Author: Daemon Hatfield | 
Square Enix stumbled with its first Xbox Live Arcade game, the iPod port Crystal Defenders. But its second offering, the puzzle game Yosumin Live, is a much stronger effort. Sure, you can throw it on the ever-growing pile of color-matching exercises out there. But Yosumin is its own game and, like other standouts in the genre, takes a familiar formula and twists it just enough to create a new and compelling experience. It is laser-focused on a high score-chasing arcade challenge and doesn't offer a lot of gameplay options. Like Crystal Defenders, this started out as a portable game, although it was only released on the Nintendo DS in Japan.
This is a very Japanese game, from the hyper happy voices that cheer you on to the spritely tunes that could have been ripped from the 16-bit glory days. The Yosumin game pieces have been caricatured into cute little faces that inhabit the game board. You won't be blown away by the visuals but the presentation is clean and simple.
It's hip to be square.
Gameplay is an exercise in pattern recognition. Players must create rectangular shapes on the screen by connecting four corners of same-colored pieces. The bigger the box you make, the more points you are awarded. If you manage to make one giant square over the entire screen you'll create a "Yosumin." Over time new game mechanics are introduced such as winged blocks that can be swapped with another piece on the field. Finding possible shapes in all the clutter can be difficult, and time is ticking. If you don't meet your quota before time runs out, it's game over.
And that's just about all you'll be doing with Yosumin. There's the single-player mode where you simply work through the game's many levels.It doesn't save your progress and each time you play you'll start at level 1 Yosumin is a classic arcade game and is all about achieving a high score. The only other mode is a head-to-head multiplayer battle available locally and online. Here, creating large boxes will deplete your opponent's time until the clock stops for one of you. This mode is much more frantic than the single-player game and can cause some pretty heated competitions. Friendships may be destroyed. Daemon Hatfield
This is a very Japanese game, from the hyper happy voices that cheer you on to the spritely tunes that could have been ripped from the 16-bit glory days. The Yosumin game pieces have been caricatured into cute little faces that inhabit the game board. You won't be blown away by the visuals but the presentation is clean and simple.
It's hip to be square.
Gameplay is an exercise in pattern recognition. Players must create rectangular shapes on the screen by connecting four corners of same-colored pieces. The bigger the box you make, the more points you are awarded. If you manage to make one giant square over the entire screen you'll create a "Yosumin." Over time new game mechanics are introduced such as winged blocks that can be swapped with another piece on the field. Finding possible shapes in all the clutter can be difficult, and time is ticking. If you don't meet your quota before time runs out, it's game over.
And that's just about all you'll be doing with Yosumin. There's the single-player mode where you simply work through the game's many levels.It doesn't save your progress and each time you play you'll start at level 1 Yosumin is a classic arcade game and is all about achieving a high score. The only other mode is a head-to-head multiplayer battle available locally and online. Here, creating large boxes will deplete your opponent's time until the clock stops for one of you. This mode is much more frantic than the single-player game and can cause some pretty heated competitions. Friendships may be destroyed. Daemon Hatfield