The impending release of Puyo Puyo Tetris has reminded me of a far off time, back when I was still a young adult. That’s right – 2004. Sega was gearing up to release Puyo Puyo Fever on just about every platform known to man, and I was excited. Not because of a love for Puyo Puyo, though I do harbour such a fondness, but because it was going to be the very last first-party Dreamcast game.

Puyo Puyo Fever is much like other games in the competitive puzzle series, with a few odd twists. The core gameplay of matching chains of coloured blobs is present and correct, with combo matches contributing to a pile of garbage that gets heaped on your opponent. However, instead of the standard pair of puyos that is dropped in most games, Fever would occasionally require you to deal with three or four at a time. The other big addition was Fever mode – a huge attack opportunity granted after a certain number of countered attacks. This presented you with pre-made chains to be set off, sending huge waves of garbage at your opponent.

But what was really nice was how Sega took care of its fans one last time. Despite its Japan-only release, Puyo Puyo Fever was fully localised in English and a variety of other languages, allowing anyone to get in on the action -a great gesture, even if it did mean that the banality of the story and irritating voice acting suddenly became all too noticeable…