I’ve always loved Puyo Puyo. Well, not technically always, but certainly ever since I had a marathon overnight Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine competiton with a friend on the Sega Genesis in 1994. We stayed up literally all night playing Mean Bean Machine, getting progressively more ridiculous, and performing an incessant litany of bean jokes. It’s possibly one of the best times I’ve ever had gaming, and certainly the best time I ever had playing any sort of co-op games. We beat the game that night and ever since, I’ve been a Puyo Puyo fan. Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine was the first domestic port of Puyo Puyo to Western gamers. It did well, and soon we had a few titles wandering about, such as Kirby’s Avalanche for the SNES, Puyo Pop Fever for the Gamecube, and even Puyo Puyo Sun for the arcade. More recently, Puyo Puyo Tetris was released domestically for the PS4 and Switch, the first Puyo game in many years to make it to our shores.
Now, Sonic Team has finally brought another Puyo out for the Switch (as well as PS4, Xbox One, and Steam), Puyo Puyo Champions. Turns out that Sega still thinks there’s demand for Puyo Puyo, and they’re definitely right! Puyo Puyo Champions is a unique beast. Previous games in the franchise have all had single player story modes as well as competitive modes. Champions tosses out that pattern and focuses entirely on the competitive nature of Puyo Puyo, enabling matches of up to four players simultaneously and an excellent online pairing system. You can play both Puyo Puyo 2 and Puyo Puyo Fever (aka Puyo Pop Fever…regional variances), each of which features a different set of rules and attacks for the 24 playable characters of the game.
Puyo Puyo is a very straightforward game. Match the Puyos. Four touching Puyos of the same color makes them all clear. Chain your attacks to perform special moves. Clear the blank beans that the enemy drops on you, and don’t waste any time, because your opponents won’t be. Give someone too long in Puyo Puyo, and they can literally drop an entire screen of Puyo rocks on you, instantly ending the match. Seems simple, right? Well, it’s frantic as hell. Also, I discovered that I’m older than I used to be with slower reflexes and I kind of got my ass handed to me in open competition as well as by the CPU, which I used to be able to best with ease in previous iterations of the game.
The matching system should be pretty familiar to most online gamers. Select your rules set, click match, and away you go. You can choose either version of the game, or both rules sets and you’ll simply be paired with whoever is around. In playing online, I did notice that skill level does not seem to be a factor in pairing, leaving you hopelessly outmatched in some battles and dominating in others. Matching occurs worldwide so I ended up playing with gamers from Korea, Japan, the US and Canada all within a matter of minutes. I played a variety of 1 on 1 matches and a couple multiplayer ones with 3-4 players and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even if I only won maybe a quarter of them.
Puyo Puyo Champions also allows for local co-op, allowing you to hide your lack of skills online and show off for your buddies on your couch. With Sweet mode to allow for training tips and the ability to do things like set handicaps, eventually you’re bound to get good at Puyo Puyo. Every game you play is saved to your profile and all online matches also affect your world ranking online. Champions is essentially a streamlined versatile version of the original Puyo games, and it’s still damned fun!
In respect to graphics and sound, Puyo Puyo Champions is about what you’d expect. Cutesy, decent music, a variety of character themes and voiceovers, and tight, fast controls for a fast, challenging puzzle game. I honestly didn’t even notice the music while I was playing, but I also had the sound off for a while playing undocked with the Switch. Undocked gameplay for Puyo Puyo Champions is great. Gameplay is crisp and responsive across the board with no issues whatsoever. The game translates well to the smaller screen, and portable online play is an excellent way to rack up geek street cred.
If you love competitive puzzle games, you owe it to yourself to check out Puyo Puyo Champions. It’s a bit sad that there’s no hokey story mode this time around, but with the inclusion of Puyo Puyo 2 and Puyo Puyo Fever, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth, especially at a measly $10. Yup, Only ten bucks for one of the best puzzle games ever made. It’s pretty much impossible to resist!
This review was based on a digital copy of Puyo Puyo Champions for the Switch provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked mode. All images are direct screenshots.
