Developed by: Sonic Team
Published by: Sega
Reviewed on PlayStation 4 (Also available on Nintendo Switch)
If you take Japan’s most recognizable battle puzzle game, Puyo Puyo, and mix it with one of the world’s most iconic puzzle game, Tetris, you get a wonderful fun mashup game called Puyo Puyo Tetris. Here is our review of Puyo Puyo Tetris on the PlayStation 4.
For the most part in the west, a lot of people still may not know what Puyo Puyo is. Puyo Puyo is a Japanese game that was developed by Compile back in 1991 and was released nearly 25 years ago. Back in 2001, Sega’s Sonic Team took over development and since then has had many iterations released on various platforms. Puyo Puyo games have also been brought over to American and European markets under different names. Two popular titles people might remember are Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine for the Sega Genesis and Puyo Pop Fever on the Nintendo GameCube. Here in the west most people are more familiar with Tetris over Puyo Puyo since originally it was released with the Game Boy back in 1989 and became a household name.
When hopping into Puyo Puyo Tetris, you’ll be greeted with a colorful menu. From there you’ll be able to select from Adventure Mode (the story mode), Solo Arcade mode (compete against the CPU and do solo challenges), Multiplayer Arcade (play against other players locally) , Online mode (compete against players online), Lesson mode (tutorials that teach the basics), and Options and Data for adjusting the various settings and game specific rules.
Puyo Puyo Tetris offers basic gameplay mechanisms from both Puyo Puyo and Tetris. Being new to Puyo Puyo Tetris, as most probably will be, the game offers a Lesson mode to learn the mechanics of either Puyo Puyo or Tetris gameplay or Puyo Tetris Fusion gameplay. These lessons will come in three different levels: beginners, advanced, and expert for all three gameplay styles. The game doesn’t offer to start off in Lesson mode, but I highly advise that you start from there as the game does get harder along the way and, at some point, becomes a real challenge to beat opponents.
In Adventure mode you’ll follow all the 24 characters within the game. The story starts out with Arle and Carbuncle accidentally fall into Ringo’s world. Ringo, Arle, and Carbuncle are transported suddenly into a spaceship where they meet Captain Tee and has crew. They all quickly become friends and later set out on a mission to figure out why Tetrominos are falling from the sky. The story is told through visual presentations with somewhat good voice acting similar to anime dubs. At first these voices are cute and adorable as you hear them for the first time, but as you get deeper into the Adventure mode later these voices start to become irritating and annoying. The story can be dull at times but is enough to keep you curious to know what exactly is going on.
There are a total of 100 stages to complete in Adventure mode. While completing Adventure mode, you’ll unlock new characters after finishing a certain amount of acts. You also earn credits to used to unlock Puyo and Tetrominos skins and alternative voice packs for characters in the shop. The shop is very bare bones and it’s not really worth the effort to unlock everything as they have very little impact on the gameplay. Either way, you’ll earn credit and it’s really up to you if you want to unlock them or not. Around Act 3-5 the difficulty level spikes a little bit and it becomes harder to clear some of the win conditions. The nice thing about Adventure mode is if you lose three times in a row, you’ll be able to use help mode; this allows you to skip the levels to continue on with the story and allows you to retry them later.
The Online mode offer two main types of battle: a puzzle league for random head to head battles to rank up against people from around the world. The second battle mode is free play for the more casual player. Here you can find lobby rooms or create your own room. Almost all the matches I played online ran smoothly aside from my encounters with players that had slower connections.
Puyo Puyo Tetris makes for one fun, ultimate puzzle mashup game. There’s a lot to love here for both crowds: gorgeous visuals, the adorable character artwork, solid gameplay that’s been improved over the years of both Puyo Puyo and Tetris games, and an online ranking system to keep mastering your skills. Other fun aspects include Endless mode, Endurance mode, five different modes, and even the option to play Puyo Pop and Tetris on the same field! There are two things I didn’t enjoy much. The first is that the medium difficulty has difficulty spikes, so just when you think you’re doing well, the computer will suddenly crush you. The other thing is that voice tracks can’t be turned off during matches. After a while you’ll want the characters to shut up so you can focus on your matches. Most people in the west are probably going to pick up Puyo Puyo Tetris simply because of the Tetris brand. It’s definitely one of the more solid Tetris games out there and runs really smooth both online and offline. Whichever puzzle game you’re into, the other will feel like a bonus. If you’ve never played Puyo Puyo or Tetris, this is a great starting point.
