| Puyo Puyo | |
|---|---|
The front cover of the Mega Drive version of the original game. |
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| Genres | Puzzle |
| Developers | Compile, Sega, Sonic Team |
| Publishers | Sega, others |
| Creators | Masamitsu Nītani |
| Official website | puyo.sega.jp |
Puyo Puyo (ぷよぷよ) refers to a series of puzzle video games created by Compile and later Sonic Team.
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Puyo Puyo, originally released by Compile in 1991, featured characters from the 1989 RPG Madou Monogatari, also made by Compile. Puyos were enemy monsters in said game, as the rough equivalent of the slime monsters from the Dragon Quest game series.
The series was the second and more successful attempt to combat the ubiquitous falling-block game Tetris, the first being Columns.
Puyo Puyo really became popular when it was released as an arcade game in 1992. This was the first version that included the aforementioned one-player story mode, in which the human player plays against computer opponents of increasing difficulty. This feature was an immediate success because it allowed players to play by themselves. Future versions of Puyo Puyo for console systems also included this feature.
The most released version of Puyo Puyo to date is Puyo Puyo Tsu. It is said to have had 15 releases, one for each console, including a PC version and a Satellaview remake (BS Super Puyo Puyo Tsuu Remix).
Sega had hopes of releasing it outside of Japan, and, although they did, they didn't have the original names or characters. The first was released in February 1993 under the name Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (for Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear). Nintendo would also get their version of Puyo Puyo for the Super NES outside Japan, but under the name Kirby's Avalanche (Kirby's Ghost Trap in Europe), which the original characters were replaced by the Kirby series ones. Spectrum HoloByte also released Puyo Puyo for the Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Macintosh in August 1995, under the name Qwirks.[1]
After the demise of Compile in 2002, Sonic Team continued development of the Puyo Puyo series (as Sega held partial rights to the game since the first arcade release).
Nowadays, the Puyo Puyo merchandise uses its own original name, replacing the second Puyo with Pop. The first of these was Puyo Pop for the NeoGeo Pocket, which was a version of Puyo Puyo Tsu. Puyo Pop (Minna de Puyo Puyo in Japan) for the Game Boy Advance, was the first Puyo game to use characters from Puyo Puyo SUN and Puyo Puyo~n, most notably, those originally coming from Tsu to begin with.
Puyo Pop Fever (Puyo Puyo Fever inside of Japan) was the last game released by Sega for its Dreamcast system. It was also ported to the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Mac OS X, Windows, Pocket PC and Palm OS platforms; however, due to lack of worldwide release, versions saw separate releases; the Nintendo DS and Nintendo GameCube versions were released in North America. The sequel to the game, Puyo Puyo Fever 2, has been given a release in Japan for the PS2, the DS, and the PSP. There's no confirmation as of yet if there will be any more multiple releases, and if any of them will be seen outside of Japan.
In 2004, Sega has released Puyo Pop as a part of Sega Classic Collection Blue Pack for J2ME, this is the official release that available for Java, the game published by Glu Mobile and developved by Sega.
In July 2005, Bandai released Kidou Gekidan Haro Ichiza: Haro no Puyo Puyo (lit. "Mobile Theatrical Company Haro: Haro's Puyo Puyo") in Japan for the GBA, the Gundam themed Puyo Puyo.[2]
Between 2006 and 2007, for the franchise's fifteenth anniversary, Sega released a version for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP, and Nintendo DS known as Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary.
A new game known as Puyo Puyo 7 was released in 2009, with a schoolgirl known as Ringo Andou as the new main character.
The Puyo Puyo games developed by Sonic Team generally have references to the Sonic the Hedgehog series:
On February 1, 2009, Sega released Puyo Puyo Fever Touch as an exclusive iPhone OS title in Japan.
Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary has been announced and released on July 14, 2011 to celebrate 20 years since the original Puyo Puyo.
The object of the game is to defeat the opponent in a battle by filling their grid up to the top with garbage. The Puyos are little creatures with eyes who, in most variations of the game, fall from the top of the screen in a pair. The pair can be moved left and right and rotated. The pair falls until it reaches another puyo or the bottom of the screen.
When four or more puyos of the same color form together to create a group, they disappear. Individual puyos can connect horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally; the whole group need not be a line, but can be any tetromino (or larger). This is called a Rensa (Chain). For example, the A pieces form groups in grids 1 and 2, but not 3:
The puyos above those that are cleared fall onto other pieces or the bottom of the screen.
Combo chains are created when more than four puyos form a group, or more than one group is formed at one time. For example, grid 4 has a five combo, grid 5 has two groups of four for an eight combo, and grid 6 has three groups of five for a fifteen combo:
A Fluent Rensa (step-chain) is made when falling puyos form a new group in a chain reaction. For example, grid 7 will form a two-rensa chain, grid 8 will form a three-rensa chain, and grid 9 will form a five-rensa chain:
Whenever a rensa is achieved, Ojama (Garbage blocks) are sent to the opponent. The bigger the Fluent Rensa is, the more ojamas are sent to the opponent. It is calculated by the overall score of the chain divided by 70 and rounded up to the nearest integer. For example:
If more puyos are erased in succession due to a Fluent Rensa, the amount of garbage will keep going up until the chain ends. Ojama puyos are dropped in rows of six, with the extra ojamas distributed in random columns. If more than 30 ojamas are sent, they will be dropped in groups of 30.
Ojama block the opponent's playing field, and can cause them to lose if they reach up to the top of the grid. Ojama are eliminated if puyos are eliminated adjacent to them.
If the third column from the left is piled to the top then the game is over. In Puyo Puyo Fever, the third or fourth column from the left must be filled to end the game.
Puyo Puyo has many clones. An Amiga clone was created as a reader's response to a comment in the Amiga Power magazine named Super Foul Egg. XPuyoPuyo and KFoulEgg are two Open Source clones of Puyo Puyo for X11, both of which only support original Puyo Puyo modes. FloboPuyo is another Puyo Puyo clone, this time multiplatform, written using SDL in C by IOS Software. Puyo Puyo Compendium is a larger scale fangame written in Delphi and using DirectX on Windows, which features a wide selection of gameplay modes developed by Xerodox Games in part of a series of Puyo Puyo games by the group.[3] Another Puyo Puyo clone, which focuses mainly on the ability to play across the internet, is Puyo Puyo VS.[4] It is a clone of Puyo Puyo Tsu in many ways, but as mentioned, features internet play.
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