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Puyo Puyo, you say? Perhaps, but this translated version of the game is known around these
parts as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, an attempt of Sega's to broaden the game's
appeal by replacing cute anime chicks with robots (I don't know what kind of audience they were
targeting, but maybe it's better that way). Regardless, it's an intense puzzler in the vein of
Tetris and Columns, where you group four beans together to free them. It gets interesting when you
factor in chain reactions, which send a pile of refugee beans to your opponent's dungeon. This is
bad since you lose when your dungeon is filled, and it just tends screw up their chain reactions.
Although more of a competitive game than a single player block buster, the portable version adds a
fun Puzzle Mode diversion that gives you various tasks to pull off.
Rom Variations
Mean Bean Machine (North America/Europe) (1993)
Well, Robotnik's badniks have replaced Arle's adversaries here, but it's the same game,
lacking only a backdrop or two, but gaining a better sound score and a cool screen that tells you
the name of your next opponent. I guess we taught those Japanese a thing or two.
Puyo Puyo (Japan) (1993)
Odd, odd, odd. You can play this game in American/European mode and you get Puyo Puyo in its
full glory...except it's in English and called Puzlow Kids. And we all know that the English
version of the game is in fact Mean Bean Machine! My guess is that it was just a translated
edition that was created for the original release out of Japan until Sega of America decided to
pour it through the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog filter. In Japanese mode, it's Puyo Puyo
through and through, and then through again, damn it.
Related Roms
Nazo Puyo (Japan) (1993)
At first glance, one might pass this off as a stripped version of the game that only has the
Puzzle Mode (the "Quest Mode" in the language of Those Who Make Our VCRs). Look closer, however,
and...well, it's actually best not to think about it. In any case, it has a puzzle editor, which
is neat, and displays the current quest in three digits, which is scary. |
