Puyo Puyo Tetris is the first localized Puyo Puyo game to come West since Puyo Pop Fever and the first Tetris game to come from SEGA since 2006. Notably, Puyo Puyo Tetris is a port of the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation 3 game of the same name which came out in Japan all the way back in 2014. Frankly, we should be glad we’re seeing it at all here. The fact that it’s actually a great puzzle game is just icing on the cake. This is our Puyo Puyo Tetris review.
PPT (it’s just easier to type that) is a true mashup of the two titular games. There’s even a ridiculous but cute anime-inspired adventure mode for single player that tells the story of how and why these two worlds collide in Puyo Puyo Tetris. It’s goofy, Saturday Morning cartoon style stuff, but it helps to give you challenges and earn credits which you can use to unlock special cosmetic items for play.
Puyo Puyo Tetris is basically a Greatest Hits of both games. There’s not a mode that goes unrepresented, and each of them are a blast to play. Like all competitive puzzlers, this game is best played with friends. Thankfully, on the Switch (where we reviewed it), it comes with online competitive play, local 4 player play, and local wireless play if several Switches are available.
My wife, an admitted non-gamer, loves this one and spent the better part of the weekend playing with me. Puyo Puyo isn’t her forte, but having so many choices for Tetris pretty much kept her busy. I came back from getting our son down for a nap to find her with the controller in hand playing Marathon Tetris mode complete with the classic music. I swear I nearly shed a tear.
The other more experimental game modes are the most exciting though. Fusion is unique in that both Tetriminos and Puyos can drop on the field at any time. It’s hard as hell to get your brain to switch between the two, and even harder to make good matches, but it makes for a hilarious multiplayer match. Swap is another cool one, because you choose either Puyo or Tetris at the beginning of a match, and after a time the field swaps from Puyo to Tetris. It’s a little less hectic than having both types of pieces on a board at once, but it works well.
But probably the most fun for local multiplayer is Party mode – here various items drop into the boards, and give special effects like hindering opponents, increasing your score, or blowing up blocks and rows. If a board tops out, it’s not game over, rather the opponent’s board gets a bonus and the topped out player has to start fresh without the bonus. When the set time runs out, the higher score wins. Even my son, who’s 4, was getting in on the action taunting me as my wife kicked my butt.
Final Puyo Puyo Tetris Review Thoughts
When it comes down to it, Puyo Puyo Tetris won’t sell Switches or PS4s. But to me, Tetris is as “Nintendo” as any Mario or Zelda entry. I grew up with this addicting puzzle game, and fell in love with Puyo Puyo on the Dreamcast. To have essentially two complete versions of those puzzlers and their mash-up modes complete in one package is fantastic.
If you’re at all a fan of either game, or if you want your family to have something they can play easily together – there’s no doubt you should look into Puyo Puyo Tetris. I’m a little miffed that the physical version on Switch costs $40 when the digital versions are $30, so keep that in mind. Puyo Puyo Tetris is the first Tetris (and Puyo Puyo) game in ages that feels worth a purchase, and it’s recommended for any Switch owner looking to diversify their game catalog.
NOTE: This Review was written using a pre-release code provided by SEGA.
