Puyo Puyo Tetris

It feels like in recent years the idea of competitive puzzle games has sort of fallen away, most of the puzzle games that get attention over here are more calming or addictive mobile games, with competitive puzzle games coming out in the form of stuff like Lumines and Critter crunch every now and then. Diving into the pool of Japanese releases, new and old, one will find this genre still kicking and in early 2013 Sonic Team released Puyo Puyo Tetris, a mashup of two of the puzzle genre’s longest contenders.

If one goes through the trouble of getting their hands on a copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris they will quickly find the game is packed with different modes and even a story involving the game’s myriad of characters. Considering sheer content, Puyo Puyo Tetris has more stuff than several decades worth of Tetris games combined, with Puyo Puyo being added to the mix to give players a familiar gameplay experience with a new flavor.

Before a match players will have the opportunity to select a character, players of the Puyo Puyo games are bound to recognize some of them, like Satan and the fish guy. While any gameplay distinctions between the characters are beyond me they fulfill the role of screaming stuff in Japanese as you do well in the game, which really adds a certain unique energy to it all. It didn’t matter that up until recently I didn’t realize the robot character “Z” was saying “MINERAL SUPPLEMENTATION” when I got a combo, just hearing it was enough. The visual presentation is very bright and captivating as well, the illustrated backgrounds and colored blocks give a certain toy-like vibe that mirrors the childlike excitement of the gameplay.

In regards to the gameplay it feels great, the Tetris pieces snap into position with a satisfying clack, Puyos jiggle and bounce as they fall onto other puyos, and spinning pieces is quick and lets you make changes up to the last minute. The different modes are also pretty interesting, beyond a classic versus mode where players choose either Tetris or Puyo Puyo and fight to knock the other’s junk off their board while completing puzzles, there are a handful of other modes as well. There’s a mode which switches between Puyo Puyo and Tetris every few seconds, failing either loses the match, this one is probably my favorite because it’s tense and its habit for come from behind victories is exciting for all involved. There’s also a Battle Tetris inspired mode with spells, but the spells come in the form of a block which has to be broken to cast the spell, it fits fine on the Puyo Puyo board but it takes the form of a square block on the Tetris side so it can have a knack for messing up your board, luckily the mode is based on time and score and filling the board just results in a restart and points lost. The Lucky Attack/Fever/Black Hole/whatever mode is Tetris and Puyo Puyo distilled into a single board you have to solve quickly without messing up the combo or order, it’s really hectic and satisfying, functioning like a sort of series of full games in microcosm it fills the role of being the Pac-Man Championship Edition Dx for Tetris and Puyo Puyo. The Last mode is the Puyo Puyo Tetris mode which mixes the two, it’s arguably the most mind boggling of the modes at first but once you figure it out it doesn’t feel as fun as straight up Puyo or Tetris, so it sort of only fills a role as an interesting headscratcher for unsuspecting opponents.

All of the two player modes can also be played survival style against ai opponents, which allows you to play any of the modes longform if you’re looking to play and just kill time, it’s great if you’re like me and got the game on handheld. Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out much of the four player modes so I only know the versus mode works with it, given playing the game four player definitely results in a much faster series of games, seeing as everyone has to fight off three other player’s junk pieces. The online works competently, having watched more online games than having played them, it’s definitely a daunting menu if you don’t speak the language or have a guide but there is support for quick phrases in lobby like “O K” which I proceeded to spam whenever I was waiting for a game.

Overall Puyo Puyo Tetris just brings so much heart back to a trodden genre, everything about the presentation and gameplay is fast and crazy, and at the same time fun and inviting. Fans of Puyo Puyo and Tetris alike should rejoice, and try and get their hands on a copy of this amazing game.