Puyo Puyo

Puyo Puyo (ぷよぷよ, called Puyo Pop in the US) is a computer puzzle game made in 1991 by Compile. Since its creation using characters from Madou Monogatari, the game has become an international success, with many of its biggest fans residing in Japan and Korea. The idea came from the mind of Masamitsu (Moo) Niitani, who used elements similar to Tetris and Dr. Mario to create this puzzle game.

Gameplay CODE

The object of the game is to beat your opponent in a battle by filling their grid up to the top with garbage. Puyos commonly fall from the top of the screen in a pair (although for Puyo Puyo Fever, they can fall in triplets, double pairs, and Bigpuyos). The pair can be moved left and right and rotated clockwise and counterclockwise 90°. Bigpuyos, however, change color rather than rotate, The pair drops until one puyo falls onto another puyo or the bottom of the screen, following the rules of gravity. The pair then breaks, so the other puyo(s) free fall until it(they) fall onto another puyo or the bottom of the screen.

Rensa

When four or more puyos of the same colour form together to create a group, whether vertical, horizontal, or in a Tetris-shaped piece for four puyos (not including diagonally, they must be adjacent to eachother either horizontally or vertically), these puyos erase and disappear. This is called a Rensa (Chain). Rensa can vary in size, groups, and steps. For example, the A pieces form groups in grids 1 and 2, but not 3:

When four or more puyos are connected in a group, they disappear. All puyos above those about to be cleared will then fall until they land onto other pieces or the bottom of the screen.

You can create combo chains in the same way. Either when more than four puyos form a group or more than one group is formed at one time (see Power Rensa). All the puyos in a "combo" are erased at the same time. For example, grid 4 has a 5 combo, grid 5 has two groups of 4 for an 8 combo, and grid 6 has 3 groups of 5 for a 15 combo:

Fluent Rensa (Step-Chain)

A Fluent Rensa is made when a single chain is formed after puyos fall into a space where a group was cleared, again following the gravity rule. After that group clears, if there are other puyos that link together, this then forms and erases, making the chain more powerful, making chains of length 3, 4, 5, and so on possible. For example, grid 7 will form a 2 chain, grid 8 will form a 3 chain, and grid 9 will form a 5 chain:

Fluent Rensa are the most common of chains. To do this, just pile colours on top of colours, adding an additional step to the overall chain. This is so simple to do that even beginners know how to do it. Single chains are fluent because they are quick, so be aware of that because single chains are good for dealing out some nuisance. As the chain grows bigger and becomes more fluent, more garbage is sent, and it gets smaller and smaller too. Fluent Chains are chains where everything runs smoothly. Of course, you could surprise yourself and get an extra step chain rather than just a few, but depending on how you build them does depend on what colours come and how you use them. Try and aim for the final steps to be the biggest in terms of using puyos, but keep them quick and sufficient enough to deal out quick attacks.

Power Rensa

A Power Rensa is such considered normally by players to be a mistake, though some players have used this to really apply pressure on the opponent. These are the strongest form of chains, and depending on how many different groups of puyos, of different sizes, depending on how far down the chain order they are grouped, contribute to the overall power of a chain. A standard power 2 chain can send around 15 garbage, whereas a standard power 7 chain can send around 200 additional garbage, as an example. Powerchaining has also been seen as a burden, in the sense that it negates the overall continuation of a fluent chain. If your devised 11 chain becomes a powered 8 chain, then you might be in for a beating. However, if the chains are similar by one step, then 99% of the time the powered chain will overpower the opponents, and quite commonly negate masses of damage to reasonable change.

Ojyama (Garbage)

Whenever a rensa is achieved, you send Ojyama's (Garbage, aka Nuisance Puyos) to the opponent. The bigger the Fluent Rensa is, or the bigger the Power Rensa is, determines how many ojyamas are sent to your opponent. Garbage in this game is determined by the overall score of the chain divided by 70 and rounded up to the nearest integer. For example:

1> Player A forms a group of 4 red puyos as a single chain.

2> The score card reads "40 x 1" (Simply by the following: (Puyo * 10) x (Puyo - 3) -> (4 * 10) x (4 - 3) -> 40 x 1).

3> 40 x 1 is the total score of the chain, so this is divided by 70, to give 0.571 (to 3.s.f)

4> This value is rounded up to the nearest integer, which is 1.

5> One ojyama will fall on the opponents grid.

If more puyos are erased in succession due to a Fluent Rensa, the amount of garbage will keep going up until the chain ends. For Power Rensa, even a 2 chain can deal as much damage as a standard fluent 3 chain.

