Puyo Puyo Tetris

Genre: Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local, Local Wireless, Online), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle game that combines these two classic game series into one package in multiple ways, both appealing to fans of each series while providing something entirely new by tossing them in a blender together.

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.

Tetris, on the other hand, I thoroughly enjoy, but I’m no match for any competent tourney-level player. This undoubtedly contributed to my frustration with Tetris 99, which seemed designed to cater primarily to more expert-level players.

Puyo Puyo Tetris starts by offering pretty solid versions of each of the games in question – you can play your Puyo Puyo, and you can play your Tetris… but it also toys around with different ways of combining the games – you can play a game of Tetris against someone playing a game of Puyo Puyo (or vice versa). You can play a game that shifts back and forth between a game of Puyo Puyo and a game of Tetris. You can play a game that combines Puyo Puyo blobs with Tetris pieces, allowing you to use Tetris pieces to squish garbage blocks.

There’s a hefty array of different modes and features here, including various time trial and score challenge modes, a party mode with items to interfere with opponents, and all of that on top of couch multiplayer, local wireless multiplayer, and online multiplayer for up to four players… suffice it to say, you won’t be lacking for different ways to play this game.

There are a few complaints I can make about this package, though. Firstly, the way the menus are organized is a bit confusing – for example, if you want to play just a normal endless match of Tetris, you can do that right from the title screen, but if you want to do the same for Puyo Puyo you need to go through multiple menus to get to single-player challenges… where there’s no option to play Tetris in endless mode. And depending on what sort of match you’re playing, you’re limited in your visual and music options.

Speaking of those display and music options… they’re fine, though I wish there was a bit more variety here, rather than everything, even the classic Tetris theme, being done in the saccharine Puyo Puyo style. It’s fine, but a little variety in the presentation would have gone great with the variety in the gameplay.

Still, on the whole, this is a marvelous mash-up of two classic game franchises that gives fans of both something new and interesting to enjoy. And while the game could have used a bit more variety in the presentation and less-confusing menus, on the whole this is a fantastic Puzzle game that fans of the genre should absolutely check out.

tl;dr – Puyo Puyo Tetris is a Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle game that combines these two genre classics into one wonderful cohesive package that mixes the two in multiple interesting ways. While I wish there were improvements made in the way things are organized in menus and in the presentation, on the whole this is a fantastic Puzzle game that fans of the genre should definitely check out.

Grade: B+

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