Thus the 1992 arcade game Puyo Puyo came into existence. Built for the Sega System C-2 (think a Mega Drive with better sound hardware), the game was unique among puzzle games at the time for completely lacking a solo play mode where players survive for as long as possible. Instead, the game's single-player mode involves a gauntlet where players battle 3, 9, or 13 opponents and attempt to outplay them by sending garbage Puyos to their end of the field. Naturally, the game included a Player Versus Player mode as well. In a further attempt to make the game stand out, Compile decided to delve even further into their roster of Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 characters for more aesthetic flavor; each single-player battle is preceded by a scene where protagonist Arle Nadja engages in silly banter with the upcoming opponent, starting with Madou Monogatari Mooks and progressing until reaching primary antagonists Schezo Wegey, Minotauros, Rulue, and Satan.
The game would become a hit, especially once it was ported to the Mega Drive and Super Famicom, and completely supplanted the 1991 game as the one commonly referred to as the "first" game. More importantly, it would set the stage for a sequel, Puyo Puyo 2, that would put the competitive puzzle sub-genre on the map.
An English version was produced for the European market, but was so obscure that almost all information regarding its release was lost to time; in fact, when MAME's contributors first discovered and dumped the game from bootleg hardware, fans assumed that the localization itself was a bootleg, a misconception that lasted all the way until the release of Sega Ages Puyo Puyo for the Nintendo Switch. This English version changes almost all of the character names, replaces the original Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 voice acting with English equivalents, censors Harpy ("Dark Elf" in this version) by removing her angelic wings, and adds a different story where Arle Nadja (now Silvana), battles the Dark Prince (Satan) and his Black Kingdom. The only lasting impact of this version is the Bowdlerization of Satan to Dark Prince, which extends to most other English releases; the next localized Puyo Puyo game, the Neo Geo Pocket Color port of 2, uses every other characters' original names. Curiously, the Game Gear port has an English version named Puzlow Kids that appears when the game is loaded into a non-Japanese system, despite the game never officially being released outside of Japan.
This game is the source of two Dolled Up Installments: Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, where Sega's American branch decided to have the game redone with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog villains, and Kirby's Avalanche, where Nintendo had the game fitted with Kirby characters.
Tropes that appear in 1992 Puyo Puyo:
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: The English version has this in spades, changing the loose plot to Silvana protecting her home from the forces of the Black Kingdom, making Silvana have a lot more Badass Boasting, and changing several of the characters to become more Obviously Evil.
- Arcade-Perfect Port: The Mega Drive version just misses the mark. Almost all of the voice acting had to be cut as it was made possible by the extra sound hardware in the Sega System C-2. Aside from that and a few added features (counter-clockwise rotation, difficulty levels in 2P mode, Endless mode) everything else about the Mega Drive port is the same as it was in the initial release, down to an AI glitch involving a second controller that had required an arcade revision to fix.
- The Artifact:
- Rulue does not have a vocal catchphrase in any version except Puyo Puyo CD (which features new voice work across the board) because she is not actually a boss encounter in the original versions of Madou Monogatari 1-2-3, where almost all of the vocal samples come from.
- Garbage Puyos drop in sets of 30 because 30 Puyos was the original garbage cap in the MSX2 and Famicom Disk System versions of the game.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation:
- Like many of Sega's early '90s bilingual arcade flyers, the English text on the first game's flyers vary from overly literal to nearly gibberish.
"In addition to the thrilling feeling when you erase the PUYO PUYOs, the action of sending them to your adversary's side to obstruct him in this highly competitive videogame further increases the excitement."- Puzlow Kids runs into this in its Quest Mode. The mission objectives range from the technically correct but awkwardly-phrased "Eliminate 10 p-kids at a time" (clear ten Puyo at the same time) to the even more awkwardly-phrased "Eliminate 3 groups of p-kids" (perform a 3-chain), to the flat-out wrong "Let 20 paire [sic] drop in." (Drop 10 pairs; in other words, 20 Puyo.) The Scenario mode endings have correct English, but, as they're based on the English arcade game's endings, suffer from different issues.
- Border-Occupying Decorations: The SEGA AGES release has a border with artworks of Arle, Carbuncle, the opponents, and the Puyos.
- Calling Your Attacks
- When a player makes a chain of two or more clears, Arle calls out spells in sequence. Inverted when the opponent creates a chain, as Arle will react to getting hit by the opponents' magic.
- Schezo calls out "AREIADO!" (or "AREIAAAAD!" in the English version) as his vocal catchphrase; Areiado is his signature spell in Madou Monogatari II.
- Characterization Marches On: Several personalities were not quite ironed out yet:
- Draco does not challenge Arle to a Beauty Contest, Arle challenges Draco and Draco turns her down after laughing at her.
- Suketoudara is a Jerkass who yells at Arle for trying to talk to him while he's dancing.
- Harpy is not a terrible singer, just one who is too absorbed into it to notice Arle.
- The Dark Prince is a largely calm-and-collected Troll (when Arle's not mislabeling him "Santa" instead of "Satan") who doesn't show any noteworthy affection towards Arle or Carbuncle, instead of being a total goofball who is obsessed towards one or both of them.
- Curtain Call: The ending shows the cast of the game one-by-one. This was retained in Mean Bean Machine and Kirby's Avalanche. In the former's case, it is the only thing that saves the ending from A Winner Is You.
- Dub Name Change: The English arcade version changes everyone's names except Mummy, Zombie, Witch, and Carbuncle.
- As for everyone else:
- Arle Nadja becomes Silvana.
