Poy Poy (PSX)

Do you feel want to throw hard object to someone you hate like your annoying neighbour or irritating co-worker? Well, you know what they said about video game? You can do something what you normally can't do without any risk, including not getting serious sue. So, of course you can throw someone with log or even rocket in a videogame. I'm talking about: Konami's Poy Poy (1997).

"Press Start!" said the ducking bloke. As much as i want to relieve you from suffering that come from your own stupidity (because he doesn't run like other which is the smartest course of action), i have to analyze anything from this title screen first. For instance, why "Poy Poy"? It sounds like word that come out from Yuudachi twice. Such whimsical name for title, indeed. The lass who hold the rock seems really happy that he have stone to throw to her hapless competitor. Look at her face and you shall see the terror of sadism, reader! Bloke in green looks bit dorky while the ones in blue has expression between deep determination and carelessness. And the ones in red has massive gap for mouth and...okay! okay! I press start button immediately.

 

Here's the main menu and that's the lad in blue running but nowhere the sight of the other. Maybe he outrun them by huge distance, to the outer space even. Exhibition is your standard fast match, Poypoy cup is tournament mode, and options is setting menu to adjust cpu difficulty etc. I don't want to delay another of  my article again so i will just show you  several matches instead of a full tournament. Besides, i don't think i have skill enough, yet.

 

I'll be Mike because his cocky expression and his sharp nose, remind me of Suneo Honekawa. I'm sold! After selecting character, i have to choose Glove power which is special attack or sort like that. It seems stupid to pick "knife" into boulder/rocket fight but whatever. I trust you, Sakuya Izayoi.

 

By the way, this is practice stage so enemies do nothing at all (unless controlled by other player). Bad news for those who don't like unchangeable button configuration, because there's no that kind of setting in option. Unless you play the game via emulator. You must memorize this button settings. Quite simple, aren't they? Dive is dodging dive executed by pressing direction button besides front (of character's facing) and jump button at the same time. Kind of difficult to do successfully but it's vital to survive in this game.

 

Okay i'm ready for real match. Wait! There's another Mike besides me? Preposterous! I can't change CPU's character. So i have to accept this. You will regret to be another Mike, you sod.

 

I told you before. Catch this rock, bastard! I'm the one who wear white glove, obviously. You can see that Bubba picks up Joey. Yes, you can pick up your opponent as form of close range battle. But it's tricky to do. I suggest you to pick something and throw it to your opponent. Here's something to mind: you need to hold the throw button to throw further, leaving you vulnerable in one place.

 

Yeah! Real Mike won the round. While the fake one lie unconscious with eye open.

 

Winning a round (by being the one who still standing at the end) doesn't mean you can win the match yet. A match consists of 3 rounds. At each of round, there's 3 score: Direct Hit, Luck, and Round. Round score is determined by the order of survive. Luck score is determined by how many score up item that you can get at a round. Direct hit score is determined by how many time you can hit other with direct hit from object you throw not by explosion (special move may be counted). This score indicates how active you are in a round. Discouraging you to only run around seeking safety. That's quite fair. 

There's also flying saucer emitting tractor beam or what have you. Instead of abducting people, it creates/drops object for anyone to throw into other. Do aliens treat as for blood sport entertainment purpose just like what happen in Team Buddies?

 

Here's proper stand-off between two contestant. I have bigger rock than his so i'm quite in advantage here. You can tell that bigger object throw inflict bigger damage damage than smaller ones. There's also momentum when 2 non-explosive object collided when thrown, to mind for. Another feature: a character  takes longer time to lift bigger object than smaller ones. All become accounted for strategy.  

 

The throwing contest suddenly becomes wrestling bout! Don't try this at home, kids! Once you hoist something/someone above your head you have other option beside throw it/him/her to a distance: Slam which is throw it/him/her nearly in front of you; (German) Suplex which is throw it/him/her nearly on your back which i demonstrate here.

 

Here's "Knife" special move which is throw the object along the ground while it's covered in blue light. It can travels slightly faster and further from (uncharged) throwing. Not so spectacular.  

 

On the other hand, Joey has "Hop" special move where he drop the rock in front of him and it's bouncing in a direction. I can't confirm if it's random or not, yet. Also here some valid strategy that i tend to do: stay away from the crowd and bombard them with everything you can get.    

 

I won the match with significantly big score. Yay!

