Thank you Sega for sending us a review code!

Puyo Puyo was released as an arcade game in 1992 and later became a bestseller on Japan's Mega Drive system. Since then it has had many sequels and we reviewed Puyo Puyo Tetris for the Switch in 2017. Though there are similarities between Puyo Puyo and Tetris, it has more in common with Dr. Mario since you're matching up similarly shaped objects.

Sets of two Puyos will drop from above and you have to arrange them by color so they can match up and eventually disappear. Sometimes the falling Puyos are two of the same color, but more often than not, you’ll have two different colors to work with. One new feature added to the SEGA AGES Puyo Puyo game is the option to reverse rotate to save some time. Another new ability is being able to do a last-second rotation before the Puyos are locked into place as they land. This is a handy feature that Tetris has offered for quite some time!

In order to clear Puyos from your screen you have to match up four of the same color. Ideally, you’ll want to do chain reactions to really mess up your opponent. Planning ahead is essential if you want to do well in this game. For each group of cleared Puyos, blank ones will be sent to your opponent. The more you clear away on your side, the more your opponent will get. The only way to get rid of the garbage Puyos is to make matches and adjacent blank Puyos will go away. The kicker is that most of the time the junk Puyos interrupt the matches I was in the process of completing.

The player who gets their side of the screen filled with Puyos first, loses. Winning a match will cause the Puyos to drop at a faster rate on the next round. If you lose, you can infinitely continue and the speed will slow down a bit too. This game has not lost its arcade feeling and I’m glad that I don’t have to keep pumping in quarters to keep playing. The ability to save your progress helps too!

When launching the arcade mode you can choose between a single and two-player game. After that you can select beginner, normal, or difficult. I highly recommend starting at the beginner levels if you’re new to the game as they will give you some helpful tips as you play. Each level gets a little more challenging though I did breeze through one after being stuck on the previous one for quite some time so your mileage may vary.

If you’re looking for online play, you’ll be disappointed as I have not been able to find any matches to join. Local multiplayer is still an option though.

SEGA AGES Puyo Puyo is pretty family-friendly though some of the characters are undead skeletons and zombies. Other foes are just plain weird like a foot with a baby’s head on top.

Fans of the classic Puyo Puyo games will enjoy this title. It’s much cheaper than a day at the arcade when taking the infinite credits into consideration. The ability to save and load from my progress instead of having to start from the beginning is a nice feature too. The asking price is reasonable, but it doesn’t offer anything too ground-breaking. It’s a shame that nobody plays this game online.