Puyo Puyo Tetris (PC) Review

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a 1-4 player Tetris Puyo Puyo mashup where players can play Tetris, Puyo Puyo or Tetris Puyo Puyo Fusion against other people (online and locally) or against AI opponents.

Gameplay

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a puzzle game with the mechanics of Tetris and Puyo Puyo.

–Skip this if you know how both games work–

In standard Tetris blocks fall from the top of the screen to the bottom. If they form a complete line, the line is cleared and if you clear multiple lines at once you get a bonus. There is also chained bonuses where if you clear multiple lines one after the other they chain together and multiply points. If you clear 4 lines you get a “TETRIS!” bonus.

Puyo Puyo is similar except you get groups of 2-4 Puyos of different colors raining from the top of the screen. Group 4 or more Puyos and you clear them. Get another group to clear because of the previous group being cleared and you get a chain bonus (like above). These chains can get crazy where you can get 8 or more chains going off.

–You can keep reading from here!–

There are 3 main game options (Adventure, Arcade and Online) with choices between Puyo Puyo, Tetris or Fusion. 

Adventure

Adventure mode of Puyo Puyo Tetris is basically story mode. You play different “Acts” as the Puyo Puyo team meet the Tetra team from a different dimension because somehow Puyos can manipulate the space-time continuum? It has a 3-star challenge system (think Angry Birds) where defeating your opponent under certain game modes and settings awards you 1-3 stars depending on how hard you whoop the computer opponent(s). You’ll also unlock stuff as you play such as new characters, stages and background music. You also earn credits which can be used to purchase alternative voice packs, block and Puyo designs.

Arcade

Arcade mode has a ton of different modes for both solo play and local multiplayer (NOTE! – For PC multiple controllers are needed since Nintendo doesn’t understand that 4 people can play on a single keyboard at once!). Each mode has a battle or endurance setting. Battle allows you to play against 1-4 CPU opponents you want at once and you can set teams. Endurance pits you 1v1 against as many CPU opponents you can defeat. When you clear blocks and/or Puyos, Garbage blocks and/or Puyos are sent to the opponent(s). These can only be cleared by clearing blocks and/or Puyos surrounding the Garbage blocks and/or Puyos (in Fusion you can clear Garbage Puyos with a Tetris block). Sorry about all those and/ors but there is one or the other or both!

Modes

• Versus
  • You choose to play either Tetris or Puyo Puyo against your opponents (who also choose between Tetris or Puyo Puyo).
• Fusion
  • You play with Tetris and Puyos raining down at the same time. Each character has their own starting pattern at which the Tetris blocks and Puyos fall.
• Swap
  • You play on 2 separate games (Puyo Puyo and Tetris) that swap at regular intervals.
• Party
  • Items appear and players have infinite lives competing for the highest score under a set timer.
• Big Bang
  • You have to clear Tetrimino (Tetris) and Puyo patterns as fast as you can in order to beat your opponent.
• Challenge
  • You have 6 unique single player modes:
    • Endless Fever
      • You have to clear preset chains within a time limit.
    • Endless Puyo
      • Single player Puyo to see how long you can last.
    • Tiny Puyo
      • Extra tiny Puyos rain down giving you more room for combos. The falling speed also increases at regular intervals and resets again in a cycle.
    • Sprint
      • Clear 40 lines as fast as possible.
    • Marathon
      • Clear 150 lines with the highest score possible.
    • Ultra
      • Rack up the highest score possible in 3 minutes.

As you can see there are a crap ton of game modes!

Online Play

You can play against people from all over the world and watch their uploaded replays to feel like nothing matters because you’ll never be that good so why bother playing this game? You can play ranked matches or “Free Play” (unranked) and choose the game modes or settings you’d like. You can also create match rooms or join them.

Nitpicks

Figuring out handicaps at first is confusing as hell. There is no difficulty settings for the computer opponents which there should be because it is far easier to set and understand than handicaps! You can set the handicaps (ranging from easy to hard) to Sweet, Mild, Medium, Hot, Spicy which affect the speed at which blocks and Puyos fall as well as Garbage sent to other players. 

Sound design

The clacking of Tetris blocks and little bloops of the Puyos is extremely satisfying. The background audio is subdued so the players can hear their actions clearly. A lot of the sound effects are neat and clear so you won’t be confused when you hear your opponents wrecking you with a barrage of “TETRIS!”. The background music isn’t bad but it’s not that great either.

Story

The story is extremely childish and boring. It’s perfect for children between the ages of 3 and 9. Most of the characters have irritating, grating voices that will scratch the chalkboard that is your ear holes! Luckily there’s a skip option for all the cut-scenes.

Characters

There are too many to list but pretty much all of them are annoying, uninspired and uncute. How the hell did Nintendo screw these designs up this badly? Japan is known for cute and adorable but all these kids, creatures and robots can die for all I care.

Interface

Most of the menu interfaces are good and you can customize A LOT of settings – until you want to change how your Puyos and Tetris blocks look. You don’t have a preview mode for them – which is beyond stupid. You have to check them out at the shop.

Overall

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a great but somewhat silly game for fans of both Puyo Puyo and Tetris. You can choose one or the other or both and the AI and challenges should keep the avid puzzle gamer busy for far too long than they want to admit. Just avoid staring too much at the characters and skip all the cutscenes – unless you actually find them cute.