Review #598: Puyo Puyo Tetris

 The biggest crossover event since Space Jam.

 You've heard of Tetris. You've played it too. If you said otherwise, you are lying. As for Puyo Puyo, you might've heard of it and you might have played it, although, maybe, under another title, such as Eggman's Mean Bean Machine. Regardless, someone at Sega thought that it'd be a great idea to mix both puzzle games. Was it? Maybe. But regardless of how you feel about the mixture you're free to play either game separately, so you're basically getting two games in one!

 There're a ton of different modes. The 'big one' being the Story mode, comprised of 14 acts and about 10 stages each. Honestly, the story is childish and dumb, I gave up on it midway through Act 2 and just skipped all the dialogue. Stages cover various different goals and objectives, like clearing certain amount of lines before scoring a certain amount of points, clearing a certain amount of lines under a time limit, defeating your opponent, etc. Some stages can be a bit tough, but it seems like the game takes it easy on you if you fail enough times. I might be wrong. There're VS Modes, against players or AIs, and do be warned, AIs in Versus mode are tough, there's Swap mode in which you battle a certain opponent alternating between Puyo Puyo and Tetris boards, Big Bang, in which you must solve how to clear pre-set structures with falling Puyos or Tetrominoes, Fusion mode, in which you dealth with Puyos and Tetrominoes at the same time, Party Mode, which adds power-ups and, lastly, endless versions of Tetris and Puyo Puyo, either against opponents or on your lonesome. Clearly, there are a lot of ways to play the game, and there are plenty of unlockables, like different skins for Puyos and Tetrominoes, to sweeten the deal.

 You know how Tetris plays, you just do, so I'll just skip over and talk about puyo puyo. Basically,  pairs of bubbles, which may or may not have the same color, drop from above and you can spin them to either let'em down horizontally or vertically. Every time four or more of them touch they 'pop' and you score points. Obviously, in order to score the most points you should try to aim for chains, so that when some Puyos clear, the ones that fall pop other Puyos. As for the mixed mode, the game alternates between pushing Puyos and Tetrominoes. You can't make lines with Puyos and Tetrominoes, but Tetrominoes push Puyos out of their way... which somehow means that the puyos end up being on top of whichever piece you just dropped.

 I'm not the biggest fan of puzzle games, but Puyo Puyo Tetris was a great way to get my fix of Tetris. I suck at Puyo Puyo, and don't care much for it, so I didn't enjoy the mixed modes as much, but hey, I'm sure that fans of both games will get their kicks out of it. The multiple skins, or looks, for the pieces add a nice touch of variety, and there's a meaty offering of modes for those that just can't get enough of either game. As for me? I'm just fine enjoying the Endurance Tetris Mode!
 8.0 out of 10.