Puyo Puyo Champions
This game is puyo straight through. No Tetris, no influx of rating and offers some pretty good tutorials for beginners. I find this much better than Tetris because it’s more than an RNG battle when you vs Puyo as a Tetris or Tetris as a Puyo. That’s all the positives I can give because this game is overrun by bugs and the ones where they can destroy your experience as a player, even for a beginner.
For starters, the ranking in the game is more refined to the point where you are not seeing huge rating changes like in PPT (Puyo Puyo Tetris) and they’ve actually fixed it so that you aren’t getting matched up by a person way stronger than you. The ranking system matches you with a player near your skill level, but here’s the thing, the skill level could be vastly big still, even for a beginner. I’ve been matched with people in the 3000s while I was a 2200 and it completely ruined the experience for me as a veteran puyo player. The fun thing is that you can’t just back out because it locks you into a 30-second agreement to battle each other, which I find not needed because of how many times I and other players bumped into these high levelled players. I even faced against players more than 500 rating points below me and I feel just awful being forced to battle against them. I feel that this is maybe because of the lack of players since steamcharts says that mainly 30-40 people play this around the world per day, but you can get matched up with people from the other side of the world and start lagging, making you do wrong inputs. I do say the 30-second rule stops people from delaying to accept the duel and even gets rid of AFK players which is a plus for this game when it came out from the update. I enjoy playing against others around my level but if I’m going to be decimated by a guy way superior than me, then it’s no fun. This evolves into a few other problems and bugs that are introduced into the ranking system, which is where all the bugs are found.
– Real player with 89.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Competitive Casual Games.
$10 for what makes PuyoPuyo so fun: the online battles.
If you’re a new player, like, BRAND new to PuyoPuyo, I’d recommend that you hold it off for a little while before buying it. Not to get it on a sale, but for when new solo content gets added in the form of free updates. Since as this game stands of the time I’m writing this review, 90% of its content panders to multiplayer, while the rest are just freeplay CPU battles. No story mode and such, which is to be expected considering the budget price.
– Real player with 88.4 hrs in game
Aloof
Aloof has a lovely unique atmosphere and simple to pick up gameplay but with insane depth. And I think I only started scratching the surface. It also has many multiplayer modes! Start for the vibe and stay for the combo’s.
– Real player with 10.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Competitive Co-op Campaign Games.
Cool puzzle game
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Puyo Puyo™Tetris®
A Brief Summary
Overall, this is an amazing puzzle fighter, with a good amount of content to keep you coming back.
The Casual Experience (Singleplayer)
As a puzzle game crossover it does its job. The Tetris and Puyo mechanics are solid. It has everything you’d expect in a Tetris game like score, time attack and endless modes, plus a few other competitive modes (my favorite of which being Swap). The game even has a charming little adventure mode that’s actually a pretty good introduction to all the various modes in the game, and as a new player the adventure mode was actually relatively challenging.
– Real player with 188.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Competitive Casual Games.
I don’t even know where to start with this masterpiece.
Ever since 1991, this game has amassed an amazing group of loyal followers who enjoy perhaps every single installment of the game. This is one of those video games that only gets better and better with each sequel. It’s a competitive puzzle game, and when I mean puzzle, you gotta think carefully and use your head to carefully but also swiftly stack your puyos in such a way that you’ll be able to make create amazing chains as they erase themselves one after another.
– Real player with 150.1 hrs in game
Swapette Showdown
We challenge you to a Swapette Showdown!!!
Swapette Showdown is a competitive action puzzler for one to four players! Swap the blocks to create matches! Battle as/against cute magical girls a.k.a. the Swapettes!
Join the Swapettes in their battle to become the champion!
KEY FEATURES
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VS Mode: Play with up to 4 players or CPUs with various goals!
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Story Mode: Uncover the story of the game and your favorite characters!
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Classic Mode: Play on even grounds with no specials and abilities!
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Endless Mode: Try to get the highest score and see how long you can last!
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Puzzle Mode: Solve specific challenges with a set amount of moves!
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Online Play: Climb the ranks and challenge other players from all over
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Special Abilities: As you match blocks, gain the ability to unleash powerful attacks!
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Awesome Characters: Each with their own block sets, music theme, and special ability!
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Excitement: Lots of exclamation points!!!!
Crystal Crisis
Fast-paced competitive puzzle game, that has enough single player to help you learn the ropes if you’re new to this style of game.
It has the same core game as Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo 2, which is a good enough starting point that you can find copy cats thru the last decades. This is a great remake of the genre, with some new tests in the form of “Bursts” (ultimate abilities you charge up and can alter your or your opponent’s board) – which adds some rotation of characters (no more just Ken!).
– Real player with 45.1 hrs in game
The ultimate puzzle fighter
It took 23 years, but finally we got a game based on Super Puzzle Fighter II that is better than the original. Crystal Crisis, developed by Nicalis, is a puzzle battler that not only feels really smooth to play, but also brings a charismatic set of indie characters (and also Astro Boy and Black Jack, from Tezuka Productions, for some reason), a lot of different modes to play and some nice additions that adds more depth to the established formula.
