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While there are a few minor quibbles with the basic gameplay -- such as the amount of shepherding involved in keeping tiles from clearing the top of the board -- Gunpey's biggest problem is that a round can take a very long time. Gunpey has 40 levels, called skins, available to play on, each radically different in visuals and music. While they're amazingly stylish and great fun to play on, the levels can only be unlocked in standard play mode by completing them in order. Beating a level isn't done by points, combos or anything fancy like that. Instead it's a matter of survival to the stage's seemingly arbitrary end, and at an average of about 4.5 minutes apiece that amounts to three hours of ninja-skills playing to clear them all. Slick, stylish and cool are all very nice, but three hours is a long time for a bit of portable gaming, even with the PSP's sleep function
That's assuming that one little mistake doesn't kill you at level 10, of course. As the skins go by and the rate at which the pieces rise increases, forgetting about a tile near the top is easy to do. There are no second chances in Gunpey, and that one misplaced tile can kill 40 minutes of gaming in a heartbeat. While it's true that paying attention and learning to play right will minimize this, it's not easy to stay on top of your game for as long as an average round of Gunpey takes.
Thankfully, there are other play modes outside the main game that take less time, but they're mostly just diversions. Playing a 90 second score attack, or working two fields at the same time, is entertaining enough the first few times and then gets quickly forgotten. Gunpey 10 x 10 has a bit more staying power, taking place in a well twice as wide as usual that leads to some spectacular combos, but the standard mode is where most of your time will be spent.
And that will probably be a fair chunk of time, too. Once the initial learning phase is over, Gunpey can become fairly addicting. I found it to be an acquired taste, mild indifference slowly changing into visions of lines connecting in space, but once the game's slick style and deceptively deep gameplay worked their magic it was hard to put down. Gunpey isn't a perfect puzzler, and feels like it needs one last gameplay tweak to achieve true greatness, but it's still a good time waster and fun mental workout.
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