The original Puyo Puyo Tetris was one of those strange combinations that didn't seem like it would work but was actually surprisingly moreish, sort of like whoever came up with the idea of cola chicken: a mad idea, without a doubt, but the results speak for themselves. Now Puyo Puyo Tetris has returned, and while at first glance it doesn't appear to have changed too much, there are at least a couple of new modes in here that should give fans something new to do, even if the initial surprise factor is now gone.
Much like its predecessor, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 combines Sega’s Puyo Puyo series with The Tetris Company’s… um, Tetris. Players can choose to play either mode in solo play, or can combine them both in the strange Fusion mode, where both Puyos and Tetriminos drop into your playing area at the same time. Rest assured, if you have a preference for either of the two puzzle series and don’t really get along with the other, there are plenty of options here that will allow you to stick to your brand of choice. Well, for the most part.

The main heart of the game for solo players, as in the original, is the Adventure mode. Just like before, Adventure is a lengthy story mode where a variety of strange and eccentric characters get involved in a bizarre plot about the worlds of Puyo Puyo and Tetris colliding. Most of the characters from the original game’s Adventure mode return for the sequel and, after an adjustment period – many of them have forgotten the events of the first game and have to re-introduce themselves to characters they previously met – it’s full speed ahead again.
The first game’s Adventure mode had some genuinely hilarious dialogue, and this sequel is no different. Each of the many characters has their own quirky personality and the localisation has been handled masterfully, to the extent that even if you’re not one for storylines in your puzzle games you’ll still struggle to skip the cutscenes because you’re having too much fun with them: not necessarily in finding out what happens next, but how the characters react to each revelation in their own endearing way.
One potential issue that carries over from the first game’s Adventure mode, however, is that a number of stages require you to specifically play either Puyo Puyo or Tetris in order to proceed. If you really aren't a fan of one of them – or you’re great at one but hopeless at the other – you don’t really have much of an option. If you want to progress in Adventure, you’re going to have to learn to play each game to at least a standard that will let you beat a CPU opponent, never mind doing so convincingly enough that you’ll get three stars and clear a stage fully. If you can’t get along with Puyo Puyo, for example, you’re snookered almost right away because the first few stages force you to play it.

Of course, nothing we've told you up to this point is news to anyone who’s already played the first game. All the positives and negatives we’ve already discussed were very much present in the original Puyo Puyo Tetris, and you’d therefore be forgiven for wondering what exactly is new here. Well, the main new battle type, which is incorporated in the Adventure mode and can also be played locally or online, is called Skill Battle. This is a two-player battle mode in which each player puts together a team of three characters and takes part in a battle that has very mild RPG elements to it.
In Skill Battle, both you and your opponent have an HP meter. As you clear Puyos or lines, you’ll inflict damage on your opponent and lower their HP, while restoring some of your own. Naturally, if you can reduce your opponent’s HP to zero, then you win the battle. Winning Skill Battle matches will level up your team’s characters, which in turn increases the amount of HP you have, the amount of damage you do to your opponents, how well you defend their attacks, and so on. You can also collect cards that can be equipped to boost these stats.

The central mechanic in Skill Battles, however, is the skills (the clue’s in the name, you see). Each member of your team has a certain skill that can be triggered with the press of a button (assuming you have enough MP to do so). Clever use of these can be helpful when you need to get out of a tight jam: Tetris players can use the Assemble skill, for example, to shuffle your blocks together and remove any gaps you’ve made, while Puyo Puyo players may have the Change All skill, which turns entire rows of Puyos into the same colour.
Skill Battle is an interesting way to try and add more depth and strategy to Tetris and Puyo Puyo battling, but it also risks complicating what had already become a slightly complicated formula. Both games – Tetris in particular – became famous worldwide for their simplicity, and combining them removed some of that simplicity: granted, it still worked, but the barrier of entry rose a little. Add teams and skill moves and cards and levelling up and all those shenanigans on top of it, and you’ve got a game that, while still entertaining, can no longer claim to have a straightforward ‘pick up and play’ nature.

Once you’ve decided that you're good enough to take on the rest of the world, you can head online where there are a wealth of options available to you. As well as a Free Play section where you can create your own lobby and tweak the various settings to your own personal preferences, there’s also a ranked Puzzle League mode which is split into four separate ‘leagues’: the main Puzzle League (where you play with both Puyo Puyo and Tetris pieces), a Puyo Puyo League, a Tetris League and the Skill Battle League.
These separate leagues are especially welcome to players who don't want to entertain the prospect of playing both types of game. This reviewer, for example, has been an enormous Tetris fan for over three decades but could never really get into Puyo Puyo. In this situation, then, the Tetris League is extremely appealing. That is, it will be once people are actually online: the joys of a worldwide release date mean we couldn’t find a single match online during our pre-release review period. Based on the previous game’s online community, however, we have no doubt whatsoever that once the game launches, it won't be difficult to find a game and when you do – if it’s anything like its predecessor – it should be extremely stable.

