Released for the N64 in Japan only on Halloween in 1997, Puyo Puyo Sun is an
arcade port of Compile’s classic puzzle game. It is the third title in the Puyo
Puyo series, hence the pun in the title. Three in Japanese, san, sounds like
Sun in English. The original arcade game was also ported to the PC where it was
given an English and Korean translation. The game was listed in the Japanese
magazine, Game Machine, as being the 5th most successful arcade game of 1997.
Due to the limitations of the cartridge format this game is missing a lot of the
story dialog that was present in the Sega Saturn and Playstation releases. The
game is compatible with the rumble pak.
The game was reviewed well by the British publication, N64 Magazine who awarded
it 80% saying “You didn’t buy your N64 to play this but it’s still rollicking
fun. So if you’re rich, try it on for size.” I distinctly remember this review
as it was the first time I had seen anime art styles as the art form was only
starting to enter the UK at the time. I remember being totally baffled by the
game at the time. Its strange to think that I am now somewhat fluent in Japanese
and am writing a translation guide for it 20 years later.
Puyo puyo is an onomatopoeia which means “jelly like”. The player must rotate
falling sets of coloured jellies to form groups of four or more of the same
colour which then “pop” and disappear. If the third column from the left
completely fills up with Puyo, then you will get a game over. The player can
create chain reactions when Puyo fall into each other, this then send Nuisance
Puyo to your opponents screen. Nuisance Puyo can only be erased if other Puyo
are popped next to them. The number of Nuisance Puyo created is dependent on the
length of the chain.
The rules of Puyo Puyo Sun are essentially the same as Puyo Puyo 2 but the new
feature of this game is the Sun Puyo which appears when you clear your screen.
It can be used to chain like a normal puyo, but when it disappears more Nuisance
Puyo will be sent to your opponent than normal. The bigger the chain the more
damage the Sun Puyo will do, so winning in this game comes down to effective use
of the Sun Puyo. Sun Puyo fall randomly but can be predicted by the rays of
light that appear at the top of the screen.
Sun Puyo can only be erased by popping Puyo next to them. Sun Puyo will also
always drop before Nuisance Puyo, a fact that annoyed many players. This means
that if you sent your opponent a lot of Nuisance Puyo, but they also triggered a
Sun Puyo, they will get the beneficial Sun Puyo first and some time to get ready
for your Nuisance Puyo, effectively making your Nuisance Puyo worthless. These
changes make the game much faster and make it much harder to comeback from a
single well placed Sun Puyo. The required number of chains for victory is also
much less in this version, so matches are pretty short.
The title screen has the following heartwarming message;
Act Against AIDS
勇気と愛気
(Courage and Love)
COMPILE
Act Against Aids is a Japanese AIDS awareness campaign that started in 1993 and
only finished operations last year on July 20th 2020. It was supported by
hundreds of musicians and companies including Studio Ghibli, Namco, Capcom and
Sega. Many of Complies games contain support messages for the campaign.
Story
After reading a tourism magazine, Satan (Dark Prince in English) wants to
experience a tropical island where “The sun burns your skin a dark brown and the
girls dance”. Rather than going on a trip to a tropical island, he uses his
powers to enlarge the sun so that he can get a sun tan. The sun continued to
shine day and night. Arles decided to fight back, saying "Let's restore the
world." In another place, Shezo, who was robbed of the dark night that he loves
more than anything else, set out to take revenge.. On the other hand, Draco was
in a good mood because of the sudden good weather and was eager to go out to
sunbathe.
2.Translation Guide
Controls
3D Stick / D Pad - Move the Puyo
A Button - Rotate
B Button - Rotate
C Buttons - Rotate
Start Button - Pause
Game Modes
From the title screen you can select the following modes, from left to right
ひとりでぷよぷよ – Single Player story mode
ふたりでぷよぷよ – Two Player Puyo Puyo
とことんぷよぷよ – Tokoton Puyo Puyo
おぷしょん - Options
かちぬきぷよぷよ – Knockout Puyo Puyo
とことんなぞぷよ – Puzzle Puyo
ひとりでぷよぷよ – Single Player story mode
The game features three main characters which also double as the games
difficulty setting. From left to right
Here are the characters you will battle across each difficulty
Draco’s Holiday
1 Skeleton-T
2 Harpy
3 Choppun
Arle’s Adventure
1 Draco Centaur
2 Incubus
3 Walleye Pollock
4 Kikimora
5 Nohoho
6 Kodomo Dragon
7 Witch
8 Great Demon Elephant King
9 Honeybee
10 Lagunas Bishashi the brave
11 Leroux
12 Shenzo Wiggy
13 Satan
14 Carbuncle
Shenzo’s Counter Attack
1 Kodomo Dragon
2 Witch
3 Great Demon Elephant King
4 Honeybee
5 Lagunas Bishashi the brave
6 Leroux
7 Arle Nadje
8 Satan
9 Carbuncle
Please note that the secret last battle against Carbuncle only occurs if you
beat the game without using continues.
The characters from story mode can also be used in the two player and tournament
modes. Aside from their appearance and voice acting the major way in which they
differ is unintentional. Each character has slightly different animations for
Puyo’s disappearing, this actually affects the speed at which you can chain Puyo
if you are able to use it to your advantage.
Most of the characters were voiced by Compile employees and are gathered from
many other games in the series. The president of Compile, Masamitsu Niitani
actually voiced Satan in this game. Perhaps this was a joke about his management
style?
ふたりでぷよぷよ – Two Player Puyo Puyo
The multiplayer mode
とことんぷよぷよ – Puzzle Puyo Puyo
Various puzzles to play with Puyo.
おぷしょん - Options
This screen offers the following options
Controller Layouts 1p – set the rotation direction for each button.
Controller Layouts 2p – set the rotation direction for each button.
Difficulty
Number of Rounds
Colours
Character Choices
Remove Effects
Cutscene Options
Chain Animations On or Off
Exit
かちぬきぷよぷよ – Knockout Puyo Puyo
This is a multiplayer mode for up to 16 players. Select the number of rounds
from 4,8 and 16.
とこんなぞぷよ – Puzzle Puyo
This is a puzzle mode that gives you Puyo Puyo based problems. It has the
following options.
れんしゅう – Practice
Clear a problem within the set number of steps. The N64 version has 64 puzzles.
じっせん – Battle
Clear the problems one after another, there is no time limit.
たいせん – Competition
A 2 player mode, where you compete to clear the problem faster than your friend.
You cannot send Nuisance Puyo to the other screen in this mode. This has no CPU
support.
