Baku Baku Animal

Baku Baku Animal is a falling block puzzle arcade game released by Sega in 1995. Outside Japan, the game was released as simply Baku Baku. The game is dedicated as Sega's first ever Network Compatible PC Game. A Sega NetLink compatible version of the game was also announced, but never released.

The objective is to pair animal heads with their respective food. If a rabbit head comes falling, the player must make it fall on a pile of carrot tiles, dog heads with bones, panda heads with bamboos and monkey heads with bananas. There is a bonus item, the 'BB coin', which will appear from times to times, and remove piled tiles from the playfield.

When animals eat foodstuffs, they also make random blocks fall on the opponent's area, right after the currently falling blocks. The object of the game is to make one's opponent unable to place more blocks.

The story behind the game is simple: The Minister approaches the King to tell him that his only daughter, the Princess, wants a new pet. But the King says she already has too many, and she can't take care of so many animals. Thus the Minister purposes a contest of skill and daring to select the Royal Zookeeper. Master Piggy then sends his pupil, Polly, to participate in the contest.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Baku Baku Animal on their June 1, 1995 issue as being the eleventh most-successful arcade game of the month. The game won Computer Gaming World's 1996 'Classic/Puzzle Game of the Year' award. The editors wrote, 'The beauty of this game lies in its ability to suck you in and keep you coming back for more and more. If you haven't already tried it, beware: Baku Baku will eat up your time.' It was a finalist for the Computer Game Developers Conference's 1996 'Best Trivia or Puzzle Game' Spotlight Award, but lost the prize to You Don't Know Jack XL. Electronic Gaming Monthly named the Game Gear version a runner up for 'Hand-Held Game of the Year' and the Saturn version a runner up for 'Puzzle Game of the Year' (beaten in both cases by Tetris Attack).