Your mileage with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 really depends on what your mileage was with the first game. If you played that extensively and are hoping that the sequel offers something similarly revolutionary to reignite your interest, you may be left slightly wanting. The new Adventure mode is clearly the biggest draw for solo players, delivering another entertaining story with the new Skill Battles adding a welcome layer of depth to proceedings. That said, the Skill Battles alone may not be enough to justify spending £34.99 / $39.99 on this sequel if you're already perfectly happy with the first. Make no mistake, this sequel is still great – it just isn’t wildly different.
Meanwhile, if the original Puyo Puyo Tetris passed you by for whatever reason but this one has caught your eye, the handful of new modes added here essentially make the original redundant. As such, this is the version you should be going for.
Conclusion
Puyo Puyo 2 could never have hoped to have the same impact as the first game did, but it remains a brilliant puzzle title nevertheless. While some may feel it's not quite different enough from its predecessor, the new single-player story is just as entertaining as the last one, and the Skill Battle mode adds interesting mechanics to the mix. It's still absolutely packed with content; it's just that the first game was too, so the impact is lessened slightly.
Comments 46
In before the comments pointing out your great chemical brothers reference in the tagline
I'll get it after I get the first (also First crap 20 seconds late)
Just started playing about an hour or so ago. I wasn't sure it would be worth picking up when I already have the first game but I convinced myself that it was worth it to get it digitally so that I can stop carrying around my cartridge of the first game and always have it there instead. I'm quite good at Tetris and pretty terrible at Puyo Puyo but if the story mode is similar in difficulty to the first game then I shouldn't have any problems as I was able to get 3 stars on everything in that without too much trouble.
So it's Puyo Puyo Tetris again.
I mean I'm not complaining
I really enjoyed the first game...but not seeing much reason to get this. Maybe when it hits a sale...
Also, I enjoyed the story mode...but not the story. So the first joy here is actually a con.
A bit pricey but I'll get it eventually. I like that the adventure has both elements as it adds challenge and really knowing both games for a puzzle fan is pretty essential anyways.
Sort of what I feared for this title when it was announced... I will probably pick it up when it is cheaper. If you haven't played the first one, then by all means, get this one.
Could have been a dlc for the first game to be honest, but it wouldn't sell as much to have dlc so much later I guess so they made another game.
It's a great game I'm sure, but a tough sell for someone like me who owns the original.
I haven't played the first one and after watching the review and having some interest already I'm going for it.
Definitely a wait for a sale kinda game. But I encourage those who don't have the first game to take the plunge. I like the rationalization above to get this game digitally since I have a cart.
Didn't get a chance to play the first one, and the price dropped to $33US yesterday on Amazon, so I picked this up quick. Excited to play it!
The first world in adventure mode is really tedious to get 3-4 stars on due to the CPU being awful and losing too quickly but hopefully that's just an early game problem. The first Skill Battle was horrible as you need to score 7,000 points but any sort of decent combo just instantly drops the opponent's HP to 0. I'm not going enough at Puyo Puyo to set up 7,000+ point combos so I had to slowly get to 7,000 points in Tetris by scoring only single lines and avoiding any chains. Not exactly the most intuitive way to play.
@rockodoodle @BenAV The first one was nice because it launched for a lower eShop price ($30). The physical game came with a bonus keychain (or two), but was $40.
Looks like the new game is $40 either way. Too bad. EShop games really should be cheaper than physical games.
More than good enough for me as a fan of the original. My youngest enjoyed it as well.
@Tandy255 Here in Australia it's $59.95 retail and $54.99 on the eShop so it actually is a tad cheaper digitally here for some reason. Factoring in sales I could have gotten it physically for $49 though if I wanted.
@Tandy255 I ended up somehow getting it on Amazon for $25, plus key chain very close or maybe at launch. But yeah, this is a cash grab for sure. I understand why with all the Switches sold, probably a good business decision especially during the holidays. Hope it does well bc the company is apparently struggling, no?
Puyo Puyo Legacy Edition
My biggest disappointment with this game is that they didn't add local splitscreen for online play. My wife and I miss playing local splitscreen competitions with our friends due to the pandemic. It would be great if my wife and I could play splitscreen on our Switch against my friend and his wife on their Switch in an online lobby. But it's not there. It's nice having it as an option, (heck, even Nintendo has it available in MK8)
Sounds good to me as a big fan of the first game, can’t wait for tomorrow.
They really should have opted for a dramatically different art style, because this looks like the exact same game as the original.
@Silly_G they aren't EA they knew they wouldn't be punished for their laziness!
