In this Source Gaming Roundtable we were asked by our Ultimate Patron, Mr. JBRPG, about our thoughts on the VS Puzzle genre. Titles like Tetris, Dr. Mario, Puzzle League, Puyo Puyo and more. Read on to find out!
I’m not the best when it comes to fighting games but surprisingly, it turns out I am not too bad when it comes to VS. Puzzle Games. I was a big fan of Puzzle Bobble (called Bust-a-Move here in the UK) while I was growing up but I think it was with the launch of the Nintendo Switch that I began to fall in love with the genre. The Japanese demo of Puyo Puyo Tetris was one of the early pieces of Switch software that I played all the time, and while I am definitely better at Tetris than Puyo Puyo, I enjoyed both greatly.
In arcades, I always migrate over to the puzzle games for both single player and multiplayer action, trying out any new puzzle game I can find. Surprisingly, one really fun title in the genre, that was also free, was a Disney game: Frozen Free Fall Snowball Fight. It’s a mobile game with a cheap console port, but the multiplayer is actually quite high energy and really fun. The recent Xross Dreams game that we reviewed is another great example of a competitive puzzle game. It has almost every game in the genre in one title, which is a lot of choice. Check out our review if you like games of this type.
Pretty minimal experience, all things considered. Typically, I play puzzle games like Tetris, Hexic, Picross, and Bejeweled for the same reason I play Quordle: to help clear my mind. That’s not a great mindspace for playing with other people. I enjoy playing the original Dr. Mario casually in Versus Mode, but that’s a more recent thing; I only caught the bug playing it that was in Nintendo Switch Online. And though I do like playing some of the entries in Clubhouse Games with other people—namely shogi, chess, and mancala—those are different by virtue of being real world games.
…Of course, there’s also the shameful nightmares I’d have every time I’d play Dr. Mario as a child, fantasizing about horrible mass contagions that made it scarier to me than any horror game, but that’s for another day and another prompt.
Cart Boy: The Nintendo 64 was the first console I owned, and one of the many reasons I loved it was for its multiplayer games. Yes, plenty of us have stories about gathering together with friends to play Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, and Super Smash Bros., but I fared better in the less celebrated Dr. Mario 64 and Pokémon Puzzle League. The latter’s especially important to me—it’s my fourth favorite game of all time and it, surprisingly, became a staple of my college years. Really, it’s just a fantastic game! Every year I hope Nintendo releases a new Panel de Pon / Puzzle League…
Aside from those two series, I’m also fond of Tetris and Puyo Puyo. Tetris 99 is a fun game to randomly boot up, as are other multiplayer Tetris titles. One time I was playing Tetris Splash with one of my best friends when the phone rang, so I got up to answer it without pausing the game. I still won! Puyo Puyo, however, hasn’t quite clicked with me mechanically, even if I do enjoy it. I love the series’ absurd universe, too.
Sadly, I haven’t played any of these classics lately, since I usually spend most of my game time on titles I plan to write about for the site. But I can and should make some time for these gems. One of my old college buddies wants to settle the score in Puzzle League, and I need to get back in shape before I take him on…
I played ten minutes of Puyo Puyo Tetris on fellow staff member KawlunDram’s Switch in 2018 at a convention, and that’s the extent of my experience with VS Puzzle Games. I can’t say I’m too interested in the genre, but that comes back to my disinterest in competition in general.
As a person raised on Arcades, I have to bring Puzzle Bobble to the table. While the original Bubble Bobble has a focus on cooperative gameplay, Puzzle Bobble takes a heel turn and puts you on a frantic race against a descending wall of bubbles and your split screen opponent. The defining factor of this series is that instead of just having to align elements to make them disappear and get points, you have to shoot your bubbles from the lower part of the screen so be sure to practice your aiming skills.
Sadly this series fell into a sad and dark era of rather lackluster sequels and countless rip offs, and only recently is making a comeback with the VR game and the upcoming Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! which apparently will focus on cooperative play.
Not gonna lie, my puzzle game résumé is pretty shallow. Lately, I’ve been trying to experience as much media as possible with my free time, and that leaves little room for games that you can never really “complete.” Tetris 99 is a notable exception, though. After I got that Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition theme (what really won me over was the Riki-themed kill counter), I played plenty of matches while watching some videos on the side.
But to find the competitive puzzle game that’s truly dominated my life, we’ve gotta go back to Mario Party 9 of all places. It’s probably been over a decade since I’ve booted that game up for anything other than its Castle Clearout mini game. Also found in Clubhouse Games under the name 6-Ball Puzzle, all you’ve gotta do is match six spheres of the same color for as long as possible, preferably forming lines, pyramids, or hexagons that’ll help keep your box empty. The hours of local multiplayer I’ve gotten out of this bonus mode most people are sure to not care about is absurd, but when I say Mario Party 9 is my favorite entry in the series, at least now you’ll know why.
In preparation for this piece, I played another 5 hours of Tetris 99. Yeah it’s still great.
Puzzle games are videogames in their purest form. I truly believe Tetris is the best videogame ever made (and Tetris Effect: Connected is the best version of Tetris by the way).
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