Review by Matthew Hamilton

After finding virtually nothing on the web regarding this superb game, I present my humble opinion here so that others may know the joy that is Puyo Puyo.

If you are a fan of the Puyo Puyo family of games, you will know what to expect. If you have never played one, you should probably take a look - Puyo Puyo, imported variously as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Timon and Pumba's Bug Drop, and several other odd titles, has stood the test of several years and has spanned many different platforms. A shameless Tetris variant, it has improved upon the basic Tetris concept, added the classic japanese cute-ness and whole new dimension of two-player gaming.

Colored blobs (Puyo's? My Japanese is not good) fall into the shaft of the game-field where you must, in true tetris style, link them them up in fours (in any direction or lumped together) to make them pop and dissapear. When they go, they fly up to the top of the other player's shaft ready to dump on his side.

Puyo Puyo Sun's innovation over previous Puyo Puyo games is the addition of Sun Puyo's that drop down, and then when cleared, flying up to the other side and dumping a nasty fireball and some more rocks onto the other player. The game can be played in a RPG type manner, moving from opponent to opponent accross a Super Mario World-like map screen, or by two players that can either chose characters from the game or play a straight VS game on various playfields.

The game has a great anime intro, although the resolution of the Cinepak video isn't great, it's still a nice touch. The music is superior example of catchy japanese pop and really enhances gameplay. The SFX and Voice Samples are hilarious and really add to the overall experience. When an attack hits, the characters scream in surprise and dismay -- very satisfying.

All in all, Puyo Puyo Sun is a fantastic game - it has the graphic appeal of Baku Baku Animal and Super Puzzle Figher, but surpasses them both in gameplay. The game uses the Saturn's superior hardware to its fullest, there is never a graphic slow-down (in fact the game gets very fast at times) and control resonse is perfect.

If you have a Universal Cart (or a Japanese Saturn) you owe it to yourself to check this out (if you don't have a universal cart, buy one). It is a crime that games like this often never reach the US.

Bottom Line: If you love puzzle games, buy this today. If you haven't seen a puzzle game, buy this one. If you hate puzzle games, well then maybe this isn't for you.