Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
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| Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Compile {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | February 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single Player / Double Player / Endless / Puzzle Mode (8-bit versions only) {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | Original: Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, Sega Master System/Game Gear {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is a video game within the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. The game is a modified version of the Japanese puzzle game Puyo Puyo, and is based on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Contents |
Storyline
Dr. Robotnik has hatched a plan to ensure that no music or fun remains on Mobius. To do this however, he kidnaps the citizens of Beanville and stuffs them into a giant robotising machine called the Mean Bean-Steaming Machine (hence the name, Mean Bean Machine), so that they become his robot slaves. The player must now defeat each of the robot guards and finally Robotnik himself, to foil his evil plans.
Gameplay
Scenario Mode
In the game, a player must group 4 or more different colored beans (or Puyos) together so that they erase, and send Refugee Beans (aka Garbage, and Ojyama) to the opponent. The more beans that link up, the more garbage is sent. Players may also activate step chains (aka Rensa) so that even more garbage is scored. The game is decided when the third column from the left is piled to the top. Each player plays on a 12 high by 6 wide grid, meaning that 72 beans can be seen on screen (including garbage). If garbage falls on the player's screen, they cannot be grouped like normal beans can (4 in a row will not erase), however, garbage is erased when a neighbouring group of beans erase next to them (for example, if a vertical line of 4 beans in column 2 forms adjacently next to a vertical line of 4 garbage beans in either column 1 or column 3, then that garbage disappears). However, one does not send additonal garbage to the other player when they are erased with coloured beans.
VS Mode
In Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, up to 2 players can play either in VS Mode or in Exercise Mode. In VS Mode, each player can choose between 5 difficulty settings, labeled 1-5 (Easiest to Hardest, where 1 is the lowest drop speed, and 5 is the fastest). In VS Mode, one player must defeat the other in the same way as in Scenario mode. If a player selects Level 1, they play with 4 coloured beans (the purple bean is omitted), however, all 5 are included with the other four difficulties. Also, if a player chooses Level's 4 or 5, they start with garbage. For Level 4, they start with 18 (3 rows of) garbage, and for Level 5, they start with 30 (5 rows of) garbage.
Exercise Mode
Exercise Mode (modernly known as Endless Puyo Puyo), is a form of practice play where 1 or 2 players can battle out. This mode has three difficulty levels: easiest, normal, and hardest (Level 1, 3 or 5). On easiest, players start with only 4 colours. To level up, the player has to keep erasing beans. Helpers (Big Puyo or Carbuncle) will appear when the player gets stuck on Level 1 the first time, but they can only appear once. For Level 3, at random times, Carbuncle will drop from the screen to help out. When Carbuncle is placed on a colour, it travels in a random direction, following downwards, changing all beans to that colour. For Level 5, at random times, a Big Puyo will drop from the screen. When Big Puyo falls, it occupies 2 columns of the grid, and when placed, squashes all beans and removes them from the grid.
General notes
Image:DRMBM Screenshot.png Other than Dr. Robotnik himself, there is no protagonist in this game, which is comparable to other games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Players assume they play as Sonic, although he is not shown on screen nor mentioned. Has Bean, who is really just Carbuncle from the Puyo Puyo series with a different name, does various actions in the middle which are unchanged from Puyo Puyo.
A lot of the music in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was reused, albeit remixed and/or resynthed, from the original Puyo Puyo music score created by Katsume Tanaka (such as Memories for the Password theme, and the Panic theme was a complete remix of the Satan theme). Unlike its SNES counterpart (Kirby's Avalanche), in which the Panic music was kept the same, this version was kept as close to the original as possible. The sound effects however, though similar, were rather different.
Release
The game was released in February of 1993 for North America markets, and quickly became available to Europe via import. It was not a commercial succes upon its original release, but it steadily progressed to become a classic. The game was never released in Japan, though talks had been in progress. Compile declined the opportunity most likely because the game was too similar to the popular Puyo Puyo whose sequel was, at the time, already in development Puyo Puyo Tsu.
An 8-bit version was also released for the Sega Master System and the Game Gear in 1993. Like their Megadrive counterpart, these versions are a clone of the original Puyo Puyo for the Game Gear (which was to be called Puzlow Kids, and was set for an international release). However it contains an extra mode, known as Puzzle Mode. Puzzle Mode was the precursor to the internationalised version of Nazo Puyo, a game where the player must take steps to solve increasingly difficult puzzles. Compile later went on to create sole Nazo Puyo games, two of which featured exclusively on the SNES, whereas one featured exclusively on the Game Gear, until it was included on many of the games merchandise, including Puyo Puyo Tsu for Windows 95. It was also included in Sonic Adventure DX and in Sonic Mega Collection Plus. However, the Megadrive version of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine first featured as part of the Sonic Mega Collection for Nintendo GameCube. A re-release was then ported to the PS2, but was no different from that of the GameCube.
Trivia
When the game finally reached Japan, thanks to Sonic Mega Collection, it became known in that country as "Dr. Eggman's Mean Bean Machine", obviously because Dr. Eggman is Robotnik's original name in Japan. However, the game itself wasn't made in Japan, though the original Puyo Puyo was. There was some debate on calling it "Dr. Eggman's Puyo Puyo", but Sega decided to keep it to the original US release name, substituting Robotnik for Eggman.
It was also Sega of America's first attempt at a spin-off of a game for their Genesis series, and, although Puyo Puyo wasn't very popular until the release of Puyo Pop Fever, it did prove to be successful for their first attempt. Many western Puyo players first started on this game since its release in 1993. It is still credited as one of the better games in the series because it was the first.
Due to the success of Mean Bean Machine, some North American magazines showed promise of a later Puyo game, Puyo Puyo~n, appearing on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. However, it never appeared as the Dreamcast started its decline, and the PlayStation began to reclaim its popularity.
Staff Credits
- Producers: Yoji Ishii, Noriyoshi Ohba, Masamitsu (Moo) Niitani, Tetsuo Shinyu, Takayuki Yanagihori, Masanobu Tsukamoto
- Graphic Designers: Takaya Segawa, Saori Yamaguchi, Hideaki Moriya, Keisuke Saka
- Programmers: Manabu Ishihara, Tsukasa Aoki
- Music and Sound Effects: Dave Javelosa, Katsume Tanaka, Masanori Hikichi, Masayuki Nagao