Minna de Puyo Puyo
| Minna de Puyo Puyo | |
|---|---|
 Minna de Puyo Puyo Box Art | |
| Developers | Sonic Team, Caret House |
| Publishers | Sega, THQ |
| Platform | Game Boy Advance |
| Players | 1-4 players |
| Release date |  October 18, 2001 February 11, 2002 April 2, 2002 |
Minna de Puyo Puyo (みんなでぷよぷよ Minna de puyopuyo, lit. Everybody Puyo Puyo), known as Puyo Pop outside of Japan is a game in the Puyo Puyo series and the last Puyo Puyo game to feature exclusively the Madou-era characters. This is the first game to be handled by Sonic Team, after Compile had gone bankrupt and gave the rights to Sega. This is the third Puyo Puyo game to be released outside of Japan (Puyo Pop (Puyo Puyo 2) for NeoGeo Pocket Color was the second, and Puyo Puyo for Sega System C-2 was the first).
The Japanese title, Minna de Puyo Puyo, means "Everybody Puyo Puyo", which refers to the game's four player mode. The American title is simply named Puyo Pop, because previously, all other releases had been masked by various alterations. Fans have dubbed it Puyo Pop GBA, to avoid confusion when using its English title.
Out of all the Puyo Puyo games, this one seems to be the most directly influenced by Puyo Puyo Tsu. It borrows many aspects from the game gameplay wise. This game is not considered to be part of the main Puyo Puyo series.
Story
The Dark Prince is once again up to no good. He splits up five gold runes, and they are handed off to different individuals across the globe. Dark Prince then sets up a Puyo Puyo contest. Carbuncle runs off for it, and Arle give chase, thus starting her strange journey to collect the runes and find Carbuncle. At the end, it is revealed that the Runes are actually a ticket for Dark Prince and Arle to go and bathe at some Hot Springs. Arle, however, doesn't realize that the ticket is for her and throws it away, foiling Dark Prince once again and leaving him to cry hysterically.
Single Puyo Puyo
This mode is essentially the game's story mode. Each course is unlocked as Arle progresses through the story. An interesting feature of this mode, however, is the ability to attain and deliver various Items throughout the courses. The Item side quest can be played after clearing the game. Each item is received after the player completes the course for the second time.
Hamaji Forest
- Item: Trail Labyrinth
There are no special rules, and all of the opponents are easy. This would be the games equivalent to "Easy" or "Mild" in other games. Here, you face Skeleton T, Incubus and Serilly.
When you give Seriri the Scale Pendant, the final course, Trial Labyrinth, will be unlocked. Every subsequent completion will unlock a character card to view in the options menu.
Gold Town
- Item: Scale Pendant
This course is unlocked after finishing Hamaji Forest for the first time. The Point Puyo rule is used here, and the game adds another color eventually. The characters encountered here are Kikimora, Suketoudara, Harpy, Minotauros and Nohoho.
After completing the game, and having obtained the Nohoho Rucksack, bring the sack back here to have Nohoho trade you the Scale Pendant. Completing the course again before obtaining the Rucksack or after trading it for the Scale Pendant will unlock the Point Puyo rule. Every subsequent completion will unlock a character card to view in the options menu.
Gachinko Dungeon
- Item: Nohoho Rucksack
This course is unlocked by finishing Gold Town once. The Hard Puyo rule is used here. Eventually the game will also give you five colors. The characters found here are Kikimora, Zoh Daimaoh, Harpy, Rulue and Draco Centauros.
After finishing the game, coming back with the Flame Expander will make Draco give you the Nohoho Rucksack. Completing the course a second time before or after trading items will unlock the Hard Puyo rule. Every subsequent completion will unlock a character card to view in the options menu.
Magical Tower
- Item: Flame Expander
No particular rule is used here; instead the playing field starts out with a random arrangement of Nuisance Puyo, Hard Puyo and Point Puyo. The game also gets faster. Here you meet Kikimora, Incubus, Suketoudara, Schezo Wegey and Witch.
After finishing the game and obtaining the Dubious Book, finishing the course again will earn the player the Flame Expander. Every subsequent completion will unlock a character card to view in the options menu.
Dark Prince Castle
- Item: Dark Prince Mask, Dubious Book
This is the final course. The rules used here are the same as above. Here you meet Ragnus the Brave, Zoh Daimaoh, Minotauros, Skeleton T (!), Schezo Wegey, Rulue, and Dark Prince.
