Puyo Puyo, the other popular franchise of block-falling-down puzzle games.
It's the other popular franchise, the most popular one is of course Tetris. I have only played ye olde Tetris before all the crazy spins were added, but I never had the urge to plan far ahead while playing Tetris. With Puyo Puyo though, the only way to win is to have long chains, which can only come with some level of planning that involves filling the 6x12 grid closer to the brim than I usually do with Tetris. Puyo Puyo just felt like a deeper game from the very beginning. Also, Tetris blocks are just blocks, but each individual puyo had a different face to them. Puyo Puyo is a deeper game with a personality.
Puyo Puyo is the first game I managed to complete on the Genesis Mini. Despite all the talk about long chains, the way I won against all the AI opponents was by pure perseverance while making relatively short chains. Partly it's because it's harder to make chains with the Genesis version is since it comes with 5 colors, instead of standard 4 that is prevalent in later versions of Puyo Puyo. Mostly it's because I am just not very good with games in general. I thought it was totally worth the time to try to get better at Puyo Puyo though, so I persisted, and won.
The ending was exactly as pointless as all the story up until then, but in this way it had a charm that reminds me of the best of 90s, and that is the very reason for playing these retro games today. I can go through the hassle of installing and running a more modern version of Puyo Puyo, but I prefer the pure, simple, classic, and pixelated experience from this Puyo Puyo.
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