Cute visuals hide the tough interior of Puyo Puyo!

Japanese Game Box Front

Arle (Left) Puyos (Mid)
Carbuncle (Right)

Arle Nadja Casting Magic

A Strange Puyo Puyo "Game"
That Has Little To No Info,
Taipu Da Puyo Puyo Was
A Game For Japanese PCs
That Helped You Improve
Your Typing Abilities.

On the Sega Game Gear...In another time and another place, you must take the role of a magician in kindergarten with chestnut-colored hair and sparkling eyes named Arle Nadja. One day, Arle decides to read a book that tells the tale of a goddess in the olden days who once used a spell known as [Owanimo] to help rid the world of a great dark power. After the battle was done, she then sealed away the dark power...However, her spell couldn't last forever, and the seal was eventually broken. [Owanimo] is a great spell that can send 4 creatures that are identical in color (in this case, puyos) to another dimension and help the caster in times of great need. Since Arle happens to already have a little experience with casting magic, she decides to learn how to cast the spell of [Owanimo] for herself.

After reading the book and doing a little practice, she gets the hang of using the spell. Time is running out...the time to act is now...and Satan (known as the "Dark Prince" in the U.S.) will soon be able to do whatever he pleases. Knowing this, Arle heads out to find Satan...and her journey truly begins once she opens the double doors (that have a dragon on each one) and sets off into the dungeon where Satan is. Little does Arle realize that Satan is looking forward to meeting her...because she has something he is interested in. Arle has a little friend named Carbuncle that looks harmless, but he actually holds a great power and Satan wants to take Carbuncle away from her. She must also be careful because others seem to be skilled in using the puyos to defeat Arle. This is the general story of the game and most of it is summarized from the manual. The actual in-game plot just has you fight numerous foes to get rid of the Dark Prince.

This is Puyo Puyo, a puzzle game that's popular like crazy in Japan and plays like many other falling object action puzzle games. Puyo Puyo was born from an RPG series known as "Madoh Monogatari" and uses characters from the Madoh Monogatari universe. There are dozens of Puyo Puyo games (or spin-offs and things related to Puyo Puyo) all over the place to say the least and while this particular Puyo Puyo title doesn't show it too much, the Puyo Puyo (and Madoh Monogatari) universe is filled with ridiculous characters that border on the edge of insanity and complete nonsense! The crazy and fun characteristics of the cute cast of characters is what made it so popular from other puzzle games that while great, were often times too mundane or lacked humor. Puyo Puyo was produced by Masamitsu Niitani (or "Moo" Niitani), a man who is as fun-loving and silly as the characters within the Puyo games themselves. Moo doesn't just produce though... he likes to do other things too from time to time such as act as the seiyū (Japanese Voice actor) of Satan as well as cosplay to look like him.

The graphics are pretty good for the Game Gear. Nice clean colors and a crisp and smooth framerate. Characters can easily be distinguished and it should be easy to tell puyos apart and create chains like you would on a home console Puyo game...even if it is on a handheld. The game is geared towards kids so if you don't like how childish everything looks, it may actually be a turnoff. The sound of the game is good. The sound quality isn't the best that I've heard on the Game Gear, but the sound is still good overall. The few tunes present within the game are catchy and something you may start to hum to yourself even after playing the game.

The gameplay is old-fashioned Puyo fare. You must match puyos of the same color to eliminate them. By creating intricate stacks of puyos, you will create chains once they start falling and chains can help you attack your opponent by dropping clear puyos on them that they must eliminate. The idea is to picture how your stack will look BEFORE you actually make it. This way, once your stack gets high, you know where to place your puyos to create massive chain combos. If you procrastinate too much, your opponent can ruin your perfect stack and you can be placed at a major disadvantage if your stack is near the top of the screen. Puyo Puyo can get challenging very quickly and the speed in which your puyos fall can rise in the blink of an eye. There are 16 different opponents to face, though the number of them you face varies depending on the difficulty you choose (you can't fight more than 13 total). The game has a one player mode, versus mode, an Endless mode (to test your skills), and a quest mode where you must meet different requirements in order to go to the next stage.

The interesting thing about this game is that if you play it on an American Game Gear, you will get a game titled "Puzlow Kids". Yes, the game can only really be found in Japan, but this game was at one time slated for a U.S. release. While they didn't localize the game with the name of Puyo Puyo in the U.S. (they did release it with the name of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine), they kept the translation embedded inside of the Japanese cart, so this is interesting for an import gamer like myself! It's good to know that some games have importers in mind! It's cheap and if you aren't expecting anything hardcore other than the puzzle action, Puyo Puyo is a decent game that is easy enough to enjoy!

- Written by Vyse the determined -