@sixrings : EA gets slaughtered for FIFA 21 (which I wager would have taken more effort to make than this, due to new character models/uniforms/stadiums etc.), while this is praised to high heaven even though the most substantial addition is perhaps new strings of text pertaining to an inane and incomprehensible story that nobody really cares about.
I did get a lot of mileage from the first game (as I love Tetris), so I am still tempted to pick this up (though it would be overkill as my THIRD Tetris game on Switch), but it certainly doesn't deserve the glowing reviews that it has been receiving either, especially when it looks virtually indistinguishable from the first game.
@Silly_G I'm glad there's at least one objective person on this site.
I'll admit that Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 looks "similar" to the first game, the addition of Skill Battle (which replaces most of Adventure Mode, thankfully) and Japanese voices option (among other things) is more than enough for me to preorder this game. This game seems to be one of the few instances, where the wheel doesn't need reinventing.
Can't wait for tomorrow
I think I will buy this at some time later But I do wonder what ever happend to that demo?
I feel like this should have just been an update or some dlc, not a full blown title.
@StephenYap3 : Are you sure about there being Japanese voice options? (I haven't played the demo) If that is confirmed, then that definitely makes this a more compelling proposition, but like the first game, the Japanese and Western releases were separate units of software (Japanese only on the Japanese cartridge and only Western languages on the Western cartridge).
I hated the voiceovers in the Western release, so much so that I was seriously considering importing the Japanese release at one point as I was won over by the performances in the Japanese demo.
@Ironcore : Rather than taking the DLC route with titles such as these, I think that there should at least be a substantial discount afforded to those who have downloaded the previous game.
@Sahnec Nice one!! I didn't pick up that reference.
Mr Scullion, with your Chemical Brothers references you are truly spoiling us.
I might get this at $10 or less. Have the first game and turn the sound off because the voice acting and lines are pretty annoying, but gameplay is solid. Need to convince myself to give the Skill Battles a proper try in the demo, but I should have plenty of time before the price drops that much.
@Silly_G The demo I've downloaded from JP eShop is english text with Japanese voices, so...yeah. There are Japanese voices.
...which is good because while I never had much of a problem with the English dub, the Japanese voices are better, in my opinion.
Love the original, but I started skipping the peppy storyline cutscenes since they were a bit obnoxious for me personally. The campaign has great challenges & multiplayer is awesome
@Snatcher yeah, I thought there was meant to be a demo in the NA eShop, but keep checking and it's not live.
@shazbot I might have to get a jp nintendo account to try it suck.
I've been waiting for the original one to become cheap, and it never did. I was perfectly satisfied playing the demo. I'll probably do the same here. When I say "cheap", I don't regard 50% of an overpriced game as "cheap". That's the best PPT1 ever was.
@mattesdude Wow, I never noticed that clever pun...
This looks pretty much exactly the same as the first one.
I will wait for a sale
I'll see if it goes on sale, I liked the original, definitely have to get better at Puyo Puyo, that was my biggest wall with the original, I'm great at Tetris, but awful at Puyo Puyo.
@Silly_G Defo, i thought I wrote that, I did write that somewhere though.
I've caved and bought it.
It does feel like it's been made from scratch using a new engine (but with a lot assets borrowed, if not redone for the new-gen systems).
Certain aspects of the game seem to run more smoothly as they seem to have made the game with the Switch (and the other platforms) in mind, while the first game was a last-gen port (released on Wii U/PS3/360/3DS in Japan).
It is perhaps one of the most superfluous sequels that I have ever bought, and I even tried to get 3 stars in a few of the stages of the first game last night that I had yet to master (all Puyo Puyo stages, naturally). I had failed miserably, of course, as my teeny brain can't quite grasp how to master the art of executing Puyo Puyo combos. And it will still take a long time before I will ever unlock everything (if ever), but fortunately the unlock cost is a lot more reasonable in this sequel, and there seems to be a lot more content (with a HUGE cast of characters).
I don't think that I will play this as extensively as the first game as there is so much more to play on Switch, but I doubt that I will regret having bought this either, but those who have passed on the first game have no reason to go back and pick that up.
What happened to the co op raids they promised? I've been looking for it and I can't find it anywhere.
Yea there’s no doubt this is great just $40 is a bit steeply priced!
It is on sale for $10…. Probably worth it for this price….
Color blind person here:
Just wanted to say I love how they've went the extra mile here and added shading and the 3 main color blind types in.
It's so cool finally not having problems with seperating the purple, blue, yellow and green ones!
(The last minute in Jon's video is hilarious. Just 15 puyos that are all the same color but won't go down! No wonder this game confused me as a kid! )
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