I felt the same, but I picked it up pretty quickly (tutorial helped, but it really comes together when actually playing).
OK, let's say you start with 10 lives (basically). You have full control over your movements around the play field via the d-pad or analog pad as well as the ability to blow yourself up. Various shapes and shape patterns basically enter the playing field like a shooter or something and you are tasked with blowing yourself up along with the enemies. Any enemies that are touching each other at time of impact will blow up along with those you hit producing a chain of explosions. Many of those groups have special color enemies as well that, when destroyed, drop bonus items (points, speed-ups, time extensions etc). Everytime you blow yourself up, you lose 1 life. When you earn a certain amount of points, you GAIN a life. So, by blowing up the largest chains as well as collecting points, you'll gain enough points to earn an extend (another life). On top of this, you are on a time limit.
Take the first level; you basically dodge enemies and their attacks while setting up for the largest chains. If you hold the explosion button down, your movement speed is cut in half, but you can charge your explosion. As you increase the speed, the music changes somewhat along with the pace (better for long chains). After a bit, the boss shows up (Tri-Mirai is the first boss). The first boss is a tri-color spinner and text pops up telling you what you have to do at each point. First, you must hit a 5 chain explosion, then a 10 chain, then a 12 chain, and finally a 30 chain before you then have to start taking down his life meter. Obviously, you are losing lives everytime you explode AND the time is counting down. The boss also fires off shoote- like bullet patterns that you must avoid and death without explosion causes you to lose a life AND 5 seconds. You need to keep the chains rolling and the extends coming in order to survive. It sounds very strange, no doubt, but it really is addictive. When you mix the crazy gameplay with an awesome presentation (music and visuals are fantastic), you have something addictive.
I'm very pleased with it.