 

For the next match, i will use "Poison" special move. It throws object along the ground by not so far distance but it emits black cloud on impact that makes anyone touches it becomes "exhausted" for a duration. In this status, he/she walks slow and is not able to jump and duck (which is including pick up object). There's Arnold who we saw in title screen and Kool who's supposed to be cool guy because wearing sunglasses. I can guess he is just show-off.

 

The match takes place in Moai Land. I know that Konami is quite obsessed with Moai statue but these stone bastards are annoying. They will either charge at you with open mouth or puke exploding ball. To make things more interesting, you can pick one of them and throw it to your enemy location. But you have to grab them from behind. You don't want to face directly toward that horrid gaping maw, do you?

 

This is interesting. Bubba and i got the highest score for this match. Although Moai Land isn't my favorite battlefield as i remember that i lose often there.

 

Thing get more hectic in (amusement) park arena. That monster over there is used to be a peaceful boulder. When it get bothered by one of them, it runs amok and start biting anyone. Just reminder that i wear white glove. Yes, i'm the one who is knocked out cold over there besides another "me".   

 

Meanwhile in Robot arena, things turns well in my favor. The robot in middle will spins around and fires paralyzing beam. You can either duck or jump to avoid it. Beside firing laser, it will punchs anyone or anything around him. So stay away from it is sensible strategy.  

 

This is me unleash "Thunder" special move. It's almost like "Knife" but it's still different. First, i jump first instead of crouch a bit when i do "Knife" special move. Second, the object is covered in green light. Third, the object travels much further. In fact, it will go beyond the field, making it vanish for good. By the way, Joey is in the middle of side diving there. In case you curious about him here.

I have to say that the combat is tricky. Everything that contestants do can be nullified or denied. For instance, direct hit from thrown object can be dodged by either jumping or side/back diving. While explosion can be dodged by ducking. You can crawl by pressing direction button while holding crouch/duck button. If you're crawling, you move slower but you're invincible to any explosion damage.

 

Next arena is desert. There's no creature or robot that act as hazard but once in a while there's whirlwind spawns in random spot and moves in random direction. Touching said whirlwind will makes you spin inside of it and your health will be drained. I have noticeably great luck in desert as cpu opponents seems don't care about it thus get sucked by it immediately. In this moment whirlwind give finishing blow to my opponent. I'm such a lucky git.     

 

While in Iceberg arena, i have bad luck. Quite often penguins come up from sea nearby and loitering around, damaging anyone that get contact with them. And quite often they work in my enemy's favor instead of mine. Let's see what gameplay feature that i yet to tell. That "Danger!" crate contains items if it's destroyed. The items: red heart which restores health; creamy white heart that boost Luck Bonus; exploding black ball; and blue ball that makes you "exhausted". There's thin green bar that located on every character's HUD which is energy bar. If you use special move, the green bar will be depleted and it's restored over time. There's also specialty among the character. Small characters (like Joey) move faster. While large character (like Arnold or Kool) perhaps have bigger health. Each character has special affinity to certain special move indicated by number 2 besides the name instead of 1 (for example: Mike has Thunder2). If you use said specific special move, you will unleash stronger version from the original but costs energy more. You can use defeated enemies as makeshift projectile (except for special move). I don't think there's anything else for me to say about the gameplay.

 

I thought Poy Poy (1997) takes inspiration from Crash Bash. But looking the release dates it proves the otherwise. It's certainly experimental project (Konami got lots of money from Metal Gear Solid, you see), looking by how shallow the game is. Nevertheless, it's fun short game. The throwing stuffs feature works quite well. Maybe, if there's throwing strength bar everytime you hold the throwing button, the gameplay will be better. Health can be cheap but hitting someone can be dodgy, which makes the gameplay more complex than you imagined before. Special moves provide good variable on gameplay but you have to memorize it through trial and error as there's no further explanation about them in-game. There are 13 of them and each of them are quite distinctive in form and reliability. The character differences are barely deep and significant in function term. The scoring is pretty fair. The musics are quite good and playfull. The arena hazard aren't well designed but functional enough.  

I always think Poy Poy (1997) as complex and dodgy version of Crate Bash in Crash Bash. It can't be helped. So if you get tired of Crate Bash match and eager for challenge, i can recommend you to play Poy Poy. There's UFO that provides your throwing needs, wrestling move,  walking Moai statue, special moves with cool yet vague name, boxing stationary robot that can shoot stunning laser, mini nukes that you can throw around, and romp musics. It's very charming, i must say.