Time for a Land Maker joke. Why do Poker players love playing Land Maker? Because in every game they get a full house!
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Leon is one of the WWW's leading sources of:
• Land Maker jokes
Roushinshi building the essentially guaranteed Platinum Structure in that one Hiryuu stage with the exact same listless lack of enthusiasm as an office worker ordering a drive-through coffee
Getting pelted with red, blue and yellow Land Maker tiles for saying "Snowgrave" every time I win with Soumei
Land Maker feels so much like… "what if Puzzle Bobble was actually good".
"So you mean they got rid of the awful colour RNG?" Oh, absolutely not. But now, losing to RNG is entirely your fault instead of the game's.
Thinking about what makes Land Maker engaging despite its pieces being only monominos (contrast with "domino" pieces in Puyo Puyo or Dr. Mario)… I think the mechanic where pieces paint where they land means that they /situationally/ behave as dominos or triominos.
Aifa (from Land Maker) whenever the opponent gets a Silver Structure, she looks over to check if it's yellow, and it's yellow
Void Stranger (2023)
OK, I didn't flunk the bonus stage this time. This 1CC is now officially "legit".
…Maybe some of those end stages were a little mashy, though… …maybe…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_5oPYzCi88
I GOT A LAND MAKER 1CC BUT I FLUNKED THE BONUS STAGE SO IT'S OFFICIALLY "GRODY" AS A RESULT
Still, not bad considering I'm mostly still learning the nitty-gritty of the mechanics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIL-yYIKKtY
Land Maker (1998)
"Thank you… but the only 'gold loop' I need is looping Gold Structures in Land Maker, the 1998 post-apocalyptic watercolour versus puzzle game by Taito." *grabs engagement ring and tosses it at nearby wastepaper bin with basketball hoop over it* *it misses entirely*
Pochi & Nyaa would be so funny if it had Land Maker colour elimination + colour-contributing garbage
Not just because dropping to only one colour would make it pretty difficult to make forks
Land Maker should have two Next previews *realises that having two colours fixed in advance would mean you couldn't ever fully eliminate a colour unless it was also absent for two consecutive turns* Land Maker should have two Next previe
Making the Bronze Structure in Land Maker is like making the 5 in Panel De Pon. Once you know how to make the 5 and internalise the positions which could produce the 5, you accept that you always have to make it where possible, and every missed 5 sticks out at you from then on.
This game's scoring is pretty funny. Getting even a single Platinum Structure from initial stage RNG is like an instant 5 million point boost.
The Puyotinum Structure. Is this anything. Could you maybe even just hover the mouse over the heart button for a couple seconds
The other thing to consider is how the influence of garbage scales based on player skill. In Land Maker, where all damage above 9 points goes to the pusher, garbage patterns diminish in meaning as player skill increases - the game becomes more balanced in spite of the patterns.
Surprisingly accurate and respectful Western boxart of Land Maker, capturing all five of its main gameplay features:
✔️Skyscrapers
✔️Finger-guns
✔️Aifa's boobs
✔ Aifa mouthing the exact phoneme of the "WHOA" voice from SNES Wario's Woods
✔️Complete absence of Hiryu
OK, listen. Land Maker should have the Guideline Tetris hold box,
BUT,
having a colour in the hold box prevents it from being eliminated from the piece RNG pool, even if none are on the board.
This is particular interesting because of how it seemingly continues to obscure this so-called mysterious woman's origins, while also offering a hint that she may not necessarily be merely human.
As such, each character's Platinum Structure depicts or houses the god of that character's culture, lending worldbuilding flavour to the achievement of constructing it.
However… interestingly, Aifa's Platinum Structure features only herself – a quality shared only with Youen.
Very interesting and subtle Land Maker worldbuilding tidbit:
First, in addition to each structure having a metal grade that serves as its main name, they each also have a diegetic purpose. The Platinum Structure in particular is specifically a Pantheon.
Just updated my copy of MAME, and wanted to give props to heroic Land Maker reverse-engineer @yowaikoi for patching the dialog box rendering, so that the Story Mode dialogue can finally be enjoyed as intended.
If Land Maker and Wario's Woods are games about eliminating colours from the board, then Threes (the iOS game) is about trying to add as many as possible.
Puyo Puyo and Land Maker are games about developing powerful and conflicted emotional relationships to towering buildings.
My only comment about the visual design of Puyo Puyo 1 is that Carbuncle should wander around your playing field like Aifa (Land Maker character).
Land Maker (1998), a fast-paced Wario's Woods-like,
*glances out the window to discover that the Land Maker pusher has pushed the neighbour's houses clean through my back yard and straight into my north wall* Goddamnit it's always after I mow, isn't it
When you beat Deltarune
*realises the SimCity 2000 Launch Arcology is only 4x4 so it's technically only a Gold Structure* D :
I like and trust the "danger" robot voice in Land Maker. When I'm taking 7 pusher damage, it's nice to hear that voice and know someone's on my side during this difficult time.
Today I learned that, even though no official album for Land Maker (arcade game/upcoming esport) was ever made, some (but not all!!!!) of the tracks received a high-quality release in the 2017 Zuntata album "reZonance World" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO7jGnEUAwk&list=OLAK5uy_mKphxuQaecfB7V4sGAXKRQCorvgVavfU8&index=62
Y'know, you have to appreciate the mechanical simplicity of a game like Land Maker. You don't always need chains and combos as win conditions in your versus puzzle game. Sometimes all you need is a 5x5 square of blocks, and a super badass sicknasty name for it.
Land Maker tournament commentators saying "They're making land" is the "Nice back air" of Land Maker.
Puchi Carat and Land Maker come from a timeline where puzzle game and Breakout game narratives are actually good. Conversely, Darius and RayForce come from a timeline where horizontal shmup narratives are actually good.