Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

How do you sell a brilliant Japanese puzzler in the West, where no one knows its characters? Sega found a Solomon-like solution — it took the legendary Puyo Puyo and repainted it into the world of Sonic. Thus was born Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, in which the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) turns the inhabitants of Mobius into obedient beans and you have to stop him.

Beneath the hedgehog shell hides exactly that mercilessly addictive puzzle mechanic that made the original famous. Pairs of colored beans fall from above, and your task is to connect four or more of the same color so they vanish. Once again the magic lies in chaining combos — a cleverly prepared cascade unleashes an avalanche of clearings and buries the opponent's field in annoying transparent beans that shrink their space and push them toward defeat.

The game offers an escalating campaign against a lineup of Robotnik's henchmen, so even the solo player has plenty to keep up with as the opponents speed up and toughen up. The real sparks, however, fly in the two-player duel, where calm stacking turns into a frantic clash all about sending your rival more junk than they can clear away. It is a reliable source of friendly arguments around a single console.

Mean Bean Machine is a fascinating example of period localization practice — where, because of an unknown licence, the whole cosmetic layer was swapped for familiar mascots. For Western players it was often the first gateway into the world of Puyo without them having any idea what they were actually playing, and only later did many discover its origins with amazement.

Today the game serves both as a charming piece of history and as a fully-fledged puzzler that holds its own against the original. Sonic fans will appreciate the disguise, and puzzle enthusiasts get one of the genre's best mechanics.

Why play: For the Sonic-themed disguise of the brilliant Puyo Puyo, whose bean chaining offers one of the sharpest puzzle duels on the Mega Drive.