Puyo Pop

Puyo Pop (called Puyo Puyo in Japan, its country of origin) is a non-tetromino falling block puzzle game franchise. It was originally conceived by Masamitsu Niitani, drawing heavily from Dr. Mario, and developed by Compile Corporation, which later folded. American localizations on 16-bit era consoles, such as Kirby's Avalanche and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, replaced the original cut-scene characters with those from other franchises. Sega currently owns the rights and continues the series on major video game console and mobile platforms.

The game was a hit in Japan, with one of the first falling blocks game to heavily emphasize characters and storylines, and putting versus play as the default instead of solo play. Even in the default single player mode, the player is pitted against computer-controlled opponents. The characters and the general story universe of the original game were borrowed from Madou Monogatari, an RPG that was one of Compile's previous games. Each character has its own unique traits, including different tactics taken when controlled by the computer.

Gameplay
Colored pieces, represented in the game as jelly-like creatures called Puyo, fall into a 6x12 block playfield. (The name may be different in cases where the developer replaced the original characters with ones from a different franchise.) Each piece consists of several Puyos, each colored in one out of three to five colors. In games before Puyo Pop Fever, only pieces consisting of 2 Puyos (dominoes) were used, but in Puyo Pop Fever and later, larger pieces which are made of 3 or 4 Puyos are also used. Such pieces always consist of a single color or two colors, with the colors adjacently placed when in two colors. The 3-Puyo piece is always the L tromino and the 4-Puyo piece is always the O tetromino. The order in the number of Puyos in pieces that get dealt to the player has a fixed sequence, which differs depending on the character the player chooses.

The player can move the piece sideways or downward, and/or rotate them. When the piece is made of 2 Puyos, the "secondary" Puyo rotates about the highlighted "primary" Puyo. The 4-Puyo piece does not rotate, but changes its color when the rotate button is pressed. Pieces that land break up into individual Puyos and then form groups of horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally, adjacent Puyos of matching color.

Four or more Puyos in a group explode, and any Puyos above them disconnect, fall, and reconnect. Puyos can be set up so that when one group clears, it causes other Puyos to fall and form another group. In versus matches, every time the player clears Puyos, a certain amount of transparent garbage Puyos are sent to the opponent. These must be destroyed by clearing other Puyos adjacent to them. Making chain reactions with multiple groups of Puyos sends larger amounts of garbage Puyos to the opponent.

Sticky Tetris, the primary game mode in The Next Tetris and one of the modes of Tetris Worlds, borrows this play mechanic of removing groups.

Details

 * One or two piece preview depending on version.
 * ARE is present. The piece that locks jiggles up and down a couple times, and the next domino slides from the preview to the top.
 * DAS is fast.
 * Lock delay appears to reset only on piece entry.
 * Top out when column 3 is filled, or in Puyo Pop Fever when column 3 or 4 is filled.
 * In newer products, two consecutive failed wall kicks result in double rotation, moving the secondary block 180 degrees about the primary block.

The following analysis of domino rotation, including wall kick and floor kick rules, applies to Puyo Pop for Game Boy Advance. The primary block is labeled ; the secondary block is labeled. In this game, if a space is empty, the space above it is guaranteed to be empty.

R->U (L->U symmetric)

R->D (L->D symmetric)

D->R (D->L, U->R, U->L symmetric)

So the overriding rule is that if a kick is required, try pushing the piece straight away from the wall or floor, so that the secondary Puyo occupies the space that the primary Puyo occupied.

Further research is needed to determine the additional rules that Puyo Pop Fever uses for 3-Puyo pieces.

Fan games

 * KFoulEggs