it from previous titles. [19]

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo was compared to Baku Baku Animal in Sega Saturn Magazine, "The bottom line is that Super Puzzle Fighter II X is a brain-rending game of skill and cunning, which is effectively a remake of Baku Baku Animal, albeit one with some of the best presentation ever seen in the hotly contested field of Sega Saturn puzzle games." [20]

Notes

  1. ↑ Japanese: ばくばくアニマル, Hepburn: Baku Baku Animaru

References

  1. ↑ Leadbetter, Rich (March 1997). "Rage Hard!". Sega Saturn Magazine . No. 17. Emap International Limited. pp. 46–49.
  2. 1 2 Buchanan, Levi (April 28, 2003). "Baku Baku: Who would have thought being a fricking zoo keeper would be so addictive?". IGN. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Sega Entertainment Unveils its First Network-Compatible PC game". Sega. March 27, 1997. Archived from the original on March 27, 1997. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Sega and Sony Prepare for Nintendo 64". Next Generation . No. 20. Imagine Media. August 1996. pp. 16–17.
  5. 1 2 3 "ProReview: Baku Baku Animal". GamePro . No. 93. IDG. June 1996. p. 64.
  6. 1 2 "Review Crew: Baku Baku Animal". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 83. Sendai Publishing. June 1996. p. 28.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Gerstmann, Jeff (December 1, 1996). "Baku Baku Review". GameSpot . Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Maximum Reviews: Baku Baku Animal". Maximum: The Video Game Magazine. No. 4. Emap International Limited. 1996. p. 139.
  9. 1 2 "Every Sega Saturn Game Played, Reviewed, and Rated". Next Generation . No. 25. Imagine Media. January 1997. p. 63.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Hickman, Sam (March 1996). "Review: Baku Baku Animal". Sega Saturn Magazine . No. 5. Emap International Limited. pp. 74–75.
  11. ↑ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - TVゲーム機ーソフトウェア (Video Game Software)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 496. Amusement Press, Inc. June 1, 1995. p. 25.
  12. 1 2 3
  13. ↑ Staff (May 1997). "The Computer Gaming World 1997 Premier Awards". Computer Gaming World . No. 154. pp. 68–70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80.
  14. ↑ Staff (April 15, 1997). "And the Nominees Are..." Next Generation . Archived from the original on June 5, 1997. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Spotlight Awards Winners Announced for Best Computer Games of 1996" (Press release). Santa Clara, California: Game Developers Conference. April 28, 1997. Archived from the original on July 3, 2011.
  16. ↑ "The Best of '96". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 92. Ziff Davis. March 1997. pp. 86, 88.
  17. ↑ Flynn, James; Owen, Steve; Pierce, Matthew; Davis, Jonathan; Longhurst, Richard (July 1997). "The PC Gamer Top 100". PC Gamer UK . No. 45. pp. 51–83.
  18. ↑ "The Future Sound of Game Music". Next Generation . No. 24. Imagine Media. December 1996. p. 88.
  19. ↑ Juul, Jesper (March 8, 2007), "Swap Adjacent Gems to Make Sets of Three: A History of Matching Tile Games" (PDF), Artifact: Emerging Form, vol. 1, no. 4, Copenhagen, Denmark: IT University of Copenhagen, pp. 205–217, doi:10.1080/17493460601173366, eISSN   1749-3471, ISSN   1749-3463, archived from the original on March 19, 2025
  20. ↑ Leadbetter, Richard, ed. (February 1997), "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo", Sega Saturn Magazine , no. 16, Emap, p. 21, ISSN   1360-9424, OCLC   1065262533
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