"Thanks to my neighbor showing me this, I played a really addicting game!"

Well, after completely forgetting about this game, my neighbor comes over and finds I have it. He starts playing and I go "Ooh, this looks pretty fun and addicting". So after I started getting the hang of this game I started playing it more and now it became my favorite puzzle game.

Story
Robotnik is back and he is still trying to find a way to rule the world. He has recently invented a ''Mean Bean Steaming Machine.'' Robotnik has targeted a small village in Mobius called ''Beanville'' to turn the beans into mindless robot slaves to serve his evil purposes. Now, he will send the robots to capture the beans and it is up to you to stop him. Looks like he's not after Sonic this time...

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are pretty good for this game. There are not a lot of graphics in this game but the ones that are in it are pretty good. The beans look colorful and they come in all sorts of colors (gold, red, blue, green, purple) while some of the robots you face look cool. Some do look realistic and well-designed, such as Skweel (he looks like Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants for crying out loud) which made me thinking "WTF?"

Also, the controls are pretty easy to get used to too. That's another thing. All you have to do is use the D-Pad to move the beans and A to switch them around. Easy, isn't it?

Gameplay: 9/10
This is the real fun of the game. It is highly addicting. The point of this game is to get to Robotnik and stop him from turning all the beans into robots to conquer the world. You must face his 12 robots though. To play the game, it is sort of like Connect Four. You have to get 4 of the same color beans lined up in a row to make them diminish. If another 4 bean set explodes after that, your character will go "YIPPEE" and send a set of rocks at the other player. These rocks will fall above the beans and these are important for winning and blocking off really good plans. To get rid of the rocks, have 4 beans explode on them and the ones the beans are touching will explode. The robots will get harder and harder as you go along and you should be developing your own strategy that works. To win, you must have your opponent get to the top of the screen with the rocks and beans. This game uses a password system to save (all of the passwords for each level are the same, so don't worry). You write the order of the beans down and enter them in. Don't worry, there are only 4.

Also, there is multiplayer in this game. That's the best part. You can verse someone else whoever gets their beans to the top loses. You can try your own strategies on them and play as many times as you want. Me and my friends play all the time and we both win evenly.

Sound Effects: N/A
I really have no comments on the sound effects in this game. There are barely any sound effects except the beeping sound when you select an option or the "YIPPEE" or "YEE-HAW" when you explode 2 sets of beans in a row after another. So there are barely any sound effects but that does not stop this from being a great game.

Music: 7/10
Most of the music in this game is good, but some is annoying too. But just like the sound effects, there aren't any music tracks in this game. Just the title screen, 3 or 4 gameplay tracks, multiplayer, and the credits. But most of it is good like the first level of gameplay and the multiplayer is awesome music, which actually goes with the game. But the music in later levels is ok, but the rest is annoying.

Replayability: 9/10
Replaying this game is really fun! Once you beat the game, you can replay it on a higher diffficulty, get better at the game, have a lot of fun in this addicting game, or to just make your own better strategy and keep trying it. Also, the multiplayer is really fun so if you're bored you can play it with a friend too.

Rent or Buy?
Go out and buy this game, it is really addicting. It is really fun and you can get it on Sonic Mega Collection too if you can't find any Genesis games around here. It is at a great deal too.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/22/05