How Puyo Puyo Tetris Eases New Import Players Into Puyo

25 years ago, a puzzle game spinoff of the Madou Monogatari Role-Playing Game trilogy was released for the MSX and Famicom systems. This spinoff was called Puyo Puyo. A single-player only affair, Puyo Puyo did not really catch on until it was ported to arcade machines. It was this version which not only added a multiplayer component, but made it the main focus, pitting Madou Monogatari protagonist Arle Nadja against various enemies from the original series. This arcade version was later ported to various systems, including the Sega Mega Drive and Nintendo's Super Famicom. These two ports were eventually released outside of Japan, but not unaltered; If you are unfamiliar with Puyo Puyo, you may know it better as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine or Kirby's Avalanche. For one reason or another, Compile seemingly felt that the game would do better outside Japan in the form of reskins with familiar characters. These days, Mean Bean Machine mostly known for being a Sonic the Hedgehog game which did not have Sonic in it at all, and Kirby's Avalanche is barely remembered.



In Japan, Puyo Puyo went on to become a relative phenomenon, eclipsing the original series and spawning numerous sequels. Puyo Puyo Tsu, the second game in the series, is considered the standard for competitive play thanks to various improvements over the original, and is available on Volume 2 of the Sega 3D Classics Collection for the 3DS, which is the only one available outside of Japan. Also, Puyo Puyo is currently owned by Sega, as Compile went under a long time ago.



Puyo Puyo Tsu being on the only volume of the Sega 3D Classics Collection to be released outside of Japan is notable because, after Mean Bean Machine and Kirby's Avalanche, the only Puyo Puyo localizations since then were Puyo Pop on the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo Gamecube version of Puyo Pop Fever. This gives me, and several others in the western Puyo Puyo fan community, a slight amount of hope that Puyo Puyo Chronicle, the upcoming installment of the series to celebrate it's 25th anniversary, will be localized and released outside of Japan. Prior to this, however, the most recent installment to be released was very welcoming to new import players in a strange way. How it does this is best summed up by the game's title: Puyo Puyo Tetris.



In a surprising move, the most recent installment of the Puyo Puyo series is a crossover with Tetris, the global megahit which you have definitely played in some form or another. And it is the very fact that everybody on the planet has played Tetris that results in most of how Puyo Puyo Tetris is very friendly to beginners. The best way to explain this is with a picture of the first stage of the game's story mode.

On the left is the player, as T, (the characters exclusive to Puyo Puyo Tetris are named and designed after various Tetris pieces) playing Tetris. On the right, the computer, as Ringo Andou, the current protagonist of Puyo Puyo (The role of protagonist has shifted twice over the course of the series), plays said game. The goal of levels such as this, as this is a competitive puzzle game, is to make the opponent's board either overflow to the top (if they are playing Tetris), or get their red X covered (if they are playing Puyo Puyo). A new player may fail to understand the following:

1. How Puyo Puyo works in general
2. That a Tetris player needs to clear at least two lines at once in order to send garbage over to the opponent.

These factors mean that, as an unfamiliar player figures out what is going on and what they are supposed to do, Ringo might be able to clear a set or two of four puyo. "Might" being the key word here, as Ringo's AI is rather weak. This will give the player some idea of how Puyo Puyo works.

This actually somewhat ties into the story itself, as all three protagonists of Puyo Puyo have ended up on the Tetris characters' spaceship after a bunch of teronimoes fell from the sky and teleported them with a line clear (Yes, really). As a result of this, both of these characters would have every reason to be wary of each other. Especially as they both are shown freaking out upon challenging each other to different games and realizing that the match is starting despite this. While the dialogue is entirely in Japanese, much of this can be inferred even with the language barrier.

Eventually, the players is given zero choice but to learn how Puyo Puyo works, as the last three stages of the first chapter have you playing Puyo Puyo to fulfill various conditions. These are battle-based affairs again, but still against weak AI, so there is no real pressure for the most part (unless you are going for the mobile game-esque three-star requirements), and allow the player to get a better handle of how Puyo Puyo works, as well as allowing them to test themselves against the aforementioned three-star requirements for each of the stages.



Within the context of the story, puyo have begun multiplying at a fast rate throughout the spaceship, which has started to malfunction as a result. In order to prevent the ship from crashing, the Puyo Protagonist Trio (as I like to call them) teach the Tetris characters how to play Puyo Puyo and clear all of the puyo away. This ends up not working, as the puyo just come back, and the ship crashes into the nearest planet (though, thankfully, said planet is Earth).

While talking about how the game lets you learn the basics in the first chapter of the story mode is all well and good, an article about how import-friendly Puyo Puyo Tetris is would not be complete without talking about the menus. The choices on the top menu are, in no particular order:

• A single-player match in any mode
• Options
• Story mode
• Multiplayer
• Online play
• Tutorial

If you have never touched Puyo Puyo Tetris before, you should at least be able to get a good grasp of which options are which just by looking at the pictures. This design philosophy extends to the entire rest of the main menu (though you may have trouble understanding which modes are which within the single-player match option until you've encountered them in the story mode).



At the end of the day, Puyo Puyo Tetris, which is available on many systems, most being region-free, is very import-friendly. Hopefully, Sega will see the noticeable international fanbase for Puyo Puyo and release Chronicle outside of Japan. After all, with Square Enix willing to give Dragon Quest a new lease on life in the western world (And this effort seemingly being successful enough that they are now "committed" to bringing more Dragon Quest games westward in the future), why can't Sega do similar with Puyo Puyo?