My main experience with Puyo Puyo is Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine – a game I couldn’t enjoy because of colourblind issues, so I was dreading playing this one. However, in the options, you can adjust the colours of the different Puyo, even going as far as completely greyscale and relying on the (a bit too minor when the game goes fast) different shapes completely.

With the options set to how I like them…I actually really enjoy Puyo Puyo. It’s geared towards a 1v1 setup, as creating sets of four will send bad beans to the opponent’s screen – but if you score combos, you’ll send a load at once. This creates a risk factor as you can try to set up elaborate combos (something I’m not good at) but wait too long, and your opponents will scupper your plans with some bad blocks.

The story mode has you battling lots of colourful characters as you get amusing little snippets before each match, with some nice animation. It’s all very silly, but also quite entertaining, with lots of unfortunate events happening to absolutely everyone. Of course, every problem in life can be solved by a Puyo Puyo battle.

There’s also a good amount of different modes. Puzzle Puyo is essentially a training mode, giving you a guide to help you set up combos, and you can then test out these skills in a mission mode, which gives you tasks but you have to figure it out yourself. There are also endless, tournament and versus modes, giving you plenty to deal with.

I have not played any later Puyo Puyo games so I don’t know how this compares, but I found this to be genuinely entertaining and it was a blast to play.

Fave

It’s Puyo Puyo, still one of the finest competitive puzzlers to ever come between friends and have them growling under their breath at each other.

Zy Nicholson, N64 Magazine #10. Review Score: 80%

Remake or remaster?

A collection and official localisation of the earlier Puyo Puyo games would be nice.

Official ways to get the game.

While there are newer Puyo Puyo games, this particular version is not available anywhere.