Dr. Robotinik's Mean Bean Machine

Puyo Puyo was the first game involving the connecting of four similar coloured blobs that would then disappear, and it was re-done in the mid-nineties in the form of both Kirby’s Avalanche on the S-NES and Dr.Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine for Genesis. Both of which were very successful, and so if you remember with fondness either iteration of the game, you wouldn’t be let down by the scaled-down version that was ported to the Game Gear.

Puyo Puyo proved that the game’s fundamental principle could easily fit on an 8-bit platform, and that you didn’t need the flashy graphics and music that was in Kirby’s Avalanche. Furthermore, I always felt that since puzzle games like this one are quick to get down to the action, that it was ideal for the portable medium of a Game Gear.

However, they could have spent more time on, not necessarily a better score, but at least some different sound effects. If I close my eyes on the menu screen, it sure sounds like I’m playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Game Gear.

Also among the short list of annoyances, is the fact that all the characters from the scenario mode were taken from the campy, short-lived Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. And so the characters include that weird chicken robot, and the monkey with the light bulb on his head. These were weak, and very poor characters, but the game play is so addictive, you won’t be able to stop, even if you want to.

There’s also a puzzle mode, where you have to look closely and come up with the combo that would knock out all the blobs on the screen, and there’s a practice mode, where it’s just you playing Tetris-style, to see how far you can get. There’s even the "gear to gear" mode, for playing against a buddy. But since the only person I ever knew who had a Game Gear, I bought it off of, chances of not only finding someone with a Game Gear, but with a link cable and another copy of Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, are pretty slim.

Still, if you see this game in a second hand store, and even if you haven’t used your Game Gear in a decade, it’s definitely worth picking up.