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DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
Developed in 1996 Hebereke Pair Pair Wars was a playful puzzle game which prominently
featured the Sun Soft Hebereke series characters. Gameplay consisted of manipulating your
on screen polygon character to erase blocks by pairing 2 of the same pattern together,
very similar to memory match type games such as Concentration or Shanghai. The game was
themed around Sunsoft's mascot character, Hebereke, who has been featured in many of their
other games such as Ufouria for the NES/Famicom. You can select Hebereke himself, or choose
from 7 of his friends from previous adventures.
The game features 8 stages and 8 characters to select from. The backgrounds and
characters were rendered in 3-D with nice CG graphics and are very well animated. The
player must match the tiles on their side of the screen in order to clear the playfield
and complete the stage. Matching 3 or more tiles at one time builds up the "Special"
meter at the bottom of the screen, and depending on the stage, gives the player a variety
of special moves. In the 2 player mode, erased blocks are sent to the opponents side to
hinder them. The first player to capture all of the blocks or fill the opponent's
screen with blocks wins.
BACKGROUND:
In 1986, Activision developed a video game version of the popular mahjong tile
matching game Shanghai, and released it on multiple computer and console platforms.
Sunsoft worked with Activision to release Shanghai for the Famicom and later released
an arcade version as well. Several sequels would follow over the years. Pair Pair Wars
really only used some of the basic elements of Shanghai. Sunsoft westernized the tile
set, simplified the gameplay, and enhanced the theme by incorporing Hebereke characters
and backgrounds into the gameplay.
Sunsoft only released 2 titles for the NEOGEO; Galaxy Fight in 1995 & Waku Waku Seven
in 1996. Hebereke was also intended to be released in 1996, but was canceled in favor of
the stronger WW7 which Sunsoft felt would sell more and perform better. An arcade operator
here in the United States had a sample MVS cartridge of this game. Sadly, it was damaged
along with alot of other games and equipment in a severe flood back in 1998. Several years
ago we both tried to track down another one from his original source, an old coin-op
distributor, but we had no luck.
PLEASE NOTE: It remains unconfirmed that Hebereke was assigned NGM-099. It is possible
that Hebereke could have been assigned NGM-204 or NGM-226 instead.
INFORMATION TIMELINE:
-- January 1996 -- the original arcade flyer was printed as promotional advertisement for distributors & operators in the arcade industry.
-- February 1996 --SNK releases a six game catalog with screenshots of Hebereke.
-- February 1996 -- Hebereke Pair Pair Wars is shown at the 1996 AOU show.
-- March 1996 -- Game Machine magazine reports on the show and provides a screenshot.
-- April 1996 -- French Magazine Consoles reports on Hebereke at the show.
-- April 1996 -- Game Machine magazine reports on the show and provides a screenshot.
-- May 1996 -- NEOGEO FREAK publishes a 3 page article with dozens of screen shots.
-- August 2023 -- SUNSOFT announces it is releasing the OST (original sound track) of the game.
-- September 2023 -- (some source material has been uncovered! breaking news coming soon!)
CURRENT STATUS: UNSECURED
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