Sega Ages Puyo Puyo

Genre: Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Sega Ages Puyo Puyo is a Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle game originally released to the MSX console in 1991 and expanded upon by Sega in an arcade port a year later, with that version being the one featured in this re-release. While the characters and story are based on a Japanese RPG by the name of Madō Monogatari (which translates to Sorcery Saga), I think it’s safe to say that the Puyo Puyo franchise has far surpassed and outlived that series.

Before I get to the review proper, I’m gonna’ level with you – I’ve never been the biggest fan of Puyo Puyo. I dunno what it is, but I just can’t wrap my head around its own particular brand of combo-fueled, gravity-affected, color-matching style of puzzle game, despite that Tetris Attack AKA Puzzle League, which shares multiple mechanics with Puyo Puyo, is probably my favorite puzzle game of all time. In any case, I recognize my own bias in this, and will do my best to review this game fairly regardless.

While this is not technically the first version of Puyo Puyo to hit the world, for all intents and purposes it may as well be, and in some ways the game shows its age. The character designs are ungainly, the voice clips are awkward, and the game as a whole is missing features that modern players have come to see as standard in Puzzle games like this, such as an endless mode.

Having said that, while the visuals are dated, they do have a good nostalgic feel to them and a bright, colorful presentation, and the gameplay has aged fairly well since the game came out – it still feels pretty good, even by today’s standards. That said, there have definitely been small touches to round things out in more recent entries, like giving players a small “grace period” of sorts to counter garbage blocks sent their way before those blocks are dropped on their field. Without this, this game can more easily favor those who get in a good first attack, making it a bit more uneven than subsequent entries.

Developer M2 has done its usual upstanding job integrating a good feature set into this game, including local 2-Player and online play (though the game’s online servers sadly seem deserted at this point), online leaderboards, international and Japanese versions of the game, multiple display options, save states, and a music test mode.

While it may be feature-poor and have empty servers online, this is nevertheless a pretty good version of Puyo Puyo, and fans of the Puzzle genre looking for an inexpensive classic will likely find this to be a solid choice.

tl;dr – Sega Ages Puyo Puyo is a Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle game originally released in 1991, with this version based on the 1992 arcade version of the game. It’s missing features we’ve come to expect from Puzzle games today, and the online servers are deserted, but the core gameplay here is still solid, though it’s missing some small tweaks to round out the gameplay that subsequent titles added. It’s still worth a look for Puzzle fans who don’t own another version of the game.

Grade: C+

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