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5 /5

Sega's first excursion into the Puyo Puyo series since the bankruptcy of the series's original developer Compile finds Satan (once again) up to no good. He has scattered five golden runes and handed each one to a different character in the Puyoverse. Our hero Arle isn't aware of this - until her pet Carbuncle runs for the runes! Now Arle must find the five runes and recover her friend - all at the same time.

As with many other titles in the Puyo Puyo series, Puyo Pop pits you as Arle Nadja against a series of crazy characters bent on stopping her from recovering the five runes. As before, gameplay is simple - match Puyos (which come in up to five colors), make chains, and drown your opponents in a flood of Nuisance Puyos. In certain stages, you might run into Point Puyos, which when popped will add a bonus to the current chain, and Hard Puyos, which require two hits to pop. In addition, once Arle is finished with her quest, she can search for items which can unlock new things for her to explore.

The traditional battle mode is still around, of course, as up to four players can compete for Puyo bragging rights.