Soon after Tetris came out in 1988, (creating the first wide spread successful puzzle game when it was packed in with the Game Boy in 1989), a company called Compile created Puyo Puyo. The first official Puyo Puyo game was released in 1991 for the MSX2 and Famicom Disk Drive, however there were roots of it in the RPG, 'Madou Monogatari' released in 1989 for the MSX2 gaming console in Japan. Soon after that, it seems that all hell broke loose as Puyo Puyo is one of the most ported games in Japan, however, in the US we have been deprived of official Puyo games for quite some time, and that time is over.

I know I know, you're going to bring up the 1993 release of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Genesis and Game Gear, which basically was a Puyo Puyo game but with Sonic the Hedgehog and friends instead of Carbunkle and the gang. The same can be said for Kirby's Avalanche released on the SNES in 1995, which was Puyo Puyo with Kirby and pals. Of course lucky Neo Geo Pocket Color owners were treated to the first official Puyo Puyo game, Puyo Pop, but seriously, how many people owned a NGPC and how many of those people bought Puyo Pop?

Fast forward a few years to the release and explosive success of Nintendo's follow-up to the aging 8-bit Game Boy hardware, the Game Boy Advance. Thankfully, after initial doubt, Sega and THQ decided to localize Puyo Pop for the US. Now, the masses have their first official crack at Puyo Puyo, with the release of Puyo Pop from the Sega/THQ distribution combo.

The basic gameplay in Puyo Pop is that perfect mix of simplicity and strategy that so precious few puzzle games can actually hit. Puyos are little colorful blobs that fall from the sky in pairs and stick together with like colored puyos. The object is simple, rotate the puyo so that they match up four or more of the same colored puyos in a group, eliminating them from the playing field. You can line them up horizontally and vertically, even in a step fashion, but not diagonally. You can even set up chain reactions for huge combo points.

Sure, Puyo Pop has an Endless Puyo mode like Tetris, where you are just playing to break your high score. Unlike Tetris where this is the mode to play, in Puyo Pop, I consider it to be more of a practice mode. Puyo Pop is more of a competitive puzzle game, pitting your skills against the computer in a lengthy story mode. The story mode (and I'll use that term loosely), throws you into the world of battling people in Puyo Puyo matches in order to proceed further to the next opponent. The story mode features some of the oddest text you are sure to read in any localized game and provides an extra bonus layer of enjoyment that you wouldn't normally receive in a game like this.

The gameplay in the battle matches are really where the game shines. Simply clearing out four puyo only at a time is the fastest way to lose. You absolutely need to think ahead and set up your puyo in order to create multiple chain reactions. When you create combos and chains, you send 'garbage' puyo onto your opponent's playing field. These colorless puyo interfere with your normal gameplay, since they can only be removed by setting off a link or chain around them. Garbage puyo can literally kill your chain set-ups and ruin your whole game if you are not careful. The key to handling the garbage puyo is to counter them. When you or your opponent set off a chain, the garbage puyo hang across the top of the play field for a few moments while an alarm sounds, warning you of impending gloom. If you set off some chains and combos of your own during that time, you can lessen the impact of or even completely negate the garbage puyo attack.

Puyo Pop works so well since the complexity and simplicity are in perfect check. It features a little more strategy than Tetris but doesn't overwhelm the player in overly complicated gameplay or a muddled interface. Gameplay is smooth and simple, yet highly rewarding and frantic. It is easily my favorite puzzle game and a must for anyone who played hours and hours of Tetris. This is a perfect portable puzzle game, wrapped up in a lighthearted and very quirky package. I'm happy to see the game in it's true form over here for once. My last Puyo game was Puyo Puyo Sun for the Game Boy Color. While the game was extremely playable, it's just nice to be able to follow along with the story... well... sort of.