Well, it must be a holiday in Japan today, as many of the titles today are imports from the country.  Four titles in all; enjoy!

Puyo Puyo 2: Tsuu
Mega Drive - 1-2 Players - Rated 3+ - 900 Points - Compile - 1994

The object of this head-to-head puzzle game is to clear your grid of falling patterns called puyos by forming chains of four or more same-colored puyos in a straight line or one of several geometric patterns.

What makes this a challenging two-player contest is the fact that when you clear a chain of puyos from your grid, it drops a random piece of filler onto your opponent’s grid. The more puyos you clear, the more you fill your opponent’s grid, and if you can clutter up his grid enough to fill it to the top, you’ve won the game.

An intriguing backstory makes this an amusing experience for one or two players.

Cho Aniki
TurboGrafx-16 - 1 Player - Rated 7+ - 700 Points - Masaya - 1992

The first in the increasingly bizarre Cho Aniki series of side-scrolling shooters. As in many of the best examples of the genre, Cho Aniki puts the player in control of a flying avatar that must clear out several levels of enemies while avoiding their firing patterns and attacks, as well as collecting power-ups that increase firepower, life, etc…

The unique aspect to Cho Aniki (much like Konami’s Parodius games) is that the whole game is filled with bizarre stuff. Two different playable characters are available (male and female) with different firing modes and other characters can aid them as options. Said characters include flying babies and laser shooting bodybuilders. Enemies include flying heads and gigantic bodybuilders, as well as other examples of (usually very muscular) men fused with all sorts of machinery.

Single player-only gameplay with 3 difficulty levels to choose from.

Metal Slug
NeoGeo - 1-2 Players - Rated 12+ - 900 Points - Nazca - 1996
Metal Slug was originally released on the Neo Geo, being a sidescrolling shoot ‘em up. The story is simple, you’re a soldier (or two, if you want to play with your mate) up against a gigantic army.

Every level consists of you running forward blasting everything that moves, and getting any powerup in the way (there’s also a wide selection of weaponry in the game), and in the end of each level you’re up against a gigantic boss.

Break In
TurboGrafx-16 - 1-2 Players - Rated ? - 700 Points - Naxat Soft - 1989

In a bit of a break from the norm of Naxat Soft’s other games, such as the sublime surreal pinball “Crush” series and a host of shoot ‘em ups, Break In is a rather normal game. Unlike the title would suggest, it is in fact not a game where you break into buildings or anything similar - It is actually a snooker game.

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