Sega goes mad scientist, mashes up Tetris and Puyo Puyo into single multiplatform puzzlefest

Among the games Sega is planning to show off at the Tokyo Game Show next week is Puyo Puyo Tetris, a title revealed in this week's Famitsu magazine. The latest in Sega's Puyo series of falling-blob match-em-up puzzlers, this one combines Puyo Puyo with Tetris in a literal way — two players compete against each other using either game they want, even if one is Tetris-ing and the other's Puyo-ing.

"This project got kicked off because we wanted to bring excitement to these two games, the forefront of the action-puzzle genre," said series producer Mizuki Hosoyamada. "When you lose a Puyo Puyo game, have you ever said 'Well, I wouldn't have lost if we were playing Tetris'? Well, let's have people play each other using the game of their choice, then. This was already in the planning phases back in 2006, for Puyo Puyo's 15th anniversary, although nothing was kicked off with it until last summer."

The new title will feature two main competitive modes. "Classics" allows you to pick the game of your choice and play against an opponent, either completing Tetris lines or setting off Puyo chains in order to throw garbage into your foe's stack. "Swap" mode adds a trick to this — at certain times during the match, you'll actually have to swap between games, going from dropping Puyo blobs to stacking up Tetris blocks.

"While you're playing Puyo Puyo, the screen will switch out and now you're playing Tetris," Hosoyamada explained. "We'll be introducing a variety of other rules as well, based on ideas that have appeared in the series over the years. There will also be rules that take advantage of the Puyo-Tetris mix, although I can't get into details yet."

Sega is launching Puyo Puyo Tetris next year on PS3, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita. "Both of these titles have earned massive support from fans for many years," Hosoyamada said. "I'm hoping that we can continue to keep things exciting, so we can celebrate our 40th and 50th anniversaries. Even if you aren't into action-puzzle games, I hope you'll pay attention to the festival atmosphere we've got going with this game. Try it out at TGS!"