VS Puyo Puyo Sun
From Sega Retro
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VS Puyo Puyo Sun | ||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive | ||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Sega | ||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: M2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Original system(s): Sega Titan Video | ||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Puzzle[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 2[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
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VS Puyo Puyo Sun, known as Futari de Puyo Puyo Sun (ふたりでぷよぷよSUN) in Japan, is a stripped-down port of Puyo Puyo Sun for the Sega Mega Drive, released as a bonus game in the Mega Drive Mini 2. This version of the game only features the versus mode for two players.
Contents
Gameplay
Versus, the only selectable mode in this version, has two players compete against each other in one-on-one matches. The rules are the same as in other versions of Puyo Puyo Sun in that Sun Puyo will periodically appear to amplify the amount of Garbage Puyo that are sent to the opponent when cleared alongside chains. Various settings such as margin time and minimum chains can be configured in the Options menu. All 18 characters from the original game are available to both players, including the two hidden characters Satan/Dark Prince and Carbuncle, and both players can freely select the same character.
When starting matches, players have their choice of three different styles of Sun Puyo:
- Vanilla Sun: Sun Puyo have normal behaviour as seen in other versions of the game.
- Fusion Sun: Sun Puyo will be fused with regular Puyo colours and will have their effects when popped as part of chains.
- Fading Sun: Sun Puyo will appear atop the playing field, then fade away without falling. They will still delay incoming Garbage Puyo, making it easier to offset.
As the Mega Drive is less powerful than most of the systems it was originally released on, there are noticeable presentation cutbacks to comply with system limitations. There are fewer colours to work with, so as a result character backgrounds shown in the playing fields use only single-colour shading. Character cut-ins still display when chains are made and players are attacked (and can be disabled in Options), however they only have one animation frame and are therefore more static.
Though designated as a 2-player-only game, a single-player Practice Mode is also available where a player can practice building chains without the interruption of an opponent. This can be accessed by entering Versus Mode with only one controller plugged in, or if either player holds on the character select screen to designate themselves as "Absent". When Practice Mode has started, an opponent can press START at any time to cancel Practice Mode and return to the character select.
History
During development of the Mega Drive Mini 2, Naoki Horii had joked on how games from the Sega Saturn could be ported to the Sega Mega Drive while M2 were experiencing difficulties with getting Sega Mega-CD games to run. While indeed the Saturn uses more advanced hardware than the Mega Drive, it was thought that M2 had the expertise to port a Saturn game to the Mega Drive. Reflecting on how Puyo Puyo Sun wasn't as well-received by consumers as Puyo Puyo Tsuu was at the time of its release, Mega Drive Mini 2 director Takeshi Matsuoka chose Puyo Puyo Sun to receive a port to the Mega Drive.
The port was intended to be a full port of the game, however M2 had only one month of development time left, and programming the single-player modes would require three more months of development time, though they had the manzai demos and CPU character routines ready. The core gameplay was completed by this point and M2 did not want to shelve what they had done, and so settled on only focusing on the 2-player versus mode for this port, believing that the core of Puyo Puyo has always been competitive play. M2 were able to work on the port in cooperation with former Compile staff who had worked on the original game, and Ichi was brought back to draw new cover art for the game[2].
Versions
Localised names
Language | Localised Name | English Translation |
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English | VS Puyo Puyo Sun | VS Puyo Puyo Sun |
Japanese | ふたりでぷよぷよSUN | Futari de Puyo Puyo Sun |
Production credits
- Director & Planners: Guts Nakamatsu, Yuuta Yamanaka, Yujiro Yamamoto
- Programmers: Shimpei Yamada, Hiroaki Okabe
- Graphic Designers: Romyu, Goh Takahashi
- Sound: Tatsuhiko Kasuga, Sakuoki Kudo
- English Localization: Ken Senda, Jaelyn Nisperos
- Supervisors: Jemini Hirono, Hiroyuki Sawai
Digital manuals
Technical information
- Main article: VS Puyo Puyo Sun/Technical information.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://sega.jp/mdmini2/soft/vs-puyo-puyo-sun.html (Wayback Machine: 2022-08-19 13:44)
- ↑ https://www.4gamer.net/games/635/G063531/20220812124/ (Wayback Machine: 2022-08-19 15:06)
- ↑ File:VSPuyoPuyoSun MD Credits.pdf
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