After finishing the course, the credits roll. Beating the course for the first time unlocks the Dark Prince Mask which adds Dark Prince as a playable character. The second time earns the Dubious Book. Every subsequent completion will unlock a character card to view in the options menu.
In the Japanese version, this course is called G-Satan Castle, and completing it unlocks the Satan Mask.
Trial Labyrinth
- Item: Carbuncle
This is a secret unlockable course. It is unlocked by completing the Item trading quest by giving the Scale Pendant to Serilly. The player is then taken on a long play facing every character in the game, starting with Ragnus and ending with Dark Prince.
After Dark Prince, Carbuncle goes crazy for some reason, and challenges you as the final stage. In this battle, only 3 colors are used and the Point Puyo rule is in effect. Beating him finishes the course. It also unlocks Carbuncle as a character if it is the first completion. Every subsequent completion will unlock a character card to view in the options menu.
Double Puyo Puyo and Everybody Puyo Puyo
These are the game's two player and four player modes respectively. They allow for both single and multi-cart play. The Point and Hard Puyo rules can be used once they are unlocked. Carbuncle and Satan can also be used once they have been unlocked.
Playable Characters
- Arle Nadja
- Carbuncle
- Skeleton T
- Serilly as Seriri
- Incubus
- Kikimora
- Harpy
- Nohoho
- Suketoudara
- Ragnus the Brave
- Minotauros as Minotaur
- Draco Centauros
- Witch
- Zoh Daimaoh
- Schezo Wegey
- Rulue
- Dark Prince (Satan in the Japanese version)
Gallery
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Logo (English) -
Title Screen (Japanese) -
Title Screen (English)
Easter Eggs
- The ranking screen includes names from other Puyo Puyo characters not included in this game, which are Panotty, Sukiyapodes, Baromett, Mummy, Will-o-Wisp, Nasu Grave, Sasoriman, Pakista, Banshee Trio, and Mini Zombie. Additionally, it includes Sonic's name in the rankings too.
Trivia
- While both the Japanese and international versions feature both a Japanese and English language option, the English translation featured in the Japanese release is a very rough translation, with plenty of bad grammar and nonsensical sentence structures. To provide an example, here is the exchange between Arle and Incubus compared between versions:
- In the Japanese release:
- [INCUBUS] “Hi, honey. Where are you off to?”
- [ARLE] “Whatever… Talk about your stuck-up smartalecks.”
- [INCUBUS] “Oh, darling. Even your troubled face is cute in my eyes.”
- [ARLE] “Jeez… And fifty other lines to get you nowhere.”
- [INCUBUS] “You poor baby… Here let me, beautiful me, warm you up.”
- [ARLE] “Stop it!”
- In the international release:
- [INCUBUS] “Hey, baby. Come here often?”
- [ARLE] “…Go away.”
- [INCUBUS] “Hey! I just want to know you! What’s your sign, bady?”
- [ARLE] “Octagon. As in ‘stop.’”
- [INCUBUS] “Oooh, I like a girl with a sense of humor! Let’s make jokes together…”
- [ARLE] “That does it.”
- In the Japanese release:
- Even with the game's difficulty set to "hard", the opponents will still perform 1 chain over and over as they usually do on other modes, and will not be any more difficult. The only difference between the difficulties is that in hard mode, opponents move their Puyo slightly faster.
- After defeating Dark Prince a few times in Dark Prince Castle, he will reveal that Carbuncle had picked up and swallowed the rune since the insides were made of curry powder, which happens to be both of their favorite spice.
- Typical of many Sonic Team games post-2001, their involvement was limited at best. The game's small staff was comprised of three Sonic Team employees in directorial positions, with the "grunt work" left to a studio called Caret House, which (also typically) isn't mentioned until the game's credits.
- In the North American localization, Satan's name was changed to Dark Prince, for obvious reasons concerning religion.
- The soundtrack, spare a few songs, was almost completely borrowed from Puyo Puyo Tsu, with the notation/ocative coming from the Mega Drive version and the instrumentation coming from the Super Famicom version.
- With the exception of Dark Prince, Serilly and Minotauros, all of the voices in the game are borrowed from Puyo Puyo Sun.
- Incubus' voice pattern has an error: the game plays one of his chaining voice clips when he loses instead of the lose clip. The lose clip is still in the ROM however, so it may have been accidental. More than likely, it was censorship as the clip is of Incubus saying "Oh my god!"
- The only characters from Puyo Puyo Sun not to show up are Choppun, Kodomo Dragon and Honey Bee.
- Neither of these character's names also appear on the scoreboard, strangely enough.