While speaking of classics, Puyo Pop is based on a game concept that has appeared in no less than 120 games across all video game systems. Originally conceived by Japanese developer Compile under the name Puyo Puyo, its origin dates back to 1989. Probably inspired by Russian Alex Pajitnov's famous Tetris game, Puyo Puyo is similar to Tetris with its falling multi-colored "puyos". Puyos drop in pairs that the player can rotate in the same way that Tetris blocks are manipulated. The object is to group 4 puyos of the same color together to "pop" them from the screen. What makes this game deceptively more difficult than Tetris is that puyos break apart when landing on other puyos, thereby creating rich variation and dimension to the strategy game.

Sega just released a new Puyo Pop game for the PS2 and XBox in February (Japan), and a US Gamecube version of the game is slated for release on July 20th. To promote their console games, Sega has posted this Flash version of Puyo Pop on the official Puyo Pop website. Click.