Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Sega Ages: Puyo Puyo 2’
It’s not often that Puyo Puyo gets recognition as its own franchise here in the West. Often taking other forms such as Kirby’s Avalanche and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, it wasn’t until recently that it was embraced for the weird Japanese puzzle game it is. Thanks to Sega Ages, Puyo Puyo 2 is here for the Switch. This arcade port of what many feel is the best game in the series might be a little too faithful to its original release, but makes up for it with some modern additions that work with varying results.
For those who are deeply invested in the plots of their puzzle games, Puyo Puyo 2 puts you in control of Arle, who is tasked with climbing a tower filled with a variety of demons in a quest to take down Satan himself. There might have been more going on, but I wouldn’t know. The in game text is untranslated, so unless you can read Japanese, be prepared to mash the A button whenever text pops up.
How does Arle hope to do take down the ultimate evil? Through the power of Puyo! Best described as a cross between Tetris and Nintendo’s Puzzle League series, two multicolored interlocked blobs descend from the top of the screen. Rotating them in certain positions allows you to stack them in ways to set up combos that builds up hard to break trash blocks to send to your opponent’s field. When thee or more Puyos of the same color connect, they disappear, destroying adjacent trash and collapsing anything on top of them. The name of the game is to create large combos to flood your opponent to the point where they can’t respond. Fill up their new block spawn zone and you’ll send them packing.
Each stage consists of multiple opponents, where a roulette selects one at random. Arle builds up points depending on performance with a certain goal in place. If she reaches it before all the opponents are defeated, she’ll skip them and move on to a new set. If not, she’ll come face to face with a boss once everyone else is gone. If she STILL hasn’t gotten the points, it’s a game over.
Sound cheap? Believe me, it is. This game constantly reminds us that it was originally an arcade game, with lightning fast AI, the EXP mechanic and trash that always happens to find that one spot to fall that will screw up that big combo you’ve been building up towards. And that’s in the early stages. This game is punishing and you will die A LOT! It was designed to eat your quarters and it shows.
Alongside the standard mode are the marathon and time reverse modes, with the former putting you against the entire enemy roster as opposed to having an EXP requirement to bypass a stage. The latter can be used in any single player mode and allows you to rewind to previous turns and correct mistakes. The biggest new feature however, is its online mode, which pits two players against each other with various settings. The options are appreciated, but each of my games were noticeably laggy. In a game where fast reaction time is vital, it makes its potentially best feature moot.
Ultimately, it’s tough to recommend Puyo Puyo 2. It’s a perfectly acceptable port, but its insane difficulty serves as a reminder of how arcade games were essentially microtransactions before the term was around. The untranslated story makes it hard to get invested in the campaign and the side modes don’t do much to extend the game’s life. Local multiplayer is where this game really shines, but playing online is hurt greatly by lag issues that kill a fast paced game like this. At its core, it’s a great game. There’s a reason why the series has endured for three decades. Thankfully, that means there are three decades of games that play much better and are more worth your time. But when it comes to Puyo Puyo 2, while the good narrowly outweighs the bad, its supplemental modes ultimately let it down.
Final Score: 3/5
