Hot Potato is an interesting new take on the puzzle genre, and my first impression was that it reminds me of Zoop on Super NES. Then I remember that I sucked as Zoop, and sure enough, I suck at Hot Potato.

Oh, how to even begin explaining the gameplay? Imagine a vertically scrolling shooter, except that it's scrolling pretty slow, and you can't just shoot at everything. Your bus (don't ask) holds two sets of three potatoes, and pressing B will shoot off the front row of them. You can rotate and flip the potatoes before firing to get a different selection. There are two colors of potatoes (so far), and you need to match up the colors to clear out the field. So basically, shoot your red taters at the red taters on the street, and likewise with the blue ones. If you shoot a red one at a blue, the red one will just sit there and take up space on the playing field. In other words, you have to clean up your mistakes.

This is an evil, devilish game. By that I mean that it's frustrating as hell for me, mainly because I have crappy spatial reasoning. So far I haven't been able to get into any sort of groove...it's constant thinking of the higher order, and that makes me think that Hot Potato isn't going to be a truly killer puzzle game. The best ones allow you to enter into a sort of trance...your fingers and some of your reasoning is going on almost unconsciously, but you still have to be aware to some extent.

I've heard only one song in playing the first couple levels, but it's sickeningly catchy. Hopefully the little ditty won't haunt my dreams tonight. Graphically, Hot Potato is surprisingly good. The visual focus is how each potato animates. There seems to be quite a variety of potato types, each one with a different personality and animation. That's not just for show either...you have to pay attention to the animations, because the game wants you to eliminate certain types of taters in order to advance. (Yes, that requires constant vigilance...see above paragraph.)

Hot Potato is drenched in style and humor, but I'm not convinced that its gameplay is balanced enough to go the distance. Gimme a week with it, and I'll let you know for sure.