Over its lifetime, Super Play reviewed more Super Nintendo games than any other magazine in the United Kingdom - 596 to be precise - so picking a sixth of them, let alone the order of merit, would never be an easy task. For the uninitiated, a new series here at Postcards of Pop Culture began recently, breaking down all 100 titles from Super Play’s ranking from bottom to top. And while Super Play’s word was regarded among the most reliable around, it wasn’t the only publication with an opinion.
As always, the Super Play overview provided in the entry post for Hebereke’s Popoitto was from the top 100 itself. The verdict from issue #39 reads:-
“Not quite as good as Super Puyo Puyo, but a superbly playable, peculiar and funny game nonetheless, with weird woodland creatures.”
Next up is Nintendo Magazine System, who gave an ever so slightly lower score of 83% a month earlier:-
“Not a breakthrough in puzzle gaming technology at all, but great fun all the same”
Seems to be a consistent viewpoint on this peculiar puzzler so far, but how about the other publications too?
Total! magazine gave a more favourable review than both Super Play and NMS, as shown below.
Overall, Hebereke’s Popoitto fared well across the review board, achieving an average of 86.3%, cementing its place in the Super Play top 100 on merit, and not just a tick-box puzzle entry to the list. Personally, I’d never played this before starting this project, and its quirkiness is an appealing aesthetic to what becomes pretty hardcore puzzling, although it isn’t much fun on your own for long.
Come back next time for the review fallout of the next Super Play top 100 entry!