Tokimeki Memorial 2: Taisen Puzzle Dama

Tokimeki Memorial 2: Taisen Puzzle Dama gets moving quickly: pick one of the series’ female characters and start making color matches before the other board fills up. Its three-or-more rule is immediately familiar, but the special blocks turn routine clearing into a scrappy race to set up a damaging chain.

This is a brisk competitive puzzler for anyone who enjoys Puyo Puyo-style pressure and can appreciate a Tokimeki Memorial 2 coat of paint. The rules are easy to enter, while the mix of growing, shrinking, and line-clearing blocks gives experienced players enough to chew on.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few rounds have the clean, dangerous rhythm you want from a falling-block game. Match three or more blocks of one color, keep your stack from reaching the top, and look over at the opponent’s matrix whenever you have a moment to breathe. That last part rarely lasts. Clearing blocks sends batches of small blocks to the other side, so even a modest combo can turn a comfortable board into a problem.

What gives Taisen Puzzle Dama more bite than a plain color-matching contest is how much trouble its unusual blocks can cause—or solve. Small blocks cannot be cleared directly, but become normal blocks when nearby blocks disappear. Pink blocks clear everything in the direction they face when popped, while grey blocks grow small blocks and black blocks shrink regular ones. The best moments come when these effects overlap and a planned clear becomes a chain that clutters the opponent’s board.

That same busyness can be frustrating at first. You cannot simply chase the biggest cluster of a color; a black or grey block may alter the board in a way that wrecks your intended setup. Give yourself time to learn how the special pieces interact rather than treating them as incidental clutter. Once that starts to click, matches become setups, setups become combos, and every placed block feels more deliberate.

CPU battles offer the basic head-to-head challenge, while another person is where the game’s pressure and counter-pressure should shine brightest. A familiar falling-puzzle foundation makes it easy to pick up, but the special-block mix asks you to stay flexible. If you prefer simple, highly predictable stacking, this may feel fussy; if you enjoy salvaging messy boards and punishing a rival with a well-timed chain, it has real snap.

Graphics

The game is built around the female cast of Tokimeki Memorial 2, with the puzzle battles centered on each side’s block-filled matrix. That character-driven theme gives the competitive matches a more specific flavor than an anonymous arcade puzzler, while the boards remain the focus when the action speeds up.

Story

There is no elaborate narrative described here, and that suits the format. Tokimeki Memorial 2 supplies the character theme rather than turning the puzzle game into a story-heavy detour. You are here to face an opponent, build clears, and avoid being buried.

That framing will matter most if you already have affection for the series’ cast. Choosing from its female characters gives each match a little more personality than a generic versus game, even though the central drama is still the board state: your matrix is rising, theirs is one chain away from disaster, and somebody is about to run out of space.

If the broader Tokimeki Memorial 2 corner of Konami’s catalog interests you, the related Tokimeki Memorial 2: EVS Append Disc is worth a look. Taisen Puzzle Dama is a much narrower side trip, but it uses that same series association to make its versus puzzle battles feel less detached.

Overall Experience

Taisen Puzzle Dama is most satisfying when you stop thinking in single clears and start arranging the board for consequences. A pink directional clear can open space, growing small blocks can change what is possible next, and a combo can dump an unwelcome batch onto the other matrix. It turns a recognizable formula into a livelier, less orderly duel.

The downside is that its special blocks create more variables to track than the simplest falling-block games. Newcomers may lose early rounds while figuring out why their tidy color groups have suddenly become a compromised pile. Stick with it through that learning bump. The rules are not impenetrable; they simply reward attention and quick adaptation over automatic pattern-making.

Recommended for puzzle fans who want a competitive Puyo Puyo-like match with a more eccentric block toolkit, and especially for Tokimeki Memorial 2 fans who want to see the cast in a different genre. It is a focused arcade-style diversion rather than a sweeping series entry, but its combo-focused back-and-forth is strong enough to justify the detour.