Ojyama falls in rows. As single ojyamas, they fall randomly on the grid, however, as soon as 6 appear on the screen, they fall in a row. The maximum amount of ojyamas to fall in rows is 5 (meaning you can have a maximum of 30 ojyamas to fall at any time. For those that are loose, fall in a random fashion from the topmost row, leaving the even rows taking up 6 spaces). In theory, sending 72 garbage to your opponent is enough to fill their grid entirely.

Deciding Games

The Puyo Puyo grid is 6 puyos wide and 12 puyos high, giving you a grid space of 72 puyos. If the third column from the left is piled to the top (or in Puyo Puyo Fever, the third column to both the left and right respectively), then the game is over. Puyos can reach the top of the two end columns on either side without causing problems.

Game Modes

The main game of Puyo Puyo is played against at least one opponent, computer or human. The game itself has three modes, Single Puyo Puyo, Double Puyo Puyo, and Endless Puyo Puyo.

Single Puyo Puyo

In this game, you take on the role of Arle Nadja, a 16 year old female spellcaster that has the pleasure of foiling Satan's plans. Satan wishes to take over the world, and Arle stands in his way (as the games series develops, the plots get even more twisted). Arle must first however battle her way through 12 opponents before facing Satan, and unlike Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, with the exception of Rulue, they are not under Satan's control, nor were they created by him (for Rulue, she was brainwashed by Satan due to her own reasons). Once Arle has beaten Satan, the world is saved, so she can return home.

Double Puyo Puyo

In this mode, you play against a human player. In exactly the same fashion as before, you see who the stronger player is by outchaining one another. Many people complained that the rules of sending so much garbage made games short-lived, no matter how many chains you sent, so to make the game more interesting, in Puyo Puyo Tsu and onwards, Compile added the rule of Sousai. Sousai enables players to counter opponents attacks with chains of their own, sending any garbage back to them as a result of overflow.

Brief history

Puyo Puyo was originally released by Compile in 1991 for the MSX2 under the name Puyo Puyo. It was soon followed by a version for the Famicom Disk System called Puyo Puyo Disk Drive. Puyo Puyo featured characters from the 1989 RPG Madou Monogatari, also made by Compile. Puyos were enemy monsters in the Madou Monogatari game. They were the rough equivalent of the slime monsters from the Dragon Quest game series.

Puyo Puyo only really became popular when it was released as an arcade game by Sega in 1992. This was the first version that included a 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.

Many versions of Puyo Puyo have been released for many different systems, including MSX2, Super Famicom/SNES, Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Windows, Macintosh, Neo Geo Pocket, et al. However, most of these ports were only released in Japan. 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).

The most released version of Puyo Puyo to date is Puyo Puyo Tsu, that is said to have had 13 releases, one for each console, including a PC version and a remake. You can find Puyo Puyo Tsu for the following consoles below:
Puyo Puyo Tsu (Arcade)
Puyo Puyo Tsu (Megadrive)
Puyo Puyo Tsu (Game Gear)
Puyo Puyo Tsu (Saturn)
Puyo Puyo Tsu (PS1)
Puyo Puyo Tsu CD (TG16)
Super Puyo Puyo Tsu (SFC)
Pocket Puyo Puyo Tsu (GB)
Pocket Puyo Puyo Tsu (Wonderswan)
Puyo Pop (NeoGeo Pocket)
Super Puyo Puyo Tsu Remix (SFC)
Puyo Puyo Tsu Perfect Set (PS2)
Puyo Puyo Tsu (Win95/PC)

For Puyo Puyo however, Sega had hopes of releasing it outside of Japan, and, although they did, they had non Puyo names. The first was released in February 1993 under the name Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (for Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and Sega Game Gear). The second, which was released in the US one day after the Japanese release, followed 3 years later under the name Kirby's Avalanche for the SNES. Candy Crisis, was the first Puyo Puyo clone for the Macintosh, before Macpuyo 2 came out (which wasn't a version of Puyo Puyo Tsu). 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) 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 Puyo Fever (Puyo Pop Fever outside 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, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Playstation Portable, Mac OS X, Windows, PocketPC and Palm platforms, although only the DS and GameCube versions have been released in the US. The sequel to the game, Puyo Puyo Fever 2(Chuu !) 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 it'll be seen outside of Japan.

External links

Blobette, an online Java version of Puyo Puyo
Ponk, an online Java version of Puyo Puyo
Teepop - An open source Puyo Puyo clone
Hardcore Gaming 101 - Puyo Puyo - details the entirety of the series and all of its spinoffs
A Puyo Puyo fan website
A lot of Puyo Puyo tv spots - gameads.gamepressure.com

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