– Real player with 21.4 hrs in game
Pull Ball
Nice and simple game to play once in a while while maybe doing something else or listening to music etc. Won’t use much resources, can nicely keep it running on the background. I like the windowed-mode which doesn’t take the whole screen, which in my opinion is not required for a game like this.
A fresh way to play a kind-of-a-golf-like-game. You can implement strategies on how to create the best score since the score is accumulated through gaining distance and wall bounces. With single shots you get 2x multiplier as well as with when you score the ball inside the inner hole. Because of this and the leaderboard, this has a nice competitive aspect to it.
– Real player with 77.0 hrs in game
As a 2D minigolf lover, this game was fun for a while. The idea of getting points by bouncing off the outer walls of a level is a fun mechanic that gives levels a lot of replayability as I try to get to the top of the leaderboard in each level by using 2 shots.
However, it seems the best strategy is often the same: just zig-zag as much as possible and then attempt to hit the center of the circle. Hitting walls actually increases the speed of the ball a tiny bit so you also get more distance by zig-zagging (which gives more points).
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Robo Puzzle Smash
Had this game for two years, but came back to it recently to remote play with a buddy that loves puzzle fighters like i do. It’s a fun game with an interesting balance system. combos are kinda broken, but it’s not exactly easy to set off a combo. it’s got a nice visual design, nice sound design, and the story is funny too. I’d say if you’re into puzzle fighting games, then this is a good choice.
– Real player with 15.2 hrs in game
This game has two great strengths about it.
1. The unique mechanics it brings to the Puzzle Fighter format make it a unique and enjoyable experience and really make you plan out your strategies.
2. The devs are on top of bug fixes, going so far as to fix a broken achievement the day before leaving for Too Many Games.
I do, however, have a minor complaint about its wild system. Teching deals damage (if minor), so if the AI ever gets a wild breaker, it ruins attempts at getting the Perfect achievement, and (as of writing this review) it’s possible for you and the AI to get into an infinite loop of using supers (replaces your current piece with a wild breaker) to the point where a double KO is possible, and a double KO softlocks the game.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
3x64
It might seem like a very simple game, but there are some really nice and creative mechanics for you to discover. Then you will be able to compete with others in the leaderboards and beat their insane scores. If you like Tetris (who doesn’t?), you will like this even more. And I am really looking forward to the mobile version of this fun little game!
– Real player with 29.1 hrs in game
It starts slow and relaxing and after one two mistakes it becomes ugly.
If you like tetris or Tile-matching video game you will like this one.
After the update that ads chalenges I started playing it more often.
– Real player with 20.2 hrs in game
Anode
I’ve gotten a few puzzle games lately that were disappointing, but Anode wasn’t one of them. If this sounds like the kind of thing you’d be interested in, you almost certainly won’t be disappointed.
The game is similar to Tetris or Columns and whatnot in that rows of colored blocks fall from the sky, but there are different mechanics. To match colors you don’t just have to get them orthogonally adjacent (left, right, up and down), but diagonally works too. Matches can twist and turn throughout the board. The major difference, though, is that matches can’t be made until a detonator cell of a certain color connects up. It can be of a certain color to match other colors next to it, or sometimes it’s pure white and acts a wild card that matches any color. When the detonator hits, all the adjacent matching colors explode in a chain across the board.
– Real player with 120.8 hrs in game
A “positively electric” mix of Tetris and colour-matching game. Rather than filling rows like in classic Tetris, Anode has you set up and detonate chains of blocks. Recommended to any fan of Tetris and/or matching games! ^_^
Place two blocks of the same colour beside one another (diagonally counts) to form a link between them. Link a shiny block of the appropriate colour to explode the whole chain for points! Some pieces also have a triangular coupler block attached: match two couplers together to link the two blocks either side regardless of their colour. Make matches quickly to build up a combo, dramatically increasing the points you get.
– Real player with 26.1 hrs in game
Blockoid
Fun to play, fast paced, puzzle game where players can hone their skills within single-player or battle head to head online. Complete a collection of 4 or more blocks of the same color to burst them! This sends blockers to your opponent which will fill up their board. Break multiple collections of blocks on the same step to send more/bigger blockers!
Game Modes
Singleplayer
Hone your skills against the toughest player you know, yourself! In this mode, you aren’t going against anyone but you will periodically receive blocker stones and game speed ups depending on the difficulty you select (Easy/Medium/Hard).
Casual Online
Practice head to head against another player. This game mode has the same settings and play-style as Ranked Online but without the pressure! No stats will be recorded within this mode.
Ranked Online
Two players square off in a head to head online battle. After 5 placement matches, you will be placed within a ranking tier (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite). Gain Rank Points (RP) by winning your matches and climb the tiers.