Introduction Columns III: Revenge of Columns was developed by Minato Giken and published by Sega, released for the Genesis in Japan in October 1993 and reaching North America the following March through Vic Tokai, as the third entry in Sega’s Columns falling-block puzzle series. Building on the original Columns and its sequel, the game keeps…
Introduction Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine was developed by Compile and published by Sega, released for the Genesis in 1993 as a Western localization of Compile’s own 1991 Japanese puzzle game Puyo Puyo, reskinned with characters and setting from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog animated series rather than Puyo Puyo’s original cast. Players drop…
Introduction Adventures of Lolo was developed and published by HAL Laboratory, released on the NES in 1989 as a puzzle game built around navigating a blue creature named Lolo through single-screen rooms filled with enemies, moveable blocks, and treasure chests. Players must collect a set number of hearts scattered throughout each room, sometimes hidden inside…
Introduction Puzzle Bobble 2, released internationally as Bust-A-Move Again, was developed and published by Taito, released in arcades in 1995 as the direct sequel to the original Puzzle Bobble. The core aim-and-match bubble-shooting gameplay remained unchanged, with Bub and Bob once again firing colored bubbles upward to clear the shrinking field above them, but the…
Introduction Puzzle Bobble, released outside Japan as Bust-A-Move, was developed and published by Taito, released in arcades in 1994 as a spin-off built directly from the world of Bubble Bobble. Players aim and shoot colored bubbles from a cannon at the bottom of the screen up into a shrinking field of bubbles above, matching three…
Introduction Three Wonders, known in Japan as Wonder 3, was developed and published by Capcom on CPS-1 hardware, released in arcades in July 1991 as an unusual multi-game cabinet offering players a choice between three entirely different games on a single board. Midnight Wanderers: Quest for the Chariot is a fantasy action-platformer following a hobbit-like…
Introduction Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo was developed and published by Capcom, released in arcades in 1996, its tongue-in-cheek title deliberately echoing that year’s own Super Street Fighter II Turbo despite having no other Puzzle Fighter games to distinguish itself from. Rather than a traditional fighting game, it is a competitive falling-block puzzle game in…
Introduction Pac-Man was developed by Namco and released in Japanese arcades in 1980, designed by Toru Iwatani as a deliberate departure from the space-shooting games that dominated the era. Players guide the yellow, dot-eating Pac-Man through a maze, clearing every pellet on the screen while being chased by four distinctly personality-driven ghosts, Blinky, Pinky, Inky,…
Introduction Bubble Bobble was developed and published by Taito, released in arcades in 1986 under the direction of Fukio “MTJ” Mihara. The game follows Bub and Bob, two friends transformed into bubble-blowing dragons, as they climb through 100 single-screen levels trying to rescue their girlfriends and reverse the curse turning them into monsters. Rather than…
Introduction Wrecking Crew was developed by Nintendo R&D1, directed by Satoru Okada and produced by Gunpei Yokoi, with designer Yoshio Sakamoto building his first game after a stint as a pixel artist around a simple idea: a puzzle-action game about demolishing walls. It debuted as an arcade cabinet on the Nintendo VS. System in 1984…
Introduction Bomberman traces back to a 1983 original created by programmer Yuji Tanaka for Hudson Soft, a Sapporo-based company that had started out selling art supplies and telecommunications gear before moving into home computers and eventually games. This 1985 Famicom/NES version, reportedly ported single-handedly by Shinichi Nakamoto over a marathon 72-hour stretch, is widely considered…
Introduction Pac-Man’s NES history is unusually tangled for such a simple game. Namco’s original 1980 arcade maze-chase design was ported to the NES more than once: Tengen, then an Atari Games subsidiary, released a licensed version in October 1988 and later an unlicensed version after a falling-out with Nintendo over cartridge lockout chips and licensing…