YMMV / Puyo Puyo (1992)

• Adaptation Displacement: While an English translation of the arcade version did get an obscure release, for the longest time the game was known primarily via its modified console releases, Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and Kirby's Avalanche outside Japan, with only a handful of other Puyo titles released in US or Europe to connect the dots. It took until almost three decades after for the game to be released on a console unaltered in the west.
• Epileptic Trees: The internal character order is different than the actual character order. While this could simply be a consequence of working on characters out-of-order, Skeleton-T and Draco are in the same places while the Zoh/Schezo/Minotauros/Rulue/Dark Prince order is preserved, which suggests that the intended enemy order was originally quite different and Mummy/Sukiyapodes/Panotty were possibly late additions in order to pad out the enemy roster.
• Fan Nickname: The international fanbase has taken to referring to this game as "OPP" (as in Original Puyo Puyo) to differentiate it from other games and the series in general.
• First Installment Wins: The 1992 Puyo Puyo shares this status with its sequel, being the first two competition-based entries in the series. While 2 has much more beloved gameplay, the 1992 Puyo Puyo has the more iconic characters and music. For perspective, Sega reintroduced Compile characters into their Soft Reboot setting in Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary, but it took until Puyo Puyo Chronicle ten years later for Compile characters newer than the 1992 Puyo Puyo to show up in a traditional Puyo Puyo game.
• Gameplay Derailment: The lack of any defensive mechanics in the first arcade game and its predecessors means that matches between two moderately-skilled players break down into tests to see who can build the fastest 5-chain and/or who can keep their currently-controlled pair off of the ground the longest; the latter is generally accomplished by mashing the rotation button as quickly as humanly possible.
• Growing the Beard: Puyo Puyo was originally a pretty straightforward clone of Tetris, where the goal was to simply get the highest score. The first arcade game was when the series started to gain an identity for itself with its focus on multiplayer and character casting, while the sequel perfected the formula and showed the hidden potential of high skill play.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Sega had an active hand in the development in this game, long before they officially acquired the series and began developing the games themselves. Sega helped program the CPU opponents, provided code of Columns for Compile to reference, and even suggested the visual garbage tray to Compile.
  • Many tracks in this game actually originate in Puyo Puyo (1991) and the Madou Monogatari trilogy (Notably, the first intermission theme "Memories" is a remix of "Try Out" from Madou 1), but the 1992 renditions are much more popular. This trope continues further for those who were exposed to the Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine remixes first.
• Once Original, Now Common: In this game's heyday, its multiplayer focus and character interactions were practically unheard of in the genre, and the game was appropriately ported to every platform under the sun. Now that those elements are extremely common, this game is seen as barebones and underdeveloped.
• Polished Port: The Nintendo Switch port of the first arcade game adds counterclockwise rotation from the Mega Drive port and double rotation from 2, addressing the two biggest control issues in the original System C-2 version.
• Porting Disaster: The Game Boy version, outsourced to Winkysoft of Super Robot Wars fame, is nearly unplayable outside of the Super Game Boy due to the different pieces blending together on the monochrome Game Boy screen. Even if one gets past that, the game is sluggish and a mess to control. Compile would develop the next Game Boy Puyo Puyo game in-house and fix both issues in the process.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The rotation mechanics in the first System C-2 arcade game are very restrictive, especially if one plays it after playing any of the sequels. There's only one rotation button (clockwise) even though some previous games did allow counterclockwise rotation; furthermore, it's impossible to rotate puyos if they are stuck between two columns. These two traits were disliked enough that 2 added counterclockwise rotation and double rotation to solve each problem, and are still disliked enough that the Nintendo Switch version of the first game gives players the option to use both mechanics.
  • Offsetting, a defensive mechanic introduced in Puyo Puyo 2 that allows players to counter incoming nuisance puyos with combos and even send them back, singlehandedly turned Puyo Puyo into a much more competitive, strategic game by balancing the effectiveness of combos and allowing players to fight back against them. In this game, where offsetting doesn't exist, there is nothing you can do if your opponent throws a combo at you, and you are forced to let the garbage fall. However, learning how to pull off a 5-chain is all it takes to guarantee victory.
• Sequel Displacement: This game is far better-known than the MSX/FDS Puyo Puyo, to the point that even official materials often neglect to mention that this isn't the first Puyo game.