One Piece Mansion (PlayStation)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Justin Speer
• Reviewed on: 10/12/2001
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 09/30/2001
• Originally published on GameSpot: One Piece Mansion (PlayStation) Review

An underlying simplicity and addictive playability are the hallmarks of the puzzle genre. Visual style and unique concepts or tweaks are arguably just icing on the cake. Capcom's new puzzler certainly isn't lacking in playability, and it's heaped with a few layers of tasty icing for good measure. As the landlord of a budding apartment building, you'll need to strategically manage a menagerie of eccentric tenants while constantly expanding so that you can rake in the rent money. Welcome to One Piece Mansion.

While not absolutely groundbreaking, the gameplay is really quite fresh. Unlike what we've come to expect from the many incarnations and mutations of Tetris, irregularly shaped apartments don't drop from the sky, and lining up three tenants of the same type will not make them disappear. You'll have to carefully assign and routinely switch around roommates to ensure any measure of peace and happiness in your building. Rather than trying to clear the screen, you'll be attempting to fill it with tenants to create the most congenial arrangements possible. And for safety's sake, make sure that each floor has access to at least one elevator.

New rooms can be built adjacent to any existing room, and renters can be freely swapped between living spaces. Each resident has a stress gauge, and his or her room radiates red (stress) or blue (positive) mood arrows that indicate how tenants are relating to one another. Harnessing and achieving balance between the positive and negative effects is the absolute key to a smoothly operated building.

As an example, Tobimaru--a ninja committed to tireless training--will repeatedly toss shuriken into the corners of his apartment, increasing the stress gauge of rooms diagonal to his. To counteract this stress, you can place the mysterious physician Dr. Ope to the right of an afflicted apartment, which will ensure that he periodically stick an oversized syringe through the wall to administer a stress-alleviating booster shot. Just watch out for the tenant who resides on the other side of the doctor, because what's in the other syringe isn't quite as pleasant.

The mood arrows of characters also varies depending on the amount of stress they're under. Ai-chan the love girl will always send out positive vibes in all directions, but her encouragement will grow weaker if she's surrounded by inconsiderate flatmates. Naturally, the happier you keep this young lady, the happier her neighbors will be.

Other characters undergo more drastic changes under pressure. The reclusive Rounin is normally too busy studying for his college entrance exams to emit any mood arrows, but if DJ Carlos upstairs cranks up his sound system too many notches, the reclusive owl will soon go stark raving mad and send some heavy angst to adjacent rooms. You'll need to switch occupants often if you want to avoid such scenarios, and things will get real frantic real fast if you let incompatible living arrangements remain unchanged.

In addition to normal residents whom you can freely assign to any available room, a rival mansion across the street will send so-called trouble tenants and eventually rivals/boss characters to make your life miserable. You can't move these characters to a different room, so the only way to be rid of them is to cause them so much stress that they are literally blown out of the building.

Aside from bringing ill will to those nearby, enemies will sometimes leave their apartments to wreak havoc on others, so you'll have to take direct control of your landlord in security mode to send them back to their rooms or thwart the occasional arson attempt with your trusty fire extinguisher.

By observing the wacky antics that take place in One Piece Mansion, the personality that the artists have injected into the denizens of your mansion is apparent. The comical, slightly off-kilter characters will cycle through fluidly animated routines and react to events around them. Shaggy, a vainglorious hairstylist, is visually reminiscent of Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands as he chops away with his dual shears.

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