- "Use Connected chains to Pop the "Puyo" and Defeat the "Castle of Evil"! The Definitive Puzzle Game Come to NEO GEO POCKET COLOR!"
- -Tagline
Puyo Puyo 2 (ぷよぷよ通), released in North America and Europe as Puyo Pop, is a puzzle game in the Puyo Puyo series on the Neo Geo Pocket Color.
Gameplay[]
Puyo Puyo is a series of competitive vs. puzzle games, somewhat similar to the Tetris series. The game is set on a 6x12 board, where colored blobs known as Puyos will fall from the top of the screen and can be rotated before being placed down. The Puyos can be popped by matching four and more of the same color next to each other. By carefully arranging the Puyos, players can perform a Chain Combo, in which additional Puyos are matched and popped as they fall into place, earning more points as a result. When a Chain is achieved, Nuisance Puyos are sent to either clog the opponent's screen. Nuisance Puyos are translucent pieces that disappear when Puyo are popped next to them. If multiple groups of Puyo are cleared in succession due to a chain, the amount of Nuisance Puyos will increase based solely on the number of steps in the chain. Nuisance Puyos are cached above the opponent's playing field, and do not fall until the attacker's chain concludes, and then the defender puts down a piece. Garbage Puyo block the opponents' playing fields, and can cause them to lose if one is placed the third spot from the left in the top row.
In Puyo Puyo 2, a variety of new mechanics were added. The most prominent new gameplay mechanic is the Offset rule; when a player has Nuisance Puyo above their field, creating a chain will reduce the number of waiting Nuisance Puyo instead of sending garbage to the opponent. Puyo Puyo 2 also introduces "margin time", a mechanic that, after a certain amount of time passes, steadily multiplies the number of Nuisance Puyo that are sent per chain. Finall,y, the "All Clear" rule, obtained by clearing every single Puyo on the field, gives the player a Nuisance bonus on their next chain.
In addition, the game introduces "double rotation." In the first game, if the player has control of a pair that is caught between two filled columns of Puyo, they cannot rotate the pair at all. If the player is in an identical situation in Tsu, however, they can flip the pair 180 degrees by pressing a rotation button twice. Finally, Puyo Puyo 2 adds "Rule Henka." When activated via the service/option menu, it changes the Nuisance Puyo in the single player game to Hard Puyo and/or Point Puyo.
Trivia[]
- The game's original Japanese title is a pun based on the similarity between the pronunciation of the Kanji tsu (meaning "expert") and the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "two."
- Unlike previous English translated Puyo Puyo games at the time of its release, the NGPC Puyo Pop retains both the character designs and (almost) all of the character names from the Japanese version.
- Satan, the main antagonist of Puyo Puyo, is renamed as Dark Prince, much like the English translation of the first game.