As I recently stated in my review of Puyo Puyo Champions for the Switch, I absolutely adore Puyo Puyo. Seriously, it’s one of those games that will have a soft spot in my heart for all time. It’s a simple, clean puzzle game with cute characters that can get ridiculously difficult and is pure fun to play with friends and family. How can you go wrong? Fact of the matter is, you can’t. And M2 realizes that since they’ve recently localized Sega Ages Puyo Puyo. This is the pure unadultured original version of Puyo Puyo that was first available in Japanese arcades too! How do I know this? Simple. It’s because I actually owned the Japanese arcade board of this exact game until last year!
This re-release of the original arcade version of Puyo Puyo is perfect too. It’s identical to the original, with a few handy, updated options. The most notable is the ability to switch from Japanese to International mode and back, allowing me to play the game in English for the first time. Sure, that’s not a huge surprise, but it’s still pretty darn cool, even if the story is nothing particularly exciting. You can also switch difficulties n the fly from Easy all the way up to Hardest, and there’s pretty much no way you’re surviving hardest, especially on the higher levels. You can adjust the number of battles, quick rotates, controls, and most importantly, the graphics as well.
Sega Ages Puyo Puyo offers some excellent display effects (as do all the Sega Ages games), including scan lines, smoothing, a combination of both, or neither, allowing you to relive that original arcade feeling if you wish or look crisper for a modern TV. As is the standard with this type of release, you also have a variety of wallpaper options and five display modes. Basically, you can custom tailor the appearance of the game to suit your preferences, and a convenient save function has been added so you don’t have to grind your way through levels only to have to do it all over again later. Chances are though, if you save and come back, you won’t be in the groove anymore and you’ll get your butt handed to you awfully quick. I know this from experience.
Sega Ages Puyo Puyo is a simple game with no bells and whistles, no alternate rules sets, no different gameplay modes. It’s just pure, clean Puyo fun. In fact, it’s actually the exact game that Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine is based on, right down to the stone backdrop for the entire game. Straightforward Puyo Puyo action with combos and rock drops and all the old standbys. Puyo Puyo has held up pretty well for a game that’s 27 years old. It’s still fun and challenging and still addictive as hell. The added ability to play it undocked portably on the excellent Nintendo Switch screen is nothing to scoff at either.
The only issue I had at all was with the online matching service. I never managed to get a single online session to load and was unable to join any online server rooms, despite the game being live. Either no one at all is playing Sega Ages Puyo Puyo online or I’m having some sort of issue with the matching software or my internet connection. Either way, it would have been fun to pit myself against players from around the world, but alas, twas not to be. It’s probably for the best, as I don’t need to be reminded of my own inferiority on a global scale anyway.
Regardless of internet connectivity, Sega Ages Puyo Puyo has held up well over the years. It’s just as fun as when I played it in high school, and at only $8, it’s hard to pass this one up! Seriously, go get your Retro Puyo on!
This review is based on a digital copy of Sega Ages Puyo Puyo provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes. A nigh infinite number of Puyos were most definitely harmed during the making of this review