Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

"Who would have thought that big bucking chickens and robotic folk heroes could be so menacing?"

What can be said to describe Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine? The American port of Puyo Puyo for the Sega Genesis, this title offers all the gameplay of the original but with an unique story set in the frame of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.

Breakdown
Gameplay (50/50)
Gameplay is very simple, yet requires a good deal of strategy to effectively utilize. At its most basic level, your goal is to match colored beans in sets of four. Of course every good competitive puzzle game has a catch. Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine has gray beans. Gray beans drop on your foe's side whenever you make your beans disappear (and vice-versa). Gray beans do not match up with any color and only go away if another group of beans disappear that are touching them. Whoever fills up their opponent's field first wins. By forming combinations where multiple sets of colored beans disappear after a single drop, you increase the amount of gray beans that fall on your foe.

Story (10/10)
Doctor Robotnik has kidnapped all the denizens of Beanville and plans on roboticizing them as part of his plan to destroy fun and happiness. He's sent his duncebots to ensure that everything goes smoothly with his evil scheme. The only way to stop him? Match up colored beans. The plot is deliberately silly and is conveyed mostly as taunts issued by your various opponents. This is the sort of plot a puzzle game was meant to have.

Challenge (10/10)
The level of difficulty can be adjusted from really easy to ridiculously hard. The gameplay mechanics are very easy to pick up, meaning that the challenge truly lies in “how you play” as opposed to simply “knowing how to play.”

Graphics (8/10)
All of your opponents are animated excellently, with a wide array of facial expressions articulating the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Often these expressions are as entertaining as the gameplay itself. Watching Dynamight literally explode when he is beaten or seeing Sir Ffuzy Logik stand epically as the wind blows by can almost soothe your shame of defeat. Of course your opponents don't really look all that menacing, especially if their winning pose just them sipping champagne while you struggle to keep your screen from filling up…

Sound (5/10)
The calls given off by your character and your opponents are entertaining, but ultimately the music of the game becomes repetitive in short order. Most of your opponents will utilize the same background music, making the small variety available a real treasure. Although this isn't overly odd for a puzzle game, it is a small blemish on an otherwise great game.

Replayability (8/10)
Once you beat the game there are additional difficulty settings to play on that do indeed make this game much harder. Likewise there is an endless mode you can play for high scores and a versus mode to play against a friend.

Overall (91/100)
One of the few Sonic the Hedgehog games not to feature the blue-spined character, Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is a great game that is still fun to play today.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/06