Baku Baku

A falling-block puzzle game by Sega where you have to match animals to the food they eat. Make big chain reactions to defeat your enemy!

Overview

Baku Baku Animal: World Zookeeper Contest (known in Japan as Baku Baku Animal: Sekai Shiikugakari Senshuken, and known in overseas box art as Baku Baku) is a tile-matching puzzle game developed by Sega AM3 and released by Sega for arcades (using Saturn-based ST-V hardware) in Japan on April 1995.

A falling block game similar to the Puyo Puyo and Columns series (both also by Sega), Baku Baku Animal has players manipulating groups of two blocks falling from the top of the screen in order to feed animal blocks with groups of their matching food block (such as panda bears that eat bamboo and monkeys that eat bananas). Unlike similar games, Baku Baku Animal only has a one-on-one "versus mode", with high combos sending large amounts of blocks to the opponent's playfield.

The game's story follows either Polly (player one) or Gon (player two) as they enter a contest in a faraway fantasy kingdom in order to become Royal Zookeepers for the Princess's collection of pets. The art style for the game's characters and backgrounds utilizes simplistic pre-rendered 3D graphics.

The game was later ported to the Sega Saturn, Game Gear, and Windows PCs in 1995-1996 worldwide. It was also released for the Sega Master System by Tec Toy for South America in 1998. Both SMS and GG versions were ported by Minato Giken.

Gameplay

  • Yellow Blocks - Monkey for animal, Banana for food
  • Blue Blocks - Wolf for animal, Bone for food
  • Green Blocks - Panda for animal, Bamboo for food
  • Red Blocks - Rabbit for animal, Carrot for food
  • Purple Blocks (Expert only) - Mouse for animal, Pizza for food