Gunpey (グンペイ), often written as Gun Pey or GunPey, is a series of handheld puzzle games released by Bandai. It was originally released for the WonderSwan, and has been ported to WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. The game was named as a tribute to the developer of the game, Gunpei Yokoi. He is known for developing several handheld consoles such as Nintendo's Game Boy, Virtual Boy, and Bandai's Wonderswan system. In the series, players move line fragments vertically in a grid in order to make a single branching line connect horizontally from one end to the other. The objective of the game depends on the selected game mode.

Gameplay

Gunpey features a 5×10 cell grid and line fragments spread across it varying from shapes such as caret (∧), inverted caret (∨), left slash (), and right slash (/). The player controls a cursor that can be moved around the playing field. The cursor only ability is to flip vertical adjacent cells, allowing the player to move line fragments or switch them with another segment. The goal of the game is to piece the broken lines together to form a connected line that connects horizontally from one end to the other. After a line is completed, the line will temporarily flash and disappear. The player can connect additional branching segments while it's flashing to achieve a combo bonus. A bonus is also awarded when all of the line segments are cleared from the playing field.

Predecessor

Gunpey was preceded in 1997 by an LCD game called Henoheno, which is a shortened form of the Japanese phrase Henohenomoheji that describes faces made from Japanese Hiragana characters, in a similar but more freeform way than emoticons. This is reflected in the game's name that looks like a pair of glasses.

Games

Reception

Famitsu magazine scored the WonderSwan version of the game a 33 out of 40. Retro Gamer ranked the original WonderSwan game #2 on its "Top Ten WonderSwan Games" praising its simplicity and variety of modes it offers. DefunctGames gave the game a B+ noting its different tone of gameplay compared to other puzzle games from its time. DefunctGames also gave a B+ for the WonderSwan Color version, Gunpey EX, noting its simplicity and functionality of both controls and graphics, but criticizing the music quality. Modojo gave Gunpey EX a 3 out of 5 giving it a mix review stating: "The fact is Gunpey's focus on individual circuits instead of complex combos coupled the clunky vertical shuffling of the wires made it an experience I couldn't lose myself in, like so many other titles. Still, it's good to see that the puzzle genre still has life left, and Gunpey EX is a fairly robust package". NintendoLife gave the game a 6 out of 10: "The concept just isn't compelling or addictive enough to grant the game classic status and the developers haven't really added anything to change that". GameSpot gave both the DS and PSP version a 7.7 out of 10: "Not only is it fun and challenging, but it's got a crazy sense of style and a rewarding level of difficulty". Eurogamer gave the PSP version 7 out of 10, praising its level designs and difficulty but criticizing the time it takes to play the game. IGN gave the game a 6.1 out of 10: "Gunpey is a somewhat fun puzzle game, but it'll never reach classic status because it's one of those games that relies too much on random placement of tiles". IGN, however, gave the PSP version a less favorable review criticizing the gameplay for it being dull and boring.