Flipull

Flipull (フリップル) is an arcade puzzle game released by Taito in 1989. Outside of Japan, it is mainly released under the title Plotting. In the game, the player's challenge is to remove as many blocks from a pile as possible by hurling a block with a certain type of marking at blocks in the pile with the same markings on them.

It was ported to the Famicom in the same year, the Game Boy in 1990, and in Europe it was ported to the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, GX4000, and the ZX Spectrum. It was distributed as a mobile phone game from 2002 to 2005.

The arcade version was later included in the PlayStation 2 software Taito Memories Joukan ( 2005 ) in Japan, and in North America and Europe in the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows software Taito Legends (2005). In 2022, a PlayStation 4 version and the Nintendo Switch version were distributed under the Arcade Archives label.

Gameplay
The game possesses a total of 60 stages. To play the game, you must use a joystick (only up or down) and a button to hit a block with the same mark as the block held by the player in order to erase blocks from the pile. The special block you have at the start of the stage and immediately after a mistake can hit any type of block.

The fired block flies horizontally, and if it hits a wall, ceiling, or pipe (which can only pass vertically) from the side, it will fall downward. If multiple blocks of the same type as the hit block are lined up, they will penetrate and disappear at once, and you will get a high score according to the number. After erasing a block, if it hits another type of block, it will replace the fired block and fly to the player's hand (if it hits the ground, the fired block will return as it is). Blocks can be hit from the side or top, but some stages have rows or columns that cannot be hit due to the placement of ceilings and pipes. If the type of block you threw is different from the type of block you hit, the block you threw will return without erasing anything.

A stage is cleared when the number of remaining blocks is less than the clear condition (the arcade version starts from stage 0, "Training Stage". Only if you miss 1 or time out, it will be cleared). The arcade version is cleared immediately when the clear conditions are met, and the Family Computer and Game Boy versions are cleared when the clear conditions are met and a deadlock or time is over. When clearing, the smaller the number of remaining blocks, the more bonus points you get. If the block cannot be erased no matter where it is fired, it will be a mistake and one special block will be consumed. If you make a mistake when the number of special blocks is 0, or if the time limit runs out no matter how many special blocks you have, the game is over. In the arcade version, clearing stage 59 ends the game.

In the arcade version, as a secret, if the remaining time is 10 seconds or less and you have a block with a Taito mark pattern (blue), a sound effect will sound and the number of special blocks will increase by one.