Puyo Puyo (Genesis) review "(De)construct"

Ages ago, there was a magical spell called Owanimo; when invoked, any unfortunate target was exiled between time and space. However, there was a major downside with casting it, one in which the spell will only work when you have four creatures of the same color together. Thus it was deemed useless, with such an incantation being sealed away and forgotten for eons. But one day, a teenage sorceress named Arle Nadja uncovered the spell, and the timing couldn't have been better. Turns out, Satan is trying to conquer the world with an infestation of colorful, jelly-like blob creatures!

A spin-off of the Madou Monogatari RPG games, 1992's Puyo Puyo is a falling-block puzzler featuring characters of the former series. Similar to Columns, the objective is to make objects disappear by matching four of the same color, in any connectable direction besides diagonal, as they fall from the top. The objects, in this case the titular Puyo blobs, fall in pairs of varying colors, which can be moved left and right, and be shifted vertically or horizontally before landing on a surface. One standout feature this game has is the way you can manipulate the falling blobs once they land; if one Puyo of the pair happens to be hanging in the air, it detaches and falls to a surface below. In turn, this allows for more flexibility when coming up with tactics.

There is a solo endless mode that allows you to stack and clear blobs to your heart's content, but the main allure of the game are the competitive versus modes, whether against another player or the computer. In these competitions, the goal is to outlive your opponent by preventing the Puyos to reach the top of your area, with the drop speed increasing as time goes on. While that alone sounds standard, the developers toss in an element that keeps things tense; whenever you clear four blobs, a transparent Puyo is dropped in the opponent's field and vice versa. This junk Puyo does nothing but take up space, and the only way to get rid of it is to have nearby colored blobs disappear around it.

Of course, a single junk blob won't do much to deter your rival, however you can have multiple junk Puyos drop at once. Basically, to perform this feat you need to cause chain reactions, which is done by stacking several blobs together prior to connecting the final fourth blob of each color, whether side by side, or on top of one another. Once you have a proper set-up going, you pretty much need to do a "rug pull" to initiate the chain, then gleefully watch as junk stacks fall on your competitor's side. Sounds easy, but actually pulling this off in the heat of battle, when your opponent is trying to do the same to you, adds urgency to the situation; there's nothing more horrifying than thinking you have the upper hand... only for an opponent to suddenly slam you with 15 junk blobs.

This level of intensity, combined with having to maintain your composure while stacking blobs successfully, is what makes Puyo Puyo fun to play. The fact that you can go from being in the lead, to being seconds away from a loss, to then miraculously climbing your way out of defeat by destroying junk blobs, shows the level of concentration needed. Though, if there's one big gripe to be had with this particular version, it's that once a big stack of junk Puyo have been created by the enemy and waiting to be unleashed after you drop your in-play pair, there's nothing to be done to counter it. Obviously, it's great when it's done to your opponent, but if an especially-skilled player does it to you, seconds into a match, it can be frustrating at times. It's a bit unbalanced in that regard.



If you don't have other players to consistently fight with, then the computer opponents still put up a solid fight. Arle is pitted against an assortment of goofballs, being at odds with Skeleton T, a literal skeleton who loves drinking tea, Schezo the super creeper handsome mage, and, of course, the Indian Demon King Elephant himself. The cast of quirky characters aren't just for looks and jokes either, as most have unique attack patterns; from rivals dropping Puyos at the speed of light or opponents systematically stacking blobs, to others being a nuisance with small junk Puyos at every step, there's quite a bit to work with. You'll do battle across three difficulty modes, not to mention additional computer difficulty tampering in the options, so there's plenty of value to be had.

This Puyo Puyo may not be the very first game in the series, being preceded by MSX and Famicom versions, but it became the template for the series going forward. For good reason: the competitive nature fits really well with the main puzzle design, with the structure often being refined or reworked in future installments, not to mention being an influence to other puzzlers for years to come. Despite one really specific issue, this game is still a good recommendation if you're looking for more puzzlers to play on Sega's 16-bit console. Now, whether it's going to be the Westernized version starring a certain evil doctor or the cutesy charm of this Japanese original, that's entirely up to you.

Community review by dementedhut (March 26, 2025) Now if only I had the foresight to submit this OutRun review a day earlier...