- Skeleton-T becomes Skeleton.
- Nasu Grave becomes Blue Ghost. Note that he's supposed to be an eggplant.
- Draco Centauros becomes Dragon Woman.
- Suketoudara becomes Goby Captain.
- Sukiyapodes becomes Small Foot.
- Harpy becomes Dark Elf.
- Sasoriman becomes Scorpion Man.
- Panotty becomes Johnny.
- Zoh Daimaoh becomes Elephant Lord.
- Schezo Wegey becomes Devious.
- Minotauros becomes Max Minotaur.
- Rulue becomes Lulu.
- Satan becomes Dark Prince, which would become his localized name from then on.
- As for everyone else:
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- There's no ability to offset waiting garbage Puyos, creating Rocket-Tag Gameplay at higher skill levels.
- The arcade version only utilizes one button (though pretty much all of its ports add counter-clockwise rotation) and reduces the color count to five. The games default to four colors starting with 2, though they often come with the option to use 5 colors via handicap settings.
- Even putting aside that the original arcade version only has one rotation button, the game and its ports are slightly tougher to control than later games thanks to less developed rotation quirks. The most notable omission is the lack of the "double rotation" mechanic that allows you to flip the controlled Puyo pair 180 degrees if you're locked into a tight space. It doesn't seem like much on paper, but will lose you at least a couple of matches that you wouldn't lose in other games.
- The player can only preview a single Puyo pair, while the rest of the mainline games (that aren't deliberately calling back to this game's ruleset) let the player preview two pairs.
- In Puyo Puyo CD, every character uses the same spells as Arle during chains. This includes Rulue, who is explicitly an Un-Sorcerer in later games.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: Once you clear the Beginner course, Dark Prince dismisses the accomplishment before flying off. Inverted in the PC Engine CD's Puyo Puyo CD, where the player is rewarded for playing the hardest difficulty with extended pre-battle scenes that are exclusive to that version.
- Enemy Roll Call: The ending shows off and names each character in the game, including Arle, Carbuncle, and all of the bosses.
- Excuse Plot:
- The original plot, only added retroactively through the instruction booklets of the console ports, has Arle learn a spell that allows her to turn groups of four or more Puyos into energy, and plans to use this spell to defeat Satan.
- The English plot, which does vaguely appear in the actual game, has Silvana go on a journey to defend her home against the Dark Prince and his Black Kingdom.
- Fake Difficulty: Having a single rotation button in the arcade version comes off as this; not only is its Mega-Drive-in-a-cabinet hardware more than capable of handling extra buttons, two-way rotation is included in literally every Puyo game before or after. Including the nearly 1:1 Mega Drive port that was released no more than two months later.
- Fireworks of Victory: Completing a match in scenario mode unleashes a small firework display over your screen.
- Long Song, Short Scene: All 3 cutscene themes go for way longer than the game allows, and all textboxes automatically disappear after a short time, so players cannot naturally hear the songs in full ingame. At least, outside of the sound test.
- The most notorious case is Memories of Puyo Puyo
, which plays during Stage 1-8’s pre-battle conversations. The song, which was previously used as the Madou Monogatari I dungeon theme, is fully remixed; however, almost none of the game's conversations last longer than 15 seconds when the song is actually closer to 2 minutes long. Amusingly enough, Mean Bean Machine features a cover of the song in a place where it can be fully appreciated... only to remove the last bit of the melody. - Brave of Puyo Puyo, which is used for Stages 9-12. While shorter than "Memories", the full theme still doesn't play.
- Dark Prince's theme the cutscene before the final boss, which almost plays the full song, but not quite.
- The most notorious case is Memories of Puyo Puyo
- Mythology Gag: Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 prides itself on having a then-unusual amount of voice acting, referring to itself as a "Magical Voice Role Playing Game". This game, in turn, carries over a large portion of 1-2-3's voice acting thanks to the improved audio hardware of the System C-2. The vocal catchphrases that each of the Mook characters introduce themselves with in this game are the exact same phrases they say before a random encounter with them in 1-2-3. Arle's chain phrases are spells from 1-2-3, while enemy chain phrases are her reactions to getting hit in 1-2-3.
- Non-Indicative Name: The only noteworthy difference between the Normal and Difficult courses is that Normal starts the player at Stage 1 (Draco Centauros) while Difficult starts the player at Stage 4 (Harpy). The actual difficulty settings are located in the Options menu.
- Retool: The 1991 Puyo Puyo is a fairly straight take on Tetris (through its Endless Mode) and to a lesser extent Dr. Mario (via Mission mode). The 1992 Puyo Puyo took the game's rudimentary versus mode and made it the main focus of the game while also including very light story content.
- Palette Swap: In addition to a name change, Harpy had her outfit changed from white to black in the English localization.
- Spell My Name With An S:
- Sukiyapodes (a transliteration of "sciapods") is incorrectly rendered as "Sukiyapotes", likely due to the similarity between "t" and "d" katakana in Japanese.
- Initials on the default high score table that are clearly intended to be Rulue's are rendered as LUL.
- Super Title 64 Advance: Super Puyo Puyo for the Super Famicom, Puyo Puyo CD for the PC-Engine CD.
- Trash Talk: Happens before each match in the single player mode of the first arcade game. The English version dials this up a notch, though not to the level of Mean Bean Machine's Hurricane of Puns.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Either Harpy (whose stage features the first drop speed increase) or Sasoriman (who doesn't use Harpy's gimmick AI). In fact, choosing "Difficult" on the main menu will jump straight to Harpy's battle.
