Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine / Sega Mega Drive Genesis / 1993
6Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is puzzle game released for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis in 1993. Similar to Puyo Puyo. Very simple. Basically, you guide falling beans of several colors down a rectangular panel to the ground, and attempt to match up four beans of the same color. Each bean you send down has two different colors to it. When you match up the four beans, they disappear, giving you more room to work with. In addition, the cleared beans then go to your opponents screen, so clear several beans in one movement to screw them up. Practicing, and learning how to do combos having one movement of beans lead to several beans disappear is invaluable to you. You lose the game when your rectangular panel is filled with beans, giving you no room to work with. You win when the above predicament happens to your opponent, CPU controlled or human. The beans are very colorful, and smush into each other when they collide similar when two bodies of water touch each other. This was a nice touch. The robot sprites are also very detailed. The backgrounds to the bean-filled rectangular panels have little colorful backgrounds to them, such as grassy hills. In essence, the whole game is bright.