It’s a shame we don’t see more puzzle games going down the crossover route. Imagine it, Bejewelled mixed with Zuma or Picross blended together with some Sudoku. While they may sound ambitious on paper, if the Puyo Puyo Tetris series has been anything to go by, they could very well be future matches made in heaven.
The Nintendo Switch 2 launch lineup has seen a number of ports brought over to demonstrate the new system’s extra power, from Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition to Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut and Sonic X Shadow Generations to Street Fighter 6. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, I’ll admit, was not one of the first names to pop into my head when it came to anticipated upgrades. I mean, sure, I had a great time with the game, but what exactly could the Switch 2 bring to the table to make it worth a revisit?
First things first, what is Tetris, and what is Puyo Puyo, and why are they being mashed together? Both falling block puzzle games, the former sees players guiding different-shaped Tetrominoes to create completed rows while the latter combinations of coloured Puyos to match four of the same colour in order to remove and keep their grid from filling up. Both highly addictive and both a lot of fun. And when it comes to Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, those rules remain by in large the same. Most modes in fact allow the player to choose between which they play, even when competing against someone else playing the exact opposite option.
The game offers the usual lineup of single-player high-score chasing options, but where the game truly excels is in its multiplayer offerings, up to four able to compete. Despite the formula of both franchises being pretty set in stone by this point, the game does a great job in offering enough twists in each of its modes to feel new and fresh. From juggling between a Puyo Puyo and Tetris grid where the action switches every thirty seconds to firing off Mario Kart style items to throw your opponents off their game to having to deal with Puyos and Tetrominoes in the same grid, there’s plenty of variety to dive into and pretty much every mode is one well worth returning to. The game even includes a mode where characters can be levelled up, stats improved and battle it out using special abilities similar to the excellent Tetris Battle Gaiden. While local is a blast, online… well, it’s hard to say since in my hours of playtime with the game, I struggled to find another player to face off against. While Sonic Racing: Crossworlds is promising cross-play online, it feels like this game could have used with the update too.
Lone players will also have a pretty chunky single-player story mode to tackle, essentially a series of challenges where stars are awarded for meeting certain criteria connected with conversations between its wide cast of characters. While the story is forgettable (I found myself skipping nearly all scenes), the action is the complete opposite.
So, what exactly is new then for those who’ve already sunk tens of hours into the original Puyo Puyo Tetris 2? Well, truth be told, it’s not an awful lot. That isn’t to say that what has been thrown in isn’t at least interesting. Doubles mode adds further chaos into the game with pairs of players manoeuvring Puyos or blocks in a shared board simultaneously, while the implementation of mouse controls at least demonstrates the feature’s use, albeit in a rather unnecessary manner. I even had a laugh or two using the Switch 2 camera to project our faces on the game boards. Beyond these extras, though, the rest is pretty much what was already available in the original game, making it a tough pill to swallow that owners of that game have no upgrade path at all and instead must fork out to purchase once more.
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S is an excellent puzzle game, packed with content and offering plenty of options whether playing alone or with friends. If you’ve never had a chance to try the original out, then this enhanced version is definitely the way to go. For returning players, however, it’s tough to recommend picking up the Nintendo Switch 2 title even with additional options. All in all, then, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S is a great time, unfortunately marred by the lack of an upgrade option.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review copy provided by SEGA
