Puyo Puyo (Mega Drive/Genesis) Sample Rom

[Justin De Lucia]

Greetings. I'm sure one of you has heard of the games series Puyo Puyo (Puyo Pop) that was available for a wide variety of systems in Japan (and brought outside it via Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Kirby's Avalanche, and the much more obscure Qwirks). Well there once existed a "Sample" version of the original Mega Drive Puyo Puyo, as shown in this video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvIyCKHn1Jg

 

While there are a few noticeable differences in this proto compared to the final, the one I want to focus on the most is the idea of having a total of six Puyo colors be used at once (much like the MSX2 and Famicom versions which came prior to the arcade/Mega Drive versions) as opposed to the final's five. The sixth Puyo would be teal in color and inherit the shape of the grey Puyo from the MSX2 version (very much like how the Violet Puyo used the shape of the pastel green Puyo).

 

The sixth Puyo type was likely removed as it was deemed too difficult to use, with it's graphics erased form the ROM. However the palette it used is still present, and is shared with the green Puyos.

 

To this date there are no forms of proof showing this prototype's existence other than the video linked above. Even the Japanese Puyo Puyo fandom doesn't really seem to know about it, despite it's massive popularity.