Second game (following Oblivion) in my USPS Straight Losin' My Shit series. At least this time my neighbor actually returned it to me. On the other hand, USPS smashed the front of the jewel case in during transit. You win some you lose some.

Puyo Puyo Sun is the third mainline Puyo Puyo game, and probably the fastest paced entry I've ever played. I did a single run through the story mode, which of course is all in Japanese so I have nothing substantive to say about its story. Great looking sprites, though. The cutscenes are weird and very charming, even if I might not know what the hell is going on. I am also way into the Summertime aesthetic, and I'm kicking myself for playing this while it's rainy and dreary out, because it's a very strong contender for my list of Summah Games

As far as the gameplay, though, I kind of don't know what to make of Sun. The drop speed of Puyos does not change the further you progress, and I didn't observe my opponents playing more strategically over the course of the story mode either. The difficulty largely remained static, and I feel like a lot of matches were won through sheer dumb luck. Sometimes I'd find junk being dropped down in my well in the precise areas I needed to clear in order to execute combos, and junk accumulation happens very quickly, which meant that I rarely had the opportunity to run a match back. If you start to see junk Puyos at the top of your screen, you need to start clearing anything you can or you'll be swiftly buried. However, the reverse is also possible, and I had just as many matches where I executed what I thought to be a very minor combo only to have my opponent struggling at the top of their well maybe ten or fifteen seconds later. Most matches were done and over with in about 25-40 seconds, so if you're looking for a Puyo game with some really good exchanges between you and your opponent, this ain't it.

Or maybe it is, I don't know! It's sometimes hard to get a feel for all the nuances of a puzzle game without another human player to learn against. Considering the one friend I have around here who I could theoretically loop into playing a multiplayer Saturn game has such an aversion to Puyo he couldn't even beat the Chemical Plant boss in Sonic Mania and quit the game (which he paid full price for), it's unlikely to happen. Maybe I'll mess around in the menus at some point and see if I can't milk a little bit more out of this one, but as it stands, I think this lands pretty low on my ranking of Puyo Puyo games.

My main experience with Puyo Puyo is Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine – a game I couldn’t enjoy because of colourblind issues, so I was dreading playing this one. However, in the options, you can adjust the colours of the different Puyo, even going as far as completely greyscale and relying on the (a bit too minor when the game goes fast) different shapes completely.

With the options set to how I like them…I actually really enjoy Puyo Puyo. It’s geared towards a 1v1 setup, as creating sets of four will send bad beans to the opponent’s screen – but if you score combos, you’ll send a load at once. This creates a risk factor as you can try to set up elaborate combos (something I’m not good at) but wait too long, and your opponents will scupper your plans with some bad blocks.

The story mode has you battling lots of colourful characters as you get amusing little snippets before each match, with some nice animation. It’s all very silly, but also quite entertaining, with lots of unfortunate events happening to absolutely everyone. Of course, every problem in life can be solved by a Puyo Puyo battle.

There’s also a good amount of different modes. Puzzle Puyo is essentially a training mode, giving you a guide to help you set up combos, and you can then test out these skills in a mission mode, which gives you tasks but you have to figure it out yourself. There are also endless, tournament and versus modes, giving you plenty to deal with.

I have not played any later Puyo Puyo games so I don’t know how this compares, but I found this to be genuinely entertaining and it was a blast to play.

It's not quite a breakthrough title like Puyo Puyo Tsu, but it's the game that made me fall in love with Puyo Puyo. Puyo Sun takes what works about the formula and enhances it with a hilarious narrative - Satan makes the sun big to get a sexy tan and win the affection of women, that's the plot - carried by immediately lovable characters getting on each other's last nerve. Often when I don't know what to play, I'll fall back on this game and play through Arle's campaign.

The new Sun Puyo is ultimately harmless if not a bit arbitrary, cluttering the perfection that is Puyo Tsu's gameplay design a little bit, but that's the only complaint I have and it's honestly not that big a deal.