Ever since Alexey Pajitnov drew inspiration from a kids’ plastic geometric puzzle and came up with Tetris, gamers have block-dropped, colour-matched and bubble-popped their way through seemingly endless iterations and variations of the puzzle genre. Occasionally something extraordinary happens and a puzzle game is conceived of which plays like nothing else before. Guru Logic Champ is one such conception. Compile’s final game before bankruptcy is made even more unusual because, unlike most forays into the puzzle game unknown, Guru Logic Champ is an exceptionally good release.

Just as a mechanistic description of Tetris sounds about as interesting as its plastic origins, similarly describing Guru Logic Champs’ gameplay fails to convey even one iota of the title’s charm. Nevertheless, an explanation is in order (deep breath)…the objective in each of the game’s three hundred and thirty five levels is the same: fill in the blank white squares within a sixteen by sixteen grid to form a picture. Squares are filled by firing blocks upward from the bottom of the screen into one of the sixteen columns. Blocks come to rest when they make contact with another block or one of the pre-set, inert grey tiles that initially make up a level. In a similar manner, blocks can also be sucked back down into stock to be reused latter. The twist is that each level can be rotated through right-angle increments, effectively allowing blocks to be fired or removed from any of the four edges. In every case the player is given the exact number of blocks needed to fill all the white squares, requiring blocks to be fired, stacked, snaked and sucked in a logical and efficient manner. When the final block is set home in the last remaining white square, a wave sweeps over the completed picture, painting-in the colours and revealing its true beauty. Each level is played with the clock timer ticking ever on, but there’s no time limit to work to; the player’s mental capacity for problem solving posing the only barrier to progression.

To begin with, ten levels are available, with further batches unlocked as progress through the games’ story mode is made. Levels can be attempted in any order, which tempers frustrations: some are extremely complex, requiring multiple attempts before the solution is revealed. The story - whilst taking a backseat to the puzzle action - is presented through a series of animated cut-scenes. These never fail to raise a smile, as the pair of Champs with their block firing cannon come up with some slapstick solutions to rescue their imperilled kinsmen.

Once the nursery slopes of the early levels are dispensed with and a few puzzle solving tricks have been picked up along the way, the game introduces some additional elements in order to keep the difficulty pegged just right. First to make an appearance are holed and bouncy tiles. Holed tiles allow blocks to pass over them, but not come to rest on top. Bouncy tiles simply return any block fired at them back to the Champs’ cannon and into stock. The game’s final masterstroke comes with the introduction of movable tiles, which must be bumped and cajoled to occupy white spaces in excess of the Champ’s stock of blocks. The behaviour of these takes some getting used to especially when they are staked up in a line, as the momentum of a fired block ripples through the stack with Newtonian results.

Ultimately of course, a level-based puzzler lives or dies on the level design, so it’s fortunate Compile haven’t disappointed in this area. Not one of the levels feels rushed or substandard and the variety exhibited in the puzzles is astonishing considering the simple mechanics of the game. Some of the puzzles, for example, revolve around identifying key problem squares and working out how to fill them. Others require the player to think several moves ahead, using the movable-tiles to fill-in otherwise unreachable areas, whilst some rely on thinking through the puzzle backwards or any combination of the above.

The game does suffer from one problem: it comes to an end. Although the finale comes after a time investment comparable to some RPGs, you’ll still come away wanting to compete in further mental gymnastics. Repeating levels to improve times and dabbling in the game’s battle mode, whilst fun, doesn't fill the void left by the story mode’s completion. Now that Compile have gone the way of the dodo, a sequel is unlikely to be forthcoming.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Guru Logic Champ is one of the finest GBA games ever made and one of the most rewarding puzzle games available on any system. A fitting swan song for Compile, you owe it to them (and yourself) to beg, borrow or steal a copy of this game, explore its brilliance to the full and lend it to a friend so they can do the same.