Puyo Pop

Official Nokia packshot (EuropeAfrica)

A Western-only N-Gage adaptation of Sega's long-running Puyo Puyo tile-matching series, developed by Lavastorm Engineering for Sega Mobile and based on the rules of the original 1992 arcade game. Players chain groups of coloured blobs to clear the field and dump penalty pieces onto their opponent, across Scenario, Exercise, Puzzle, and two-player Bluetooth modes.

Unlike most other Puyo Puyo entries, the N-Gage version was never released in Japan — making it one of the few wholly Western-facing instalments in a franchise that originated as a Japanese arcade title from Compile in 1991. Sega acquired the series from Compile in 1998, and the N-Gage port arrived the same year Compile filed for bankruptcy (2003). Developed by Lavastorm Engineering rather than Sega's in-house Sonic Team, the game was one of the seven N-Gage launch titles in October 2003. Critics noted that distinguishing blue and purple blobs on the N-Gage's screen was problematic, and the sluggish piece movement drew repeated complaint; All About N-Gage scored it 30% and Defunct Games 57%. Lavastorm had announced plans for a follow-up N-Gage FPS after finishing the port, though no